The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1987

1987 marked another stellar year for the genre. There is a great variety of sub-genres represented here, as well as the most amount of sequels, we have yet had ranked. In fact, this year is so fucking good that, I had to put more honorable mentions, than any other year, I have covered so far.

Honorable Mentions:
Prince of Darkness
Dolls
The Lost Boys
It's Alive III: Island of the Alive
The Kindred
Creepshow 2
The Gate
Angel Heart
Nekromantik 

10. The Hidden- This pulse pounding mix of sci-fi, horror, and action from A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge's director Jack Scholder is one of the most rip-roaring genre films of the 80's. Featuring an evil alien with a penchant for fast cars, pounding metal music, hot strippers, and murder. And, Kyle MacLachlan does an awesome job as one of our buddy cop heroes.

9. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II- This vastly superior sequel (which has zero to do with the generic and overrated first film aside from taking place in the same high school, Hamilton High) is a wonderfully sexy, sleazy, and gory good time. Filled with cool set pieces and fun moments, this movie is blast from start to end. It's villianess, the titular Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) is one of the sexiest bad girls in horror history. It's also that rarest of horror movie, where the final girl (the beautiful Wendy Lyon) gets nude.

8. Opera- Dario Argento's style is on full display, in this his last truly great movie. It is a gore drenched, exciting, and suspenseful giallo. All while being beautiful looking and wholly captivating. It's heroine/ final girl, played by the absolutely gorgeous Cristina Marsillach, is very likable and compliments the films visual beauty. The driving heavy metal music on the soundtrack give it a further kick in the ass!

7. Predator- John (Die Hard) McTeirnan's 80's testosterone-filled classic has one of the coolest monsters in genre history. But, then again, it is handled by make-up god Stan Winston. The film is, itself, is gory, quotable as hell, and has some killer action scenes. A fucking badass mix of action, sci-fi, and horror, this is one of Arnie's best movies. 

6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors- Chuck (The Blob) Russell directed and co-wrote, along with Frank (The Shawshank Redemption) Darabont and Bruce Wagner this amazing, wild, and highly imaginative sequel. Wes Craven even came back to work on the story and served as producer. The result is not just the best sequel in the franchise, but the finest slasher sequel ever made. It is leaps and bounds over the uninteresting and flat second installment and is filled with great FX and likable characters. There is also a returning John Saxon and the beautiful Heather Langenkamp who along with the rest of the cast (including Horror Crush Jennifer Rubin as the ultimate metal/ punk babe in Tayrn) give strong and way better than the usual, for these types of films, performances. Plus, the music by Dokken, including the amazing title song, "Dream Warriors", is fucking awesome in its own right.

5. The Monster Squad- Sometimes people want to compare this Fred Dekker classic to The Goonies, which is sort of a bummer. Honestly, this is the superior and more serious movie. The acting is great, as are Stan Winston's superior make-up FX. At the same time it plays loving tribute to the classic Universal monster movies, while adding a teensy bit of splatter. Add the memorable quotes, fun 80s music, and a fucking rollicking climax and you have a movie near and dear to my heart, as well as those of other horror fans. 

4. The Stepfather- This classy and well acted horror/ thriller is one of the best psycho killer movies of the 80s. It has an amazing performance by the great Terry O'Quinn as the title character. You will like him when he is nice, but when he snaps, holy shit! There are some great moments of tension and suspense and a sanguinary climax. It is also one of those rare horror movies where the final girl gets nude, in this scream queen and childhood crush, the beautiful and talented Jill Schoelen.

3. Near Dark- Kathryn Bigelow's masterful and perfect mix of horror, action, western, and romance is one of the greatest vampire movies ever made. It is also drenched in style and, as such, it is one of the most beautiful bloodsucker movies ever. It has one hell of a cast and some truly killer set-pieces. 

2. Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn- This is one of those movies that changed my life upon viewing it. As such, it is a film that I outright worship. One that is that rarest of sequels, IE: it fucking tops its already excellent first film. Sam Raimi's masterpiece is wild, bold, funny, and drenched in splatter. And, everything here is perfect (or near perfect): Raimi's style, the incredible, yet low budget FX, the dialogue, and, of course, Bruce Campbell's Ash.

1. Hellraiser- Like Evil Dead II, Hellraiser made me want to get into film. Clive Barker's directorial debut is one of the best debuts in the genre. The film is wonderfully original, something that is, sadly, ever so rare in our genre. And, on top of that it is also stylish, exciting, sexy, and gruesomely gory. 

Now, I would love to know what your favorite horror films of 1987 are. Tell me, in the comments section below. Also be sure to look at the preceding years, by clicking on the links below.

The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1980
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1981
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1982
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1983
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1984
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1985
The 10 Best Horror Movies of 1986