Casey Chong with a selection of crazy 80s movies you may have missed…
One of the best things about watching movies is how diverse the various genres have spread from the mainstream, audience-friendly fares to indie works and finally, the types that defy genre conventions or outright weird. They can be movies where logic is thrown out of the window in favor of something unusually offbeat, relying heavily on one-of-a-kind imagery, or anything which is experimental, allowing the filmmakers to explore different themes regardless of how twisted or unconventional it ends up becoming.
This brings us to the 1980s, an era where some filmmakers dared to go beyond (read: not playing safe with the tried-and-tested formula). Below is our list of seven bizarre, under-the-radar 80s movies worth checking out if you haven’t already done so…
Dead End Drive-In (1986)
Brian Trenchard-Smith directed this underrated Ozploitation classic that uses the Mad Max-style dystopian action influence and turns it into a mix of prison movie and youth disillusionment drama. The title is exactly what you get here, where a young couple (Ned Manning’s Crabs and Natalie McCurry’s Carmen) find themselves stuck in a drive-in theater with no way out. Making things worse Crabs’ car has lost a couple of tires and the owner, Thompson (Peter Whitford), couldn’t care less about the theft.
The movie explores how its young people, particularly the unemployed ones, prefer the easy way out and are willing to confine themselves in the “safe” prison-like drive-in since they don’t have to worry about shelter and food supplies. But Crabs doesn’t think that way as he insists on breaking out of the heavily fortified drive-in, despite the outside world reeks of crime and violence. Dead End Drive-In culminates in an action-packed finale with a chase scene and notably, a spectacular car jump through the Star Drive-In neon sign.
Dr. Caligari (1989)
Stephen Sayadian a.k.a. Rinse Dream took the black-and-white German Expressionist silent horror classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and made it uniquely his own in the sequel-of-sorts Dr. Caligari. Blending campy humor along with twisted perversity and surrealistic erotic dream, Sayadian isn’t interested in a coherent narrative so attempting to make a logical sense out of this movie is futile. This is the kind of avant-garde horror which focuses more on offbeat visuals, significant use of primary colors and purposefully stilted dialogue.
Even the setting of the Caligari Insane Asylum consists of funhouse-like props as if it was a stage production run by the titular character (Madeleine Reynal in a perfectly deadpan performance) playing the granddaughter of the original Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss). Think of Dr. Caligari as an acid trip that wants you to immerse in the one-of-a-kind experience, complete with unforgettable imagery like the stimulating fleshy wall filled with thick scars, bright red lips and a huge, wagging tongue and a live scarecrow used for a fellatio experiment.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Clowns are scary, so what about clowns that aren’t humans and come from outer space? In Killer Klowns from Outer Space, co-writer and director Stephen Chiodo presents a different kind of otherworldly aliens. They dress like clowns, complete with exaggerated makeup and costumes and colorful hair. They even have a live balloon dog and shoot people with popcorn guns. They aren’t here to entertain the humans though, but more into attacking and cocooning them in the pink cotton candy-colored pods. Even their spaceship is shaped like a huge circus tent.
Chiodo approaches his Killer Klowns from Outer Space with a distinctly cheesy ‘80s slasher-horror vibe and campy humor. It’s gleefully over-the-top while these alien clowns have some nifty party tricks up their sleeves. For instance, one of the clowns can manipulate its shadow puppet using the hand gestures on the wall and swallow the humans.
Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)
Donald G. Jackson and R.J. Kizer’s post-apocalyptic Hell Comes to Frogtown embraces the goofy premise of the title. The Hell in question refers to Roddy Piper’s lead character Sam Hell and get a load of this: one of the few last men standing who is still fertile on Earth. He becomes a government property to the point he is forced to put on a chastity belt-like codpiece equipped with an electroshock system. This is to keep him under control under the watchful eyes of a government nurse-in-charge Spangle (Sandahl Bergman). His mission? Heading to the titular Frogtown, rescue the fertile women who are held hostage by the tyrannical mutant frogpeople and impregnate them.
The movie is outrageously silly from start to end with legendary wrestler-turned-actor Roddy Piper in the lead role as a reluctant hero. He proves to be quite a deadpan comedian and the movie takes until more than halfway mark before we get to see Piper in action. The movie spawned two sequels including Return to Frogtown and Max Hell Frog Warrior.
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
After The Fly, Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum reunited in Earth Girls Are Easy – a sci-fi movie that blends musical and romantic comedy. It’s the kind of ‘80s pure cheese that embraces the dumb aspect of the story written by Julie Brown, Charlie Coffey, and Terrence E. McNally: An estranged manicurist, Valerie (Geena Davis) finds herself warming up with three colorful furry aliens – Mac (Jeff Goldblum), Wiploc (Jim Carrey) and Zeebo (Damon Wayans) – from outer space who crash-landed their spaceship into her home’s swimming pool.
It starts as a fish-out-of-water comedy as the aliens later morphed into human forms and soon, Valerie falls in love with Mac. No doubt director Julien Temple certainly takes the familiar adage of “love knows no boundaries” to the absurdist next level. Geena Davis showcases her versatility in her comedy performance while her chemistry with Jeff Goldblum is equally charming. The early roles from pre-fame Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans are both zany and playful showing up as comic relief.
Straight to Hell (1987)
Best known for directing Repo Man and Sid & Nancy in the mid-1980s, Straight to Hell sees co-writer and director Alex Cox take the spaghetti Western populated by the great Sergio Leone and turns it into a devil-may-care, punk-ish action comedy. The movie boasts a simple premise: Three drunken hitmen including Willy (Dick Rude), Norwood (Sy Richardson) and Simms (Joe Strummer of the legendary punk rock band The Clash) botch a job and find themselves in a Wild West-like, dusty Mexican town with Norwood’s pregnant wife, Velma (Courtney Love).
Strange is the best word to describe not only the daily routines in the mysteriously nameless town that feels totally disconnected from the outside world but also the gang of cowboy-dressed killers, who are all addicted to coffee. There’s even a man constantly getting bullied for running a hot dog stand. The bulk of Straight to Hell feels like it belongs to the vibe of an episodic hangout movie before it culminates in an all-out, Wild Bunch-like violent gunfight massacre with everyone ending up shooting at each other.
Q: The Winged Serpent (1982)
Q: The Winged Serpent is an oddity of a creature feature mixed with an offbeat comedy that was put together in a hurry. Apparently, writer-director Larry Cohen was fired from I, the Jury but moved on quickly with another project. The story boasts a pure B-movie vibe: The titular winged serpent a.k.a. Quetzalcoatl has made the rooftop of the Chrysler Building its home and even laying an egg. The winged serpent would go on attacking and chomping human victims, leaving a pair of detectives (a sardonic David Carradine and a no-nonsense Richard Roundtree) investigating the murders.
The movie also features Michael Moriarty as a down-on-his-luck loser Jimmy, who’s been looking for a job as a pianist but somehow gets involved in a diamond heist. Well, things go wrong and Jimmy ends up stumbling upon the nest of the winged serpent. The creature effect utilizes the kind of stop-motion animation straight out of the Ray Harryhausen era and while it looks terribly dated by today’s standards, it does bring a distinct charm of a low-budget monster movie. At the heart of Q: The Winged Serpent is the incomparable Michael Moriarty who steals the show here while Cohen sprinkles his movie with enough witty dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humor.
What are your favourite wacky 80s movies? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
