Night Life (1989)
Teen Zombies
Teen horror variant on the zombie film. Scott Grimes gets a job at his uncle’s morgue only for a lightning bolt to revive his school bullies as zombies.
Films of 1989
A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)
Dream-Invading Boogey Man
The fifth of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films offers up the same old thing but director Stephen Hopkins enters at an inspired level that transforms the set-pieces with a genuine weirdness
Out of the Body (1989)
Astral Killer
A cheapie from cult Ozploitation director Brian Trenchard-Smith about a man having clairvoyant visions of an astral killer
Paperhouse (1989)
Girl Builds a House in Dreams
One of the most sophisticated and intelligent of the 80s copies of A Nightmare on Elm Street with a rich central idea about a girl who can enter the world of her own drawings
Parents (1989)
Paranoia Comedy/Boy Thinks His Parents Are Cannibals
Bizarre black comedy directed by actor Bob Balaban that takes place in a paranoid parody of 1950s normalcy about a boy who believes his parents are cannibals
Party Line (1989)
Phone Chatline Psycho-Thriller
Tawdry thriller about brother and sister psychos who lure people from a phone sex line and kill them
Patlabor: The Mobile Police (1989)
Anime/Police Amok-Robot Squad
Early anime from Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame about a police squad set up to deal with giant robots gone amok. All of Oshii’s visuals and fascinating play of ideas are present
Pet Sematary (1989)
Resurrection of the Dead/Stephen King Adaptation
An okay Stephen King adaptation that does nothing particularly wrong but lacks the impact that has caused people to regard the novel as one of the best of King’s works
Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989)
Modernised The Phantom of the Opera
This amusingly updates the story of The Phantom of the Opera to have the Phantom lurking in a modern mall. Cheesily entertaining 1980s horror coasting by on the coattails of the massive success of the musical adaptation where the most amusement comes in the gorily over-the-top despatches
The Phantom of the Opera (1989)
Disfigured Madman Beneath the Opera House/Time Travel
On the back of popularity of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and the Elm Street films, Robert Englund was cast in this version where the emphasis is on the slasher element, which works far better than you might think
Prancer (1989)
Girl Discovers Santa's Reindeer
An appealing bittersweet film based around the improbable premise of a young girl finding what she believes is one of Santa’s reindeer. In a genre that usually deals in sugary sentiment, this has a much more rewarding downbeat realism
PsychoCop (1989)
Slasher Film/Psycho Police Officer
From the heyday of the 1980s VHS release, a slasher film with the requisite group of partying teens being stalked by a psychopathic, devil-worshipping police officer
Puppetmaster (1989)
Malevolent Dolls
The first in a series of killer doll films from Charles Band, which has generated some ten sequels. The original has an undeniable atmosphere
Redneck Zombies (1989)
Zombie Comedy
Classic title from Troma Films, quite possibly the first ever gonzo zombie film, this also counts as one of the worst zombie films ever made
Relentless (1989)
Cop Tracks Serial Killer
A popular thriller in its day about a cop tracking a serial killer (played by Brat Packer Judd Nelson). This prefigures The Silence of the Lambs in some interesting ways. Several sequels followed
The Return of Swamp Thing (1989)
Comic-Book Mutant Superhero
Wes Craven’s adaptation of DC’s Swamp Thing was not a very good film. This sequel has been handed over to prolific B-budget hack Jim Wynorski who shows he is unable to take any of it seriously
Robot Ninja (1989)
Costumed Vigilante
The title sounds like a cheesy 80s killer android film but this is actually about a comic-book artist who becomes a costumed vigilante. A strange mix of superhero with no powers, a splatter film and Death Wish
Rules of Engagement (1989)
Impending Nuclear War
The last gasp of the mid-80s era of nuclear anxieties that brought Threads and The Day After, a tv mini-series about the imposition of martial law in a British city as US-Soviet nuclear war looms in Europe
Rush Week (1989)
Slasher Film
Passable entry towards the end of the 80s slasher cycle with a killer stalking a campus during fraternity recruiting week
The Salute of the Jugger (1989)
Post-Holocaust Sports Team
Interesting film directed by David Peoples, the screenwriter of Blade Runner, about a post-apocalyptic sports team. This avoids the cliches of the Mad Max film and creates an interesting future background
Santa Sangre (1989)
Surrealism/Psychologically Disturbed Mime Artist
Near indescribable mix of horror, hallucination, surrealism and tormented sexuality – quite possibly cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky at his best
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)
Sexual Rondeau Comedy/Ghost
Director Paul Bartel and a reasonable name cast make a comedy about the sex lives of the Beverly Hills elites
Sea of Love (1989)
Psycho-Thriller/Romance
Standout thriller with great scripting and performances where detective Al Pacino goes undercover in the dating scene to track a killer and comes up against a sultry Ellen Barkin
Second Sight (1989)
Psychic Detective Agency
An attempt to copy Ghostbusters concerning a psychic detective agency that degenerates into painfully bad slapstick
Shocker (1989)
Executed Killer's Supernatural Revenge
Wes Craven’s attempt to top his A Nightmare on Elm Street and the phenomenon that Freddy Krueger subsequently became was this remarkably silly film with Mitch Pileggi as a serial killer returned from the electric chair
Silent Night, Deadly Night III: You Better Watch Out! (1989)
Christmas Slasher Film/Resurrected Killer
