Absolution (1981)
Catholic Boys' Boarding School Psycho-Thriller
Obscure but worthwhile psycho-thriller with Richard Burton as a priest at a Catholic boy’s school dealing with a pupil playing taunting psychological games
Films of 1981
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Modern Werewolf
John Landis brings the werewolf film into the modern era with this revisionist work where a modern character is forced to confront it as real, while depicting the transformation with an arsenal of top-drawer effects.
Bells (1981)
Exploding Telephone Calls
Rather silly thriller in which Richard Chamberlain tries to track a madman who has discovered a means of transmitting explosions by telephone
The Beyond (1981)
Italian Zombie Film/Gateway to Hell
One of the key films of cult Italian director Lucio Fulci, a gore-drenched but plotlessly incoherent mishmash about zombies emerging as the gates of Hell are opened
The Black Cat (1981)
Black Cat Murders/Italian Horror
Film from cult Italian director Lucio Fulci. This has almost nothing to do with the Edgar Allan Poe story. With Fulci’s trademark gore sequences tamed, there is not much else for the film to fall back on
Bloody Birthday (1981)
Evil Children Slasher
The evil child film has a long history. This is essentially a slasher movie variation where instead of a hockey-masked killer we have a trio of malevolent children devising a series of entertaining dispatches for grown-ups
Bloody Moon (1981)
Slasher Film
Jess Franco is a cult director, having mostly specialised in exploitation and horror. Here he turns his hand to the early 80s slasher film. The result was listed as a Video Nasty in the UK
Blow Out (1981)
Psycho-Thriller
One of Brian De Palma’s most stylish psycho-thrillers, featuring John Travolta as a sound engineer who becomes targeted after he accidentally records evidence of a political assassination
The Boogens (1981)
Creatures Lurking Underground
One of the original troglodyte films about creatures lurking underground that was the template for films like The Descent. Well-made as 1980s horror films go but it takes forever before the main action kicks in
Burial Ground (1981)
Italian Zombie Film
An entry from Italian exploitation cinema’s early 1980s fad for zombie films, this has been put together with no other intent than providing a progression of extremely gory set-pieces
The Burning (1981)
Slasher Film
Shabbily made entry in the 1980s slasher genre. Noted in retrospect for several before they were famous names and being the first producing credit of Harvey Weinstein
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)
Psycho Stepmother
Psycho film that features Susan Tyrrell giving a totally demented performance and a plot that involves some fascinatingly twisted sexuality
Cannibal Ferox (1981)
Italian Cannibal Film
Along with Cannibal Holocaust, this was the most notorious and extreme of the Italian cannibal film fad of the 70s/early 80s. The film becomes a catalogue of violent savageries that are not recommended for the faint of heart
Caveman (1981)
Prehistoric Spoof
A comedy spoof of One Million Years B.C. and the whole sub-genre of caveman vs dinosaurs films This proves amiably goofy where Ringo Starr seems perfectly cast as the lead caveman
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Greek Mythology Adventure
This would be the last of the films made by stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen where he turns his creations towards conducting another Greek Mythology adventure. With an all-star cast playing the Greek gods.
