The 80s were absolutely the decade of the "scary" or "horror" movie. So many classics, so many iconic characters, so many really bad plot lines. Even so, there were dozens of flicks from the big 80s that scared the pants off of us. It was tough, but I chose my top 5 scary movies from the 1980s. What would be on your list? Tell us in the comment section below.

  • 5

    Pet Sematary (1989)

    The Creeds have just moved to a new house in the countryside. Their house is perfect, except for two things: the semi-trailers that roar past on the narrow road, and the mysterious sematary in the woods behind the house. The Creed's neighbors are reluctant to talk about the sematary, and for good reason too.

    When Stephen King first wrote the manuscript for Pet Sematary he shelved it when friends and family hated it.

  • 4

    Hellraiser (1987)

    Clive Barker's feature directing debut graphically depicts the tale of a man and wife who move into an old house and discover a hideous creature - the man's half-brother, who is also the woman's former lover - hiding upstairs. Having lost his earthly body to a trio of S&M demons, the Cenobites, he is brought back into existence by a drop of blood on the floor. He soon forces his former mistress to bring him his necessary human sacrifices to complete his body... but the Cenobites won't be happy about this.

    The budget of this movie was $1,000,000. It earned about $20,000,000.

  • 3

    Poltergeist (1982)

    A young family are visited by ghosts in their home. At first the ghosts appear friendly, moving objects around the house to the amusement of everyone, then they turn nasty and start to terrorize the family before they "kidnap" the youngest daughter.

    Poltergeist was filmed on the same street as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial because Steven Spielberg made the two films concurrently

  • 2

    The Shining (1980)

    A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotel's ghosts. After being convinced by a waiter's ghost to "correct" the family, Jack goes completely insane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is "The Shining".

    The image of the two girls in the hotel corridor was inspired by the photograph "Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967" by Diane Arbus.

  • 1

    A NIghtmare on Elm Street (1984)

    On Elm Street, Nancy Thompson and a group of her friends including Tina Gray, Rod Lane and Glen Lantz are being tormented by a clawed killer in their dreams named Freddy Krueger. Nancy must think quickly, as Freddy tries to pick off his victims one by one. When he has you in your sleep, who is there to save you?

    New Line Cinema was saved from bankruptcy by the success of the film, and was jokingly nicknamed "the house that Freddy built".

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM