1. Christmas Evil (a.k.a. "You Better Watch Out" and "Terror in Toyland") (1980)
The Premise: Slasher Claus is coming to town.
Overall: It's not a bad movie, but it could have been a lot better. That scene in the beginning, the killer's relationship with his brother, his fixation on Santa Claus, the ending -- all of these things could have had a lot more impact. It's hard to tell whether this one was hacked to death in the editing room, if the budget wasn't up to the task, or if those financing the film lacked faith in the film or its audience. Whatever the case, a reboot of this film could do really well.
Fun Fact: Brandon Maggart, the star of this movie, was also a big star on Broadway. He's been nominated for many, many awards, and he also happens to be Fiona Apple's father.
The Premise: Four small town vigilantes attempt to avoid their just desserts in the guise of a scarecrow.
Overall: An excellent movie. There are a lot of great character actors in this one, and their performances bring a concisely written script into focus.
Fun Fact: The director of this made-for-TV film, Frank De Felitta, also wrote the novel upon which 1978's The Entity was based.
Back in 85 ten year old me would've been all about Lori Laughlin. In 2025? I'd pick Kelly Preston's mom.
The Premise: The good 'ol 80s love triangle. She's into him but he's into her best friend. The complication here is the lovers' parents, who engage in their own silliness after an anonymous love letter is circulated between them.
Overall: An extremely forgettable film. I'm guessing it wasn't played on cable much due to a distinct lack of boobies.
Where Are They Now?: C. Thomas Howell currently appears in the Netflix series Obliterated. Four years after Secret Admirer he married Rae Dawn Chong (daughter of Tommy Chong!), though they were divorced a year later.
Kelly Preston passed away in 2020. The last of her movies released during her lifetime was 2018's Gotti, in which she appeared alongside her husband John Travolta.
Lori Laughlin went on to TV's Full House. She was implicated in a college bribery scandal around 2020, and she still appears on TV in minor roles.
The Premise: Coming of age story set in a Catholic school for boys.
Overall: An engaging movie. There's a lot of "Where Are They Now?"-type people in this one, so I'll just skip ahead to that part.
Where Are They Now?: Donald Sutherland famously passed away last year. His last (live action) role was 2023's Miranda's Victim.
John Heard (a.k.a. "Kevin's dad" in Home Alone), that "voice of reason" in so many 80s movies, passed away in 2017. From the 2000s onward he appeared in a ton of B movies. His last "big" movie was 2004's White Chicks.
Andrew McCarthy, of Mannequin and Weekend at Bernie's fame, is still doing movies. Last year he directed the documentary Brats, about the 80s Brat Pack he once belonged to.
Heaven Help Us was Mary Stuart Masterson's second movie. She still appears in lower budget movies, more recently Five Nights at Freddy's.
Kevin Dillon, brother of Matt, most recently appeared in 2024's Reagan. Heaven Help Us was his first feature film.
Fans of 80s horror movies might remember Stephen "Evil Ed" Geoffreys, from classics such as Fright Night and 976-Evil. He still turns up in the occasional scary movie.
Heaven Help Us was also Patrick Dempsey's first feature film. He has to some extent given up on acting in favor of racing cars. In 2023 he appeared in Michael Mann's Ferrari.
You might remember Dana Barron from National Lampoon's Vacation and one of its sequels. In the 90s she transitioned into TV.
Anyone else remember the TV show Herman's Head? Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson, is also in Heaven Help Us. These days she's doing a podcast.
The Premise: Martin Sheen chases the Son of Sam.
Overall: Bad dialogue is in the forefront here, with characters often explaining way, way too much in the midst of what start out as normal conversations. Was Martin Sheen's career in a bad place in the mid 80s? I can't think of any other reason why he'd do this decidedly lukewarm TV movie.
The Premise: An electromagnetic entity possesses a suburban home.
Overall: It's a bit hard to empathize with the father character, but other than that Pulse is a well written, well acted and well directed horror movie. My favorite part was the shower scene.
Fun Fact: Future teen heartthrob Joey Lawrence is in this. ...and what's he up to these days? Well, as of 2023 he was trying to get a podcast going.
This movie could have used "Evil Ed." In the absence of that character Charley Brewster is even less interesting than he was in the first installment.
The Premise: Chris Sarandon's vampire has a sister, and she's back for REVENGE.