The Coming (1981)
Possession by a Salem Witch
1950s B movie director Bert I Gordon makes a film in which present-day schoolgirl Susan Swift is possessed by her ancestor who was burned at the stake as a witch
Condorman (1981)
Comic-Book Artist in a Spy Caper
One of the flops from Disney’s live-action heyday with Michael Crawford as a comic-book artist who gets to bring his inventions to life after being thrust into a spy caper
Conquest of the Earth (1981)
Battlestar Galactica Movie
The third of the theatrically released films spun off from the original Battlestar Galactica. This is compiled from episodes of the dire follow-up series Galactica 1980 where the show relocates to contemporary Earth
The Creature Wasn’t Nice (1981)
Alien Parody
A not very funny science-fiction spoof that has been intended in the vein of Airplane/Flying High but sending up Alien – one where the creature also gets to sing.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
Scarecrow Enacts Supernatural Retribution
Frank De Felitta was mostly known for writing the novel that became Audrey Rose. He directs this tv movie where intellectually handicapped Larry Drake is killed by a lynch mob only to return from the dead as a scarecrow
Dawn of the Mummy (1981)
Revived Mummies/Italian Gore
By its very title, this is a mummy film that is trying to exploit Dawn of the Dead. Once the mummies are revived this is to all intents and purposes another in the fad for extremely gory Italian zombie films
The Day of the Triffids (1981)
The Downfall of Civilisation/Lethal Plants Amok
Excellent and extremely faithful tv adaptation of the John Wyndham book. This tells the story in terms of ordinary people forced to survive in a harsh world overtaken by killer plants and contains some exceptional writing
Dead & Buried (1981)
Town of Zombies
After writing the huge hit of Alien, Dan O’Bannon next went onto this strange zombie film in which the people of a small town fail to stay dead
Deadly Blessing (1981)
Religious Cult Killings
An early Wes Craven film about a series of killings among an Amish-like cult led by Ernest Borgnine. Craven’s eerie dream horrors sit alongside a confusing script
Death Wish II (1981)
Vigilante Film
The first of several sequels to the hit Charles Bronson vigilante film, the first under Cannon Films. While the first film had some interesting things to say, this mostly repeats the original while taking some turns to the nastily exploitative
The Demon (1981)
Slasher Film
A South African-made copycat of Halloween with a figure in a black mask stalking women. Cameron Mitchell turns up as a weird clairvoyant hired to find one of the missing girls
The Devil and Max Devlin (1981)
Pacts with the Devil/Disney Comedy
Dreary Disney live-action comedy that casts Bill Cosby as The Devil who tasks a hapless Elliott Gould with trying to find redemption by getting three innocents to sell their souls
Dr Jekyll and His Women (1981)
Erotic Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Adaptation
Retelling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from cult Euro erotica director Walerian Borowczyk. Not quite the erotic retelling one expects, this nevertheless conducts some radical revisions
Don’t Go in the Woods (1981)
Slasher Film
One of the ‘don’t __’- titled entries of the 1970s/80s. This was an entry in the decade’s popular slasher cycle with a hulking manic stalking trampers in the backwoods
Double Exposure (1981)
Psychic Link with a Killer
Psychic thriller that draws much from Eyes of Laura Mars as photographer Michael Callan has visions of his models being killed before they are in reality
Dragonslayer (1981)
Sorcerer's Apprentice vs Dragon
An overlooked fantasy film. Although the spirit of Star Wars stands over it, it offers a dark and gritty vision of the Middle Ages and soars with a full flight of fantasy with some stunning dragon effects
Escape from New York (1981)
Action/New York as a Future Prison
One of the key films from John Carpenter with Kurt Russell giving his best ever performance, a slick exciting action film that imagines a future Manhattan Island having been transformed into a lawless prison
The Evil Dead (1981)
Backwoods Possession/Splatter Comedy
Ferociously paced low-budget hit that put the names of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell on the map. What made the film a cult hit was Raimi’s full tilt pace and entertainingly over-the-top splatter effects
Evilspeak (1981)
Bullied Underdog's Satanic Revenge
1980s horror with Clint Howard as a bullied military cadet who uses a computer to help decipher an occult tome whereupon he gains powers that allow him to enact vengeance on his tomentors
Excalibur (1981)
Arthurian Legends
The definitive film version of the Arthurian legends. John Boorman gives us a magnificent and soaring work of beautiful impassioned imagery that delves deep into the rich mythology of the cycle
Eyes of a Stranger (1981)
Slasher Film
