Best Horror Movies of 1980

The highest-rated horror films from 1980, ranked by MovieMagicScore based on authentic viewer ratings.

Horror 1979 Horror 1981 All Time Horror

Action Comedy Drama Science Fiction Thriller Romance Animation Documentary Fantasy Crime

The Shining

1980

Jack Torrance accepts a caretaker job at the Overlook Hotel, where he, along with his wife Wendy and their son Danny, must live isolated from the rest of the world for the winter. But they aren't prepared for the madness that lurks within.

8.2

Dressed to Kill

1980

After witnessing a mysterious woman brutally slay a homemaker, prostitute Liz Blake finds herself trapped in a dangerous situation. While the police thinks she is the murderer, the real killer is intent on silencing her only witness.

7.0

The Changeling

1980

After a tragic event happens, composer John Russell moves to Seattle to try to overcome it and build a new and peaceful life in a lonely big house that has been uninhabited for many years. But, soon after, the obscure history of such an old mansion and his own past begin to haunt him.

7.0

The Fog

1980

Strange things begin to occur as a tiny California coastal town prepares to commemorate its centenary. Inanimate objects spring eerily to life; Rev. Malone stumbles upon a dark secret about the town's founding; radio announcer Stevie witnesses a mystical fire; and hitchhiker Elizabeth discovers the mutilated corpse of a fisherman. Then a mysterious iridescent fog descends upon the village, and more people start to die.

6.7

Altered States

1980

A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind.

6.7

Inferno

1980

A young man returns from Rome to his sister's satanic New York apartment house.

6.6

The Ninth Configuration

1980

Army psychiatrist Colonel Kane is posted to a secluded gothic castle housing a military asylum. With a reserved calm, he indulges the inmates' delusions, allowing them free rein to express their fantasies.

6.4

City of the Living Dead

1980

A woman seemingly dies of fright after participating in a séance where she sees a vision of a Dunwich priest hanging himself in a church cemetery. New York City reporter Peter Bell investigates and learns that the priest's suicide has somehow opened a portal to Hell and must be sealed by All Saints Day, or else the dead will overtake humanity.

6.4

Maniac

1980

A psychotic man, troubled by his childhood abuse, kills and mutilates young women and local models on the streets of New York City.

6.4

#10

Friday the 13th

1980

Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child's drowning.

6.4

#11

Cannibal Holocaust

1980

A New York University professor returns from a rescue mission to the Amazon rainforest with the footage shot by a lost team of documentarians who were making a film about the area's local cannibal tribes.

6.3

#12

House on the Edge of the Park

1980

A posh couple experience car trouble on their way to a villa party and stop into a local mechanic's shop for assistance, unaware of his shady background. After he and his mentally challenged assistant fix the car, the couple invite them to the party to return the favor, leading to an evening of mayhem.

5.9

#13

The Watcher in the Woods

1980

After an American family moves to an old country manor in rural England, one of the daughters is tormented by the spirit of the owner's long lost daughter, who mysteriously disappeared 30 years ago during a solar eclipse.

5.9

#14

Alligator

1980

A baby alligator is flushed down a toilet and survives by eating discarded lab animals that have been injected with growth hormones. The now gigantic animal escapes the city sewers and goes on a rampage, pursued by a cop and a big-game hunter.

6.1

#15

Cannibal Apocalypse

1980

Released from captivity in Vietnam, two American Army officers return to civilian life and discover they have acquired an insatiable taste for human flesh. A city is terrorised... as they stalk the inhabitants to satisfy their primitive appetites.

5.6

#16

Mother's Day

1980

Three girls discover that two men are willing to do anything to impress Mother and what impresses Mother is watching her sons commit acts of rape and murder. Now these women are prisoners and lowered to pawns in the game of checkers between two dim wits and their Maniac Mommy and the question becomes, can any of them escape, alive?

5.6

#17

Nightmare City

1980

In a nameless European city, a local reporter and his doctor wife try to escape from hordes of blood thirsty zombies, undead people exposed to nuclear radioactivity, while the military leaders fight a losing war of attrition against the relentless atomic zombies.

5.7

#18

Motel Hell

1980

Farmer Vincent Smith and his sister Ida run a motel attached to a farm where they capture unsuspecting travelers, bury them alive, fatten them up and then harvest their bodies as ingredients for his famous brand of "smoked meats."

5.8

#19

Humanoids from the Deep

1980

After a new cannery introduces scientifically augmented salmon to a seaside town in the Pacific Northwest, a species of mysterious, mutated sea creatures begin killing the men and raping the women.

5.7

#20

Doctor Butcher M.D.

1980

After Malukan immigrants engage in a string of corpse mutilations at various New York City hospitals, a doctor and a morgue assistant travel to the Maluku Islands to investigate.

5.5

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Best Horror Movies of 1980

This ranking features the top horror movies released in 1980, sorted by MovieMagicScore viewer ratings. Looking for more? Browse all genres from 1980 or see the best horror movies of all time.