Overall: There was a lot of forgettable vampire schlock like this toward the end of the 80s, movies that were a far cry from The Lost Boys, Near Dark and the oft-overlooked Lifeforce. I wasn't a huge fan of the first Fright Night, and this sequel does absolutely nothing with concepts established in the first movie.
Fun Fact: The director of this movie, Tommy Lee Wallace, was one of John Carpenter's close collaborators. He was the art director on Dark Star and Assault of Precinct 13, co-editor on both Halloween and The Fog, and 2nd unit director on Big Trouble in Little China.
Where Are They Now?: Another Herman's Head connection! William Ragsdale, who plays Charley Brewster in this movie, would go on to play "Herman" in Herman's Head. He's still doing movies and TV.
This movie must have freaked out a lot of kids in the early 80s. It's somewhat tame now, but the corpses piling on, the dead psychic with the lightning eyes -- freaky stuff.
The Premise: A sorority pledge spends a night in a mausoleum.
Overall: It gets way better toward the end. Not a classic by any stretch of the imagination, but the ending is memorable.
Where Are They Now?: Meg Tilly, sister of Jennifer, still appears in movies and TV, but she's better known as an author.
Adam West, a.k.a. TV's Batman, passed away in 2017. He was voicing Batman in animated films up to that point.
The Premise: Two girls attending a summer camp bet on who'll lose their virginity first. (And no, it's not porn.)
Overall: An excellent movie. I didn't really "get" Kristy McNichol until seeing this one, but having seen it, yeah, she was a great actress. Tatum O'Neal, Ryan O'Neal's daughter, is also good as her sometime friend, sometime adversary.
Where Are They Now?: Tatum O'Neal is still appearing in movies.
Kristy McNichol retired from acting in 2001. Up to that time she was doing a lot of voice work.
Armand Assante is still around, though his last "big" movie was 2007's American Gangster.
Matt Dillon, brother of Kevin Dillon (above), most recently played Marlon Brando in 2024's Being Maria.
The Premise: A weird little kid pushes people into a pit where they're devoured by subterranean humanoids.
Overall: One of the weirder movies I've seen lately. Don't expect any kind of resolution to anything, but if you're looking for something decidedly odd you might enjoy The Pit.
The Premise: An SAS operative infiltrates a terrorist group in the UK.
Overall: Not exactly a Hollywood blockbuster, but it works well enough. Judy Davis chews a lot of scenery, and the dispute around the banquet table could have been both longer and expanded upon more, but overall it's not bad. It resembles a British take on The Dirty Dozen at times.
The soundtrack is odd. Very 70s near the beginning and ending, very 80s in the middle.
Fun Fact: Ian Sharp, the director of this film, also directed the action sequences in GoldenEye.
Where Are They Now?: Judy Davis last appeared in 2021's Nitram.
The Premise: Uh... a messiah and his motorcycle? Beyond that it's a lot of car chases and shooting.
Overall: Memorably bad. It doesn't make much sense and the low budget is glaringly obvious throughout.
Fun Fact: Persis Khambatta also played "Lieutenant Ilia" in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. She came to Hollywood via Bollywood.
Where Are They Now?: Donald Pleasence, who plays the villain here, would go on to movies such as Phenomena, Prince of Darkness and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. He passed away in 1995.
I despised this movie when I first saw it in the theater. I couldn't have been older than nine at the time. My brother and I worshipped the first Conan, and this one felt like a huge letdown.
The Premise: Conan takes a hot princess on a journey to retrieve a magical horn.
Overall: Not nearly as bad as I remember. Rewatching this as an adult, I kind of get the lighter tone that the studio was going for. Is it as good as the first one? Not even close, but at least Grace Jones is good.
Fun Fact 1: Screenwriters Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway were borrowed from Marvel Comics, where they wrote the popular Conan the Barbarian comic book.
Fun Fact 2: The WWF's Andre the Giant plays the giant monster which appears at the end.
Where Are They Now?: Grace Jones is still around. More recently she provided backing vocals on Beyonce's song "Move" in 2022.
Basketball star Wilt Chamberlain had a long history of heart problems. He finally succumbed to these heart problems in 1999.
Mako (Iwamatsu) passed away in 2006. Up to that point he was doing voice work for Samurai Jack and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Lance Henriksen! He must've filmed this around the same time as Aliens. We think of "classic films" and often come to the (false) conclusion that the filming of said "classic film" was some momentous event in the lives of its cast members, when it was more likely just another job in a long series of jobs.
The Premise: Yet another biker gang terrorizes yet another small town for the umpteenth time.
Overall: An enjoyably cheesy movie. The citizens of this small town are so weird and devoid of common sense that you'll be rooting for the biker gang within the first half hour.
Fun Fact 1: Lance Henriksen has described this film as "his most embarrassing movie."
Fun Fact 2: Henriksen's leather jacket has some history. It was worn by air force personnel serving in the Pacific Theater during World War II. The flag on the back represents the Republic of China, the Chinese Nationalist government which the Allies were propping up in the face of Japanese Imperial aggression. This flag serves as the flag of Taiwan to this day.
Fun Fact 3: Sam Kinison (billed her as "Sam Kennison") is in this for a minute. Keep your eyes peeled during the barber shop scene.
Where Are They Now?: Lance Henriksen is still appearing in horror movies.
George Kennedy (yep, he's in this too!) passed away in 2016.
Karen Black passed away even earlier, in 2013.
15. Off Beat (1986)
The Premise: Judge Reinhold stars as a librarian impersonating a police officer.
Overall: It's a cute movie. If you enjoyed Ghostbusters (and really, who didn't?) you'll like the New York vibe also present in this movie. I don't know if this vibe is something New York ever really possessed, but it's a nostalgic, enjoyable thing regardless.
Where Are They Now?: Most recently Judge Reinhold reprised his role from the original Beverly Hills Cop in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. His post-1994 filmography consists of films you've probably never heard of. I must say, however, that The Santa Clause 2 and its "fascist Santa" is worth a look.
John Turturro went on to much bigger and much better things. His last "big" movie was 2022's The Batman.
Harvey Keitel appears in this film toward the end. His last "big" movie was 2019's The Irishman.
Joe Mantegna is mostly doing TV now.
Penn Jillette, remember him? He's doing a regular show at The Rio in Vegas. He's done his share of low budget movies and he's an advocate for both atheism and scientific skepticism.
The Premise: Supernatural entities (zombies?) enter our world via a haunted TV.
Overall: The acting (or lack thereof) in this film is truly something to behold. And even beyond that I'm not sure if this movie has a plot to speak of.
The Premise: A young couple follows a radio transmission to a haunted house.
Overall: Slightly better acting than what's on display in The Video Dead, and they obviously had a bigger budget to work with. Still not quite good, but in terms of late 80s horror it's OK. The filmmakers didn't hold back on the gore, and some the scenes involving the doll are genuinely spooky.
Fun Fact: Don't be fooled by the American-sounding names in the credits. This was an Italian production filmed in Massachusetts.
The Premise: A solicitor settles an old widow's estate in this British TV movie.
Overall: I've heard of "slow boils" but this is ridiculous. There are some spooky moments, but my patience wore very thin during the second half.
...oh, and if this movie sounds familiar it might be because it was remade in 2012 with Daniel Radcliffe.
Fun Fact: Speaking of Daniel Radcliffe, the star of the original The Woman in Black, Adrian Rawlins, wound up playing Harry Potter's dad in that franchise.
Jamie Lee Curtis! She appeared in this between Prom Night and Halloween II.
The Premise: A killer stalks college students aboard a train.
Overall: Higher-budget horror. Definitely not as memorable as other slasher entries from around the same time, but it was professionally made and well thought out.
Fun Fact: Vanity is in this for a while. It may surprise you to know that she, like many of the cast and crew of this film, was Canadian.
The Premise: A recovering alcoholic squares off against a local drug dealer.
Overall: This movie is a sad thing when you think about where (the great) Hal Ashby was just a few years earlier. Jeff Bridges does his best with the material, and for what it's worth none other than Oliver Stone co-wrote the script, but certain scenes and aspects of the plot are just plain dumb. Yeah, it was a sad way to close out Ashby's career.
Fun Fact #1: Many of the scenes in this film were improvised. The scriptwriter charged with revising the script didn't complete this task until well into filming.
Fun Fact #2: This film has a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Where Are They Now?: Jeff Bridges is due to appear in Tron: Ares this year.
Rosana Arquette is still appearing in movies, but you probably haven't seen her more recent ones.
Andy Garcia's career is still going strong. He had smaller parts in both Pain Hustlers and Expend4bles.
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