Party Halloween

As the 80’s are well and truly back to haunt us, here at partyhalloween, we’ve been looking back at some of the great Horror and Thriller Movies of the era.

Friday the 13th – this ‘slasher movie’ saw Kevin Bacon making his on-screen acting debut when it was released in May 1980. The plot followed a group of Summer Camp counsellors preparing to re-open Camp Crystal Lake, which had closed 22 years previously following the drowning of a boy and then an unsolved double-murder the following year. We are also introduced to Mrs Voorhees (played by Betsy Palmer) – the mother of Jason, who was the boy who drowned in the lake. Friday the 13th is ‘on the edge of your seat’ viewing with a rollercoaster of events, and a plethora of gruesome killings by an unseen assailant.

The Shining – no-one can forget the famous adlib – “Here’s Johnny!” by Jack Nicholson as his character, Jack Torrance pushes his face up to the hole in the bathroom door he’s just smashed with an axe – his wife Wendy (played by Shelley Duvall) screaming in horror. The Shining was released in 1980 and was Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the novel by Stephen King. Set in a hotel, it follows the Torrance family as Jack seeks a quiet place to write his novel whilst being caretaker. His son, Danny, has ESP and has telepathic conversations with staff and ghosts. The ghostly events eventually turn Jack crazy; he becomes convinced he has to ‘correct his wife and child’. Set in winter, The Shining provides chills galore.

A Nightmare on Elm Street – Everyone knows the chant, and it still sends chills down the spines of even the most hardened movie-goers. Freddie Krueger thrust onto the cinema screens in 1984, thanks to the talents of Producer Wes Craven. The teenagers of Springwood get killed by Freddie in their dreams, causing death in reality too. Nancy Thompson. Played by Heather Langenkamp, has a series of these dreams, but luckily wakes before death. She enlists the help of her boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) to help her find the answer and discover who really killed her best friend Tina (Amanda Wyss). The secret of the burning of child murderer Fred Krueger is later revealed by Nancy’s mother, and it becomes apparent that he escaped the burning building many years ago. A Nightmare on Elm Street managed to blur the lines of dream and reality with finesse. Today, the burned face of Freddy Krueger and his glove of knives are known across the world and are an image of horror itself.

The Lost Boys – The 1987 teen horror film centres around the lives of brothers Michael and Sam Emerson ( Jason Patric and Corey Haim), who move to a town called Santa Carla where there is a higher than average occurrence of strange disappearances. Michael becomes fascinated by the David – local gang-leader’s girlfriend – Star (Jami Gertz). After being invited by David (a young Keifer Sutherland) to join him in his lair, Michael realises that the gang are all vampires and he undergoes an initiation of drinking blood. Meanwhile, his brother, Sam, meets up with local vampire hunters – Edgar and Alan Frog (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) who are on a mission to rid the town of all vampire-evil. The Lost Boys sees Sam struggling to save Michael from becoming a fully-fledged vampire, vowing to help save Star too.