The Top 10 Old School Horror Movies

Ten of the scariest flicks from the 80's and beyond.

Apr 7 2011, 1:34pm CDT | by Shane McGlaun

I have been on a retro kick the last few weeks. With all the stuff coming out in stores and in the theater that I used to watch as a kid I have been thinking about some of that old stuff I liked (or didn’t like) growing up. My parents were the hands off type that were a bit like the parents of the comedian Christopher Titus.

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They either figured as long as whatever stupid thing I was doing wouldn’t kill me, I would be fine or learn a lesson and not do it again. That means I jumped off my house repeatedly with a trash bag to see if I could float and a few times with a kite in my hands trying to fly. They also gave me a 3-wheeler when I was five that I routinely flipped ridding it on two wheels like the Dukes of Hazard.

My dad was big on scary movies when I was a kid and he always had me watch them with him. After I was terrified, he always made me sleep in my own bed and as you can imagine the nights were long. I remember some of those scary flicks I watched as a kid and when I was older and I bet you have seen some of them too. Check out my list of the scariest flicks from the 80's and after.

1. Motel Hell - I watched this movie with my dad once. I actually made it through the entire thing too. It's about a couple that runs a hotel and would kill the people that stayed there and make beef jerky out of them. I couldn’t go into the meat packing area at the grocery store for months after this flick and my dad would randomly make chainsaw noises at any time of day or night and scare the hell out of me. I caught this flick not too long ago on TV and it's one of those cheesy horror films, but it scared the beejebers out of me when I was little.

2. Friday the 13 - I watched the first of these films at a sleep over when I was a kid and didn’t sleep well for a few months afterwards. I'm glad we don’t really play ice hockey in Texas; I would have never made it. Machetes still give me the creeps today thanks to this and each time I see a little lake with a flipped over boat I get the shutters. The later films were massive cheese balls, but the original was one of the scariest flicks of all times.

3. Halloween -We watched this movie on Halloween night one year when I was a kid and then my parents wanted me to go trick-or-treating. No amount of free candy would have made that happen. My brother watched this one with me years later and I could make him soil his undies just by making that chu-chu-chu-cha-cha-cha sound you hear before the killer strikes.

4. The Thing - Combine horror and sci-fi and I am there. I watched this movie and got a good case of the creeps as a kid too. I caught it the other night when they added it to Netflix and it is still a creepy movie. These old horror flicks have a totally different feel to them than the new stuff and I miss that.

5. C.H.U.D. - This film single handedly ensured that I stayed very far away from any sewer or drain for a few years. Looking at it now this is a major cheese fest, but it was scary in its day. This is one of those campy horror flicks everyone needs to see.

6. The Exorcist - This movie still scares the hell out of me. I thought Linda Blair was cute when I was a kid right up until her head spun around and she puked baby poo everywhere. Too high maintenance. This is classic horror that still scares people today.

7. Nightmare on Elm Street - This franchise is sort of like Friday the 13 in that the later films were so cheesy they were funny. The first one though was one of the scariest movies I ever watched. I didn't want to go to bed for a few days after seeing it for the first time.

8. Maximum Overdrive - This is one of my favorite horror flicks from Stephen King. It's not so much scary as in monsters and stuff, but the scene where that steamroller runs over the dude gave me the creeps. The chick in the gas station with the irritating voice is the woman that does Bart Simpson. This gets my vote for the coolest horror film ever.

9. Night of the Comet - I'm honestly not sure if this is a horror flick or a sci-fi flick. The zombies put it in the scary segment for me. I loved this movie and it's still one of my favorites. What kid doesn't want a city to do with as he pleases?

10. Night of the Living Dead - This movie was old before I came along and knew enough to be scared of a movie. It's still a classic and helped spawn a generation of zombie flicks. And it's scary as heck.

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Shane McGlaun
Leading our review center, Shane knows technology inside out. His extensive experience in testing computer hardware and consumer electronics enable him to effectively qualify new products and trends. If you want us review your product, please contact Shane.
Shane can be contacted directly at shane@i4u.com.