80s Horror — Criterion Channel Teaser

The 1980s were defined by style and excess, and the era’s horror movies were no exception. Innovations in practical effects made the nightmares more vivid than ever, and thanks to the rise of home video, the call was now coming from inside the house. While established talents such as John Carpenter (PRINCE OF DARKNESS), Tobe Hooper (THE FUNHOUSE), David Cronenberg (SCANNERS), Michael Mann (THE KEEP), and Paul Schrader (CAT PEOPLE) brought terrifying spectacles to the screen, often with the help of Hollywood studios, home video opened up a new market that allowed the independents to take the genre to unexpected and—in the case of the UK’s censorship of infamous “Video Nasties”—controversial new heights. Curated by Clyde Folley, this ghastly tour through the decade of greed features ambitious art-pulp hybrids (WHITE OF THE EYE), a Hitchcock-inspired trucker movie (ROAD GAMES), old-fashioned creature features (Q: THE WINGED SERPENT), a vampiric Nicolas Cage (VAMPIRE'S KISS), and absolutely unclassifiable cult oddities (SOCIETY), bringing together some of the eighties’ most stylish, haunting, and outrageous visions.