Entry from the heyday of the slasher film. Better plotted than most of its ilk, largely because it steals the plot from Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Featuring a teenage Jennifer Jason Leigh in her first film role
The Fan (1981)
Psycho Celebrity Stalker
A film made not long after the John Lennon shooting with Lauren Bacall as a Hollywood star stalked by fan Michael Biehn who snaps and turns psycho after a perceived rejection
Fear No Evil (1981)
Teenage Anti-Christ
From Frank LaLogiaa, a director who has made too few films, a low-budget film with Stefan Arngrim as a teenage Antichrist. This is a film filled with as much promise as it does absurd effect
The Final Conflict (1981)
The Anti-Christ/The Omen Sequel
The third and by general consensus the weakest of The Omen films. It fails to deliver its promise of depicting the Armageddon but Sam Neill gives a performance of magnificently dark charisma as the grown-up Damien
The Fox and the Hound (1981)
Disney Animation/Talking Animals
Disney animated film from the fallow period of the 1970s/early 80s. This concerns the friendship between a talking fox and a hound tempered by the knowledge they will grow into enemies. An okay effort if not up the heights of the studio’s classics
Frankenstein Island (1981)
Frankenstein Film
Jerry Warren was surely a rival of Edward D. Wood Jr as a bad filmmaker although less well-known. This, which was his last film, is possibly the worst Frankenstein film ever made
Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
Slasher Film
The second of the Friday the 13th films. This was the point where the formula of the series slipped into place and Jason emerges to become an invincible killing machine
The Funhouse (1981)
Carnival Horror House Slasher
Tobe Hooper makes a slasher film that is well above the average and one of his better films. Taking place in a carnival haunted house, Hooper shakes the slasher tropes up with undeniably freakish effect at times
Galaxy of Terror (1981)
Enigmatic Alien Planet
An Alien copy produced by Roger Corman that creates a constantly eerie atmosphere in between the usual slime-drooling monster attacks. With production design by a then unknown James Cameron
Ghost Story (1981)
Supernatural Retribution
Big-budget studio adaptation of Peter Straub’s novel about four aging men who tell ghost stories to exorcise their past. This strips many of the book’s storylines and never seems to make any of its attempts to scare pay off
Graduation Day (1981)
Slasher Film
Another entry from the slasher heyday, appropriating a holiday as title. This is fairly tatty as the lowered standards of the slasher genre go, although the cast contains some interesting names in retrospect
The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
Muppet Movie
The second of the Muppet films made when Jim Henson was alive and one of the best, this bubbles with a double level of sly grown-up humour that many of the later post Henson entries miss
Halloween II (1981)
Slasher Film
The first sequel to Halloween, with Michael Myers pursuing Jamie Lee Curtis through a hospital. John Carpenter’s suspense is replaced by slasher hackery but in retrospect this is a lot better than the subsequent sequels
The Hand (1981)
Disembodied Hand
In his second film as director, Oliver Stone ventures into the disembodied hand theme. An amazingly OTT Michael Caine plays a cartoonist who believes the hand he lost in an accident is exacting vengeance against his enemies
Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
Slasher Film
Slasher film from the 1980s heyday directed by the once great J. Lee Thompson. This drags drearily where the only going for it are some novelty splatter effects and a twist ending that makes no sense whatsoever
Heartbeeps (1981)
Robot Romance
This is considered the film that torpedoed Andy Kaufman’s film career – a dippy romance between two robots. This gets very silly but the film has undeniable charms
Heavy Metal (1981)
Adult Animation Anthology
Cult animated film that adapts several stories from the adult fantasy comic-book Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal. These vary but in its better moments that has a trippy cult hallucinatory quality
Hell Night (1981)
Slasher/Old Dark House
An entry in the 1980s slasher movie fad and featuring Linda Blair. Here a group of students are forced to spend a night in an old dark house. Slightly better than the average
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy (1981)
Gonzo SF
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a multi-media phenomenon that has developed a cult. The tv series with a less-than-stellar BBC budget was not the most effective incarnation of these but still hits the wittily absurd nerve of Douglas Adams’ humour
The House By the Cemetery (1981)
Haunted House/Italian Zombie Splatter
One of the key films in the cult of Lucio Fulci. Imagine a version of The Amityville Horror with the addition of zombies, mad scientists and a gore-drenched death every few minutes
The Howling (1981)
Werewolves/Genre Spoof
The film that made the name of Joe Dante who fills it with a barrage of werewolf movie references and in-jokes. The film’s reputation rests on an amazing mid-film effects sequence where a man transforms into a wolf
The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
Miniaturised Housewife Comedy
An appealing comedy remake of The Incredible Shrinking Man with Lily Tomlin as a housewife who starts to shrink after exposure to household cleaning products. One of the better films from the usually terrible Joel Schumacher
Inseminoid (1981)
Alien Impregnation
Fairly trashy low-budget British copy of Alien with several well-known actors running around a series of caves after Judy Geeson becomes impregnated by an alien embryo
Jaws of Satan (1981)
Satanically Empowered Killer Snakes
This seems to have been slung together as a mash-up of Jaws and the 1970s fad for occult films. Ridiculous and badly made on all levels, no more so than the climax with a giant snake conducting a devil worship ceremony
Just Before Dawn (1981)
Backwoods Brutality
A particularly strong and underrated variant on the Backwoods Brutality film. From Jeff Lieberman, director of the cult killer worm saga Squirm and the LSD flashback psycho film Blue Sunshine
Kill and Kill Again (1981)
Martial Arts Film/Mind Control Drug
From they heyday of the 1970s martial arts film, karate champion James Ryan must reunite the old gang to take on a super-villain who wants to enslave the world with a mind control drug derived from potatoes
Kung Fu Zombie (1981)
Hong Kong Comedy/Kung Fu vs Supernatural
One of the weird mash-ups of horror and martial arts popular in Hong Kong during the late 70s/80s. Despite a great title, this suffers from an emphasis on frenetic slapstick and caricatures
Lady, Stay Dead (1981)
Psycho Film
An Australian psycho film that gained a fascination, being called sleazy and sordid upon its release. Which of course makes it a must see for Moria
The Last Chase (1981)
Car Chase in a Dystopian Future
Dystopian action film that could have only been made during the late 70s Oil Crisis where Lee Majors defies a totalitarian system where vehicles are banned by setting out in his racing car
The Last Shark (1981)
Killer Shark
One of several Italian exploitation copycats of Jaws. This has the reputation as the film that was such a blatant ripoff that Universal sued to stop its release
Looker (1981)
Virtual Models
Michael Crichton’s works are about fears of science and technology going amok. Here he attempts to address tv and advertising in a film about virtual models but the ideas in his script are muddled
Mad Max 2 (1981)
Post-Holocaust Action
A sequel that makes an extraordinary leap over its predecessor. It created an entire genre of films – even its own design and clothing aesthetic – and is one of the most kinetic, exciting action films ever made
Malevil (1981)
Nuclear War
An entry in the spate of early 1980s nuclear war films about the residents of a French village who are sheltered in a wine cellar when the bomb drops and their efforts to survive in the aftermath
Memoirs of a Survivor (1981)
Decayed Future
Adaptation of a Doris Lessing novel set in a collapsing future England. Nicely portrayed but crytpically surreal touches end up baffling
Monster Island (1981)
Desert Island Adventures
Supposedly an adaptation of Jules Verns’s Mysterious Island from low-budget Spanish director Juan Piquer Simon, one that gives the impression nobody actually read the book
Ms 45 (1981)
Raped Woman on a Killing Spree
In his second film, Abel Ferrara turns the rape-revenge film on its head with a mute Zoe Tamerlis taking revenge on men after being raped
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
Slasher Film
Classic from the heyday of the slasher film, an effort that was clearly designed to exploit another holiday title in the wake of the successes of Halloween and Friday the 13th. This snappily adapts the slasher formula and does better than most of its ilk in serving it back up
Mystics in Bali (1981)
Indonesian Witchcraft
A mind-bogglingly deranged example from the largely unexplored arena of Indonesian exploitation cinema as an American woman becomes involved with local witchcraft
New Year’s Evil (1981)
Slasher Film
Slasher film made by Cannon Films that uses its title holiday date with some ingenuity – the killer kills someone on the hour of midnight across each of the US time zones – but is otherwise routine
Night of the Zombies (1981)
Nazi Zombies
Extremely cheap and impoverished variation on the Nazi zombie film, this is dull and has nothing to recommend it
Night School (1981)
Slasher Film
The only studio-produced entry from the heyday of the slasher film, which gives it a much slicker polish than most of its competitors. Featuring a stunning Rachel Ward in her screen debut.
Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981)
Psycho Film
One of the original Video Nasties. In all rather regards, this is a fairly scuzzy looking grindhouse psycho film. Nothing terribly interesting to the show, although it does eventually offer a couple of gory killings, which is what got the censors upset during the day
Oasis of the Zombies (1981)
Nazi Zombies
One of the original Nazi zombies films with zombies protecting an oasis that hides a gold treasure. This was made by prolific exploitation director Jess Franco meaning that much of the film’s potential is drowned in cheap production values and bad dubbing
Outland (1981)
Action Set on One of Jupiter's Moons
The film‘s Space Western idea aside – the plot is High Noon transplanted into orbit – this is a solid and well-made science-fiction film with Sean Connery as a long marshal on Jupiter’s moon Io
Per Aspera Ad Astra (1981)
Soviet Science-Fiction/Female Alien Visitor
Soviet-made science-fiction film about a mysterious female alien visitor. The set-up intrigues for a time but the directorial delivery is dull and prosaic, while the mystery about who the alien woman is sidetracked by a long-winded interplanetary adventure in the second half
Piranha II: Flying Killers (1981)
Killer Fish
The film that James Cameron would prefer we forget about. A nominal sequel to Joe Dante’s enjoyable tongue-in-cheek Piranha, this misses that film’s sense of humour and lets the show sink amid absurd effects
Porno Holocaust (1981)
Zombie Erotica
From cult director Joe D’Amato, this throws together hardcore erotica and gory zombie film in a conceptually bizarre mix that leaves you scratching your head
Possession (1981)
Marriage Breakdown/Surrealism/Monsters
Bafflingly surreal film from Andrzej Zulawski in which Isabelle Adjani gives birth to a tentacled monster in a subway. Nobody has any idea what the film is about but it has become a cult work since
The Prowler (1981)
Slasher Film
An effort from the heyday of the 1980s slasher film. Made with slightly more directorial competence that most of its contemporaries, a level of gore that caused censorship issues in some countries, although this proves weak when offering script rationale for proceedings
Quest for Fire (1981)
Prehistory/Caveman Adventure
Beautifully shot directorial debut from Jean-Jacques Annaud that sets out to dispel all the cinematic cliches about cavemen and dinosaurs and offers up an anthropologically realistic prehistoric film
Raggedy Man (1981)
WWII Smalltown Romance/Hick Psychos
Beautifully shot Sissy Spacek starring work of American nostalgia set in rural 1940s Texas that takes a turn into Southern Gothic in its last quarter
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Tomb Raiding Adventures
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s homage to the adventure films of the 1940s was a huge hit in its day, spawning several sequels and many imitators. The film is pure action and adventure, delivered with enormous charm and wit
The Return (1981)
UFO Contact and Cattle Multilations
Influenced by Close Encounters of the Third Kind, this is a strange film about UFOs and cattle mutilations. Explanations are not always clear but the film boasts a great cast
Roadgames (1981)
Road Movie Psycho-Thriller
A standout Australian psycho-thriller with Stacy Keach as a truck driver who believes he has seen a killer on the highway. Director Richard Franklin creates a series of astonishing set-pieces.
Rollover (1981)
Western Economic Collapse
Jane Fonda and Kris Kristofferson star in a big-budget banking thriller where the US faces economic collapses
Saturday the 14th (1981)
Genre Parody
Friday the 13th so changed the horror genre that within two years it produced two four parodies of its title. From Roger Corman, this is more of an occasionally amusing parody of classic monster movies than the slasher film
Scanners (1981)
Psychic Powers
Enormously entertaining David Cronenberg film about psychic powers. Cronenberg is fascinated with the conceptua possibilities and creates some sensational set-pieces
Shock Treatment (1981)
Rocky Horror Sequel
A not uninteresting sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, this has widely divided reactions among fans
Southern Comfort (1981)
Backwoods Brutality
A beautifully evocative Walter Hill film where National Guard soldiers on training manoeuvres are hunted through the Louisiana swamps after accidentally shooting at Cajun locals
Strange Behavior (1981)
Mad Scientist/Mind Control Experiments
Modestly effective film in which teens in a small town go berserk and begin killing people as a result of experiments being conducted at the university psychology department
The Survivor (1981)
Haunting/Deathdream
Australian-made adaptation of a James Herbert novel with Robert Powell as a airline pilot who is haunted following a crash. In the director’s chair, actor David Hemmings kills all atmosphere
Tarzan the Ape Man (1981)
Softcore Tarzan Adaptation
Tarzan turned into a tedious softcore work designed to highlight the talent-free Bo Derek in a state of undress. This directly remakes the 1932 Johnny Weissmuller film – the original was an adventure classic, this is just an expensive nudie film
Threshold (1981)
World's First Artificial Heart
A case of science prediction where Donald Sutherland and Jeff Goldblum create the world’s first artificial heart
Time Bandits (1981)
Gonzo Adventures Throughout Time
Highly enjoyable Terry Gilliam film about a young boy who joins a group of dwarves on a series of adventures though time
Time Slip (1981)
Soldiers Thrown Back in Time to Feudal Japan
Highly entertaining Japanese film about modern soldiers thrown back to feudal Japan and deciding to overthrow the shogunate