Malibu Express (1985)

Directed by Andy Sidaris

Starring Sybil Danning, Darby Hinton, Lynda Wiesmeier and Busty O'Shea

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Blood Tracks (1985)

Directed by Mats Helge

Starring Jeff Harding and Michael Fitzpatrick

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My Letterboxd Review:

A Swedish Hills Have Eyes in the snow. Lots of camp appeal here, with the main characters being a hair metal band and their groupies shooting a music video out on a mountain. These rockers can't catch a break because not only does their music sound like Lizzy Borden, but they get hit by an avalanche and attacked by a murderous deformed family living in an abandoned factory. Sounds like Sweden in the 80's. This is surprisingly gory and nasty at times, with director Mats Helge, a Swedish exploitation legend, delivering a fun, bloody little slasher that's never boring. I had a good time with it.

The Nail Gun Massacre (1985)

Interview with director Terry Lofton



Clip: "Barbeque Massacre"



Directed by Bill Leslie and Terry Lofton

Starring Rocky Patterson, Ron Queen and Michelle Meyer

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The Annihilators (1985)

Clip: Thugs vs Citizens



Directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr.

Starring Christopher Stone, Gerrit Graham and Paul Koslo

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Fraternity Vacation (1985)

Soundtrack: Brad Fiedel - Beginner's Luck



Directed by James Frawley

Starring Stephen Geoffreys, Sheree J. Wilson, Tim Robbins, Barbara Crampton and John Vernon

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Pray for Death (1985)

TV Spot


Directed by Gordon Hessler

Starring Shô Kosugi and James Booth

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Ninja Turf (1985) aka L.A. Streetfighters

Watch the entire movie here:



Directed by Woo-sang Park

Starring Jun Chong and Phillip Rhee

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Tweet

Screen Test (1985)

Directed by Sam Auster

Starring Michael Allan Bloom and Robert Bundy

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Howling II: ... Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985)

Directed by Philippe Mora

Starring Sybil Danning and Christopher Lee

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Naked Vengeance (1985)

Directed by Cirio H. Santiago.

Starring Deborah Tranelli and Kaz Garas.

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The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Directed by Dan O'Bannon.

Starring Clu Gulager and James Karen.

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Self-explanatory. If you're reading this site, you've already seen this movie a hundred times.

This is a staple of the 80's video rental days and this spent a lot of time in my VCR as a kid. Plus, it's a hell of a trailer.

The Stuff (1985)

Directed by Larry Cohen.

Starring Michael Moriarty and Garrett Morris.

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A product of its time, the 80's, when mass advertising and the tide of junk food began to take over. This is a truly fun and subversive dig at the plastic Reagan 80's by Larry Cohen, who was also responsible for a similarly themed It's Alive in 1974 (although the Stuff turns out to be an all-natural substance from the core of the earth!!).

One of the first "consumer culture gone wrong" horror films (besides the original Dawn of the Dead), The Stuff pays homage to classic films like The Blob and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers while still packing in all sorts of 80's strangeness that makes this a nice piece of memorabilia.

Among my group of friends when I was a young kid, this movie was a video store favourite because it was harmless enough that the parents didn't really care and gross enough to get us our kicks.

80's Metal Movie Tie-Ins

Dated?

Uh, a little. But horror movies and bad hair metal had a thing going on in the 80's and here's a few samples of some of those glorious train wrecks.

First up, Dokken does the main theme song for 1987's Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. This brings me back to my youth when I took stuff like this quite seriously. I wonder what's more scary to main star Patricia Arquette - Freddy Krueger and his minion of creepy girls skipping rope or Don Dokken's poodle haircut?





Somehow, this one is worse. Alice Cooper continues his embarrasing 80's slide by penning this keyboard driven drivel for 1986's Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

Yet the video itself is entertaining as hell. The theatre setting is great and there are some truly bad special effects, such as Jason ripping through the screen and Alice inexplicably trying to scare the patrons by breaking a glass bottle over his forehead. Oooohh scary!





I have to include this one even though it's not really a music video. It's one of the climactic scenes of 1986's Trick or Treat, one of the best heavy metal themed films from that era.

That's actor Tony Fields as rock demon Sammi Curr but the music is really by Fastway, a second-tier act that included a former member of Motorhead and a guy from U.F.O.

This film also had Ozzy Osbourne in a great cameo as a preacher who railed against heavy metal lyrics and musicians, lampooning the PMRC and Tipper Gore who were in the midst of their metal witch hunts at the time.

The best part of this is when the guitar goes flying through the air and someone randomly yells "Rock and Roll!!".

If you can't stand the Fastway stuff, fast foward because there is some hilarious shenanigans towards the end and a ripping guitar solo straight from hell that could have been the inspiration for Will Ferrel's classic Satan and Garth Brooks sketch from SNL.




And while we're going there, I might as well bring this one out. A scene from 1988's Black Roses.

The context of this scene is that a metal band called Black Roses is playing a small town and the local parents and authorities are concerned about the effects on their kids. They sit in on the first song to make sure that nothing is going on and the band do their best to fool everyone with a vanilla sounding soft rock song. Soon the parents leave and the real metal begins!





Now, the best for last. This is a clip from 1985's Hard Rock Zombies. It's not a metal song, but there's a bunch of long hair bangers doing choreographed dance moves in the film's big montage scene and even some miming. Completely retarded and great.



Had enough yet? This is another clip from Hard Rock Zombies. This is quite possibly the most ridiculous scene ever put on 35 mm film. The band have been killed earlier in the day and then rose from the dead, making sure they still turn up to do their soundcheck for that night's show! This is some kind of love song for the main girl Cassie in the movie. Oh unrequited love!

The Dungeonmaster (1985) Full Movie!!

Directed by Charles Band and various others.

Starring Jeffrey Byron and Richard Moll.

IMDB

I only got the chance to see this film a few years ago on a specialty cable channel here in Canada, and I've been trying to find it ever since.

This is not on DVD (and may never be) but someone posted the entire film on You Tube and here it is in all its 80's "dawn of computers" glory. This is filled with too many laughs to recount here but it is a memorable experience with roles for people like Richard "Night Court" Moll and an appearance by 80's B-Grade metal band W.A.S.P.

A lot of you probably don't have the time to watch a full film on someone's blog but if you want to waste an hour, have fun with this one.

The Dungeonmaster (1985) Part 1



The Dungeonmaster (1985) Part 2



The Dungeonmaster (1985) Part 3



The Dungeonmaster (1985) Part 4



The Dungeonmaster (1985) Part 5



The Dungeonmaster (1985) Part 6



The Dungeonmaster (1985) Part 7

Night Train to Terror (1985)

This is not the actual trailer for the film but the first few minutes or so. More entertaining than the trailer in my opinion.




Directed by John Carr and others (various segments).

Starring Lu Sifer (!!!), Ferdy Mayne, Cameron Mitchell and Richard Moll (Nightcourt).

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Phenomena (1985) aka Creepers

Clip: "Flash Of The Blade"



Soundtrack: Bill Wyman (from the Rolling Stones) and Terry Taylor



Soundtrack: Goblin - Phenomena



Directed by Dario Argento.

Starring Jennifer Connelly, Daria Nicolodi, Donald Pleasance, Fiore Argento and Michele Soavi

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Fright Night (1985)

Directed by Tom Holland.

Starring Chris Sarandon and William Ragsdale.

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Massacre In Dinosaur Valley (1985)

Directed by Michele Massimo Tarantini.

IMDB

Hard Rock Zombies (1985)

"Cassie"



"Na Na Na Na Na"



"Mellow Out"



Directed by Krishna Shah

Starring E.J. Curse

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