The third in the Christmas slasher series where the killer’s brother is resurrected like a Frankenstein monster and develops an obsession with a blind girl. Played with far more seriousness than it deserves
Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989)
Arabian Nights Adventure
An incredibly bad Italian-made Sinbad adventure starring Lou Ferrigno that is laughable in its dialogue and acting and incredibly tatty in its budget pinching
Sleepaway Camp 3: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
Slasher Film
The first Sleepaway Camp was a classic of the slasher film for its unforgettable ending. This was the second of two back-to-back shot sequels starring Bruce Springsteen’s younger sister Pamela as the murderous Angela
Slipstream (1989)
Post-Holocaust Adventure
The only film that Steven Lisberger made after Tron. Though impressively cast and with a decent budget, it is an oddly unconvincing effort that tells the story of an android’s quest across a post-apocalyptic world
Society (1989)
Secret Society of Shape Changers
The directorial debut for Brian Yuzna, this has a satiric and weirdly paranoid tone but what makes the film is its sensational display makeup effects involving a secret society of shapeshifting orgiasts
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Intergalactic Adventures
William Shatner tries to emulate the success had by Leonard Nimoy in directing a Star Trek film but falls on his face, badly overstressing the comedy elements and delivering the worst of the Classic Trek films
Stepfather II (1989)
Psycho Stepfather
Sequel to the hit psycho-thriller. Terry O’Quinn is back and on fine form but this just repeats the original, bumps up the number of killings with extra gore to become no more than a B psycho film
Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)
Modern Vampires
This has been construed as a modern-day vampire western with tongue planted in cheek. From Anthony Hickox who made a series of OTT horror films during this period
Sweet Home (1989)
Gonzo Japanese Haunted House Film
Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa has developed a reputation for his intensely uncanny and deeply unfathomable horror films. This is one of his earlier works, a much more straightforward haunted house film that in its more bizarre moments attains the whacked-out dementia of the cult Japanese film House
Tarzan in Manhattan (1989)
Tarzan Comes to Civilisation Comedy
Comedy take on the Tarzan character with Joe Lara playing Tarzan who comes to New York and promptly proves to be a fish out of water. The filmmakers were likely inspired by the then recent hit of Crocodile Dundee
Teen Witch (1989)
Teenage Witch Comedy
Amiably lightweight 80s comedy in which average teenage underdog Robyn Lively gains magical abilities and the complications these create
Ten Little Indians (1989)
Agatha Christie Murder Mystery
An adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel/play And Then There Were None that relocates the story to an African safari and takes more of a horror movie focus
The Terror Within (1989)
Mutant Monster
Roger Corman produces a blatant copy of Alien with a group of people being pursued around a desert laboratory by a rubbery mutant creature
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Man-Machine Fusion
Extraordinary directorial debut from Japan’s Shinya Tsukamoto, a frenetic, fetishistic and surreally deranged vision of man-machine fusion that feels like David Lynch having gone away and done a crash reading course of William Gibson
To Die For (1989)
Vampire Romance
One of the first of the modern wave of darkly romantic vampire films that became the in-thing in the 1990s. This is occasionally effective but was eclipsed by later entries
Transylvania Twist (1989)
Horror Parody
A Roger Corman produced horror parody that conducts send ups of most of the horror icons of the 1980s – Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, Michael Meyers etc – without being particularly funny
U.H.F. (1989)
Cable Station Hijinks/Various Parodies
A series of parody sketches based around the popularity of Weird Al Yankovic who plays the owner of a struggling cable tv station
Urotsukidoji II: Legend of the Demon Womb (1989)
Anime/Perverse Demon Wars
The first of two OVA sequels to the anime classic Legend of the Overfiend, this lacks the perverse imagery of the original
Violent Shit (1989)
Splatter and Gore/Psycho Film
Boundary-pushing film that consists almost entirely of very enthusiastic splatter and gore scenes. Amateurishly shot on video nevertheless this gained a cult following and produced sequels
Warlock (1989)
Witchfinder Pursues Warlock Through Time
Richard E. Grant is a witchfinder who pursues warlock Julian Sands through a time vortex into the present day. David Twohy’s script takes all the Old Wives’ tale aspects of Middle Ages superstition seriously to immensely entertaining regard
When the Whales Came (1989)
Period Drama/Preventing a Whale Curse
This is what might result if Greenpeace were allowed to take over the BBC arts division. Nicely made but not necessarily a great period drama about a whale curse
Wicked Stepmother (1989)
Witch Moves In Comedy
The worst film from the usually great Larry Cohen, an unfunny comedy in which a household is taken over by a witch. Bette Davis quit soon into shooting and is replaced partway through by Barbara Carrera
Wired (1989)
Surreal John Belushi Biopic
Flop and muchly hated biopic of John Belushi that turns his life into a bad farce. Included here for the presence of an angel that guides Belushi through his life
The Wolves of Willougby Chase (1989)
Victorian Children's Fantasy
Criminally neglected Victorian children’s fantasy. Superbly designed with a beautifully dark and much more adult emotional range than a regular children’s film
The Woman in Black (1989)
Ghost Story
The revived Hammer Films had with the ghost story The Woman in Black. This is the original version of the story made as a movie for British tv with a script from Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale