Casey Chong presents seven forgotten supernatural horror movie gems from the 1980s…
The 1980s saw a barrage of horror movies vying to make a lasting impression. Some succeed, while others failed or underappreciated. Take supernatural horrors, for instance; movies like The Shining, Angel Heart and Prince of Darkness have earned their places in most genre fans’ checklist. But instead of focusing on some of these often talked-about movies, let’s dive into seven of the underrated supernatural horrors of the ‘80s that deserved a second chance.
The Appointment (1982)
This little-seen British supernatural horror was originally filmed in 1980 but it wasn’t until the movie hit home video two years later, only to fall into obscurity. Then in 2022, The Appointment was finally given a new lease of life via BFI Flipside’s Blu-ray release. The title in question refers to pre-Equalizer Edward Woodward’s titular appointment that he forces to commit rather than attending her daughter’s (Samantha Weysom) all-important violin recital.
In Lindsey C. Vickers’s one and only feature-length film, he begins with an attention-grabbing opening scene: a schoolgirl walking all alone through the woods before she is violently yanked away by an unseen, malevolent supernatural force. The movie is then taking its time telling a foreboding story surrounding the fate of Edward Woodward’s Ian. Vickers’ slow-burn approach may have been a turn-off for impatient viewers, but he knows well how to pull off a lingering sense of ominous dread that slowly creeps you up until the chilling finale.
Nomads (1986)
John McTiernan is synonymous with Predator and Die Hard – the two genre-defining movies which are still talked about to this day. Looking back, it’s hard to believe he got his start making a horror movie with supernatural elements revolving around the ancient Eskimo spirits.
Oddly enough, Nomads isn’t the kind of straightforward supernatural horror as McTiernan’s screenplay takes us on a disorienting journey of two interconnected stories between the past (Pierce Brosnan’s Jean Charles-Pommier and his wife played by Anna-Maria Moneticelli) and present (Lesley-Anne Down’s Dr. Eileen Flax). The movie can be confusing at times and McTiernan’s directorial debut is still rough around the edges at the time. Still, he did showcase some directorial flairs blending the contemporary nomad culture, psychological thriller and supernatural-horror tropes.
The Entity (1982)
Imagine an ordinary single mother coming home one night and everything changes abruptly after someone or something has sexually assaulted her in her own bedroom. The rapist turns out to be an unseen entity and interestingly, this underrated 1982 supernatural horror is based on the actual 1974 case of Doris Bither, who suffered such an unexplained terrible ordeal.
Barbara Hershey, who plays the unfortunate single mother, gives her all in The Entity. Such an act which demands to go hysterical can easily succumb to overacting and while it does happen every now and then, Hershey’s overall committed performance helps a lot in making the movie intriguing. Director Sidney J. Furie utilizes dynamic camerawork to depict the visceral side of the invisible entity that keeps tormenting and assaulting Hershey’s character, complete with Charles Bernstein’s thumping score.
Black Rainbow (1989)
Mike Hodges’ diverse filmography covers everything from crime dramas (Get Carter, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead) to a campy sci-fi (Flash Gordon) and then, there’s Black Rainbow – a supernatural thriller featuring one of Rosanna Arquette’s best performances. She plays a medium, whose so-called psychic abilities are used to help the participating audiences get in touch with the dead while her alcoholic father (Jason Robards) serves as her manager.
Black Rainbow gets off to a promising start with the subsequent first half-hour focusing on her show, which is all sunshine and rainbows before it grows unexpectedly sinister. The movie is meant to depict the daughter-father team’s deceiving ways of conning the people into believing the pseudoscience. When the tables have turned, this is where Black Rainbow gets interesting: is Rosanna Arquette’s medium character actually a fraud or a real deal? Hodges, who also wrote the screenplay, introduces another storytelling angle revolving around a mysterious assassin and a journalist (Tom Hulce) determined to uncover the truth before culminating his movie in a creepy, ambiguous finale.
The Survivor (1981)
Based on James Herbert’s novel of the same name, this little-seen 1981 Australian supernatural horror begins with a sense of prophetic dread: happy kids are seen playing in the park; a young woman named Hobbs (Jenny Agutter), who turns out to be a psychic happens to be there at the time; and later, a plane passes them by from above the sky. What happens next is a devastating plane crash that kills everyone on board except the pilot captain, David Keller (Robert Powell). And yet, he somehow manages to walk away unscathed and has no recollection of what caused the plane crash at all.
The intriguing opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie, which has its fair share of ups and downs. But director David Hemmings does an overall good job in establishing the dread-inducing moments of supernatural occurrences, repeated screams from the plane crash victims and nightmarish sights of burnt corpses. Interestingly, The Survivor was considered an odd one out at the time when Australian cinema was hot on the Ozploitation genre. Not to mention it was the most expensive Australian movie ever made up to that point, which was largely attributed to the opening plane crash sequence.
Killer Party (1986)
The slasher genre was the rage in the ‘80s era with countless such horror movies flooding the market. While most of them prefer to stick to the tried-and-true formula, there were some others which gave the genre a fresh angle. One of them turns out to be Killer Party, a slasher movie blended with supernatural elements, campy humor and a dash of meta-horror. The latter is especially true with the matryoshka-like series of set pieces, which pulls off one surprise after another.
Canadian director William Fruet does a nifty job in executing these meta-horror moments and he also gets extra mileage from his three young female stars including Elaine Wilkes, Joanna Johnson, and Sherry Willis-Burch. These three girls play college friends with distinct personalities but they are all likable characters nonetheless. The story tends to meander around before getting to the point and despite most of the gore and violence that are strangely occurring off-screen, Killer Party remains an entertaining, 80s supernatural slasher.
Sole Survivor (1984)
Like 1981’s The Survivor, Thom Eberhardt’s directorial debut shared the storytelling similarities, where the titular protagonist miraculously survives an otherwise fatal plane crash. The notable difference here is the character being a female passenger played by Anita Skinner in her only second and last acting role before disappearing off the showbiz radar.
Sole Survivor was made on a minuscule $350,000 budget, but Eberhardt’s deft handling manages to stage enough ominous dread and tension-filled moments including one of them taking place in a parking lot. He doesn’t rely heavily on blood and gore but rather on the deliberate power of suspense and atmosphere. The movie may have suffered from an erratic pace and a drawn-out subplot revolving around Skinner’s Denise and her boyfriend (Kurt Johnson) but Sole Survivor is one of those obscure supernatural horrors released in the ‘80s era worth hunting for.
Casey Chong
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