Welcome to Odd Earth’ s best of series. Today we will look at the best horror movies of 1989. These types of lists are always subjective and this is going to be no different. Since I’m don’t want to assign arbitrary numbers to these I’ll give you what I think are the best 10 horror films of 1989, then I’ll name the best. Let’s get on with it.
Shocker
Starring the pre-directorial Peter Berg as well as the always great Mitch Peleggi in his most over the top role, Shocker is written and directed by the late Wes Craven. After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police. The killer Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi) is finally captured and executed, only to be transformed into a vengeful spirit who possesses the bodies of innocent people and uses them to carry out his bloody deeds.
Opening to horrible reviews the movie was panned by critics and it wasn’t until home video that Shocker built any cred with the audience that it found much later. The movie was rightfully compared to Craven’s other similar creation A Nightmare on Elm Street. Freddy and Pinker can both be anywhere at anytime. Not a big stretch. While the first Nightmare is a far superior film Shocker deserves a look, even if you just want to watch Mitch Peleggi got butt wild for a change. He’s really good at it.
Leviathan
1989 was a year for underwater sci-fi and horror. The Abyss, Deepstar Six, and Leviathan all came out months apart from each other. Leviathan gives us an American deep-sea mining colony lead by Peter Weller’s Steven Beck. They stumble upon a sunken Soviet vessel hiding a horrific secret. That secret is poisonous vodka that turns people into sea monsters. So of course the miners all have a drink of found Vodka as would only make sense.
Stan Winston does an outstanding job with the all practical creature effects and the movie’s underwater shots still hold up. Good visuals and awesome production design for the time. Directed by the always unusual George P.Cosmatos who has brought us greats such as Rambo: First Blood Part II, Tombstone that made everyone someone else’s huckleberry for some reason, and Cobra, a stream of consciousness cop drama that passed into this dimension via a semi-permeable membrane. It’s got Peter Weller in it so just watch.
Pet Sematary
Pet Semetary. Starring Fred Gwynne, Denise Crosby and Dale Midkiff that everyone remembers from the TV series Time Trax. Behind a young family’s home in Maine is a terrible secret that holds the power of life after death. When tragedy strikes, the threat of that power soon becomes undeniable. The secret is an Indian burial ground that resurrects the dead into assholes. Cat’s some back pretty much the same, hypersensitive smelly predators that wish ill upon their masters. But children, and presumably other people, come back as hack actors intent on stabbing you in the ankle.
Miko Hughes is the child actor that plays Gage Creed and as with most child actors he’s horrible. Character actor Brad Greenquist plays Victor Pascow and his performance is great as always. It’s so good in fact when he is on screen with any of the leads they seem much worse. You may remember him from his chilling performance as Dr. Keffler on Stargate-SG1 or the reclusive geeky vampire from Moonlight. He is always a joy to watch and is the center of the best scene in Pet Sematary as he whispers the ground is sour!
Dance of the Damned
This is a gem missed by most. Since I spent way to much time in a video rental store in the late 80’s I saw everything so don’t worry, I got your back. A vampire follows his instincts to a strip joint where he focuses in on one of the performers. He picks her for his meal because she is contemplating suicide, but he wants to share her life before taking it, and during the course of the evening they discuss their lives differences, their fears, and their lifestyles. As the moment of truth approaches, the woman becomes less sure that she wants to die. She has come to care for the vampire despite her growing anxiety and in the end must decide between her life or his. In the end of course she…never mind you should watch it.
Starring Cyril O’Reilly of Porky’s fame and Canadian actress Starr Andreef the two do a surprising good job on this extremely low budget film. There are almost no effects and the bulk of the film is only dialogue between the lead actors. You know, doing some acting. Think The Man from Earth with a vampire instead of an immortal caveman and you get part way there. This predates the Anne Rice movies, but not the books and I see a little of her influence creep in now and again. Definitely worth a look. If you can’t find it anywhere leave a comment and I’ll hunt it down for you. Although this film sometimes shows a release date of 1988, that was the Canadian release. It was released in 1989 in the U.S.
Puppetmaster
Andre Toulon, portrayed by the late William Hickey is a puppet maker that uses an ancient Egyptian potion to bring his toys to life. Toulon then kills himself out of despair when they become demonic possessed murderers. You know, that old chestnut. Toulon then plots against a group of psychics as the puppets get pissed off. From the mind of Charles Band and David Schmoeller this is one of the most successful movies from the great Full Moon Entertainment group and lead to a series of 12 feature length films with the 13th, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, to be announced soon.
Although the movie is a true blue low budget FME piece the puppets are awesome and directly lead to a now very lucrative merchandising operation at Full Moon Direct. The movie is good in a bad way and the insanity of the premise pushes it over the edge into a great watch.
Things
There is no way to position this as a good movie, but it needs to be seen. THINGS brings us an impotent husband, driven by a fanatical desire to father children, forces his wife to undergo a dangerous experiment that leads to the birth of THINGS all over the house. No this isn’t a lost David Cronenberg film, something you will realize seconds after the movie opens. THINGS made the list because after watching it several times I think something is happening but I’m not sure what it is.
This may be due to a single light used on the sets but also the camera work is demented in a way that confuses me. Also the dialogue is ADR’d in some places so badly it must be a mistake and not ADR’d in other places where it should. You can see a more in-depth discussion about this film at Red Letter Media which will be linked below.
Edge of Sanity
When Henry Jekyll’s experiments with cocaine have gotten out of control, he transforms into the hideous Jack Hyde. As Hyde he searches the London streets at night for his prey in whorehouses and opium dens. The police can’t catch him, he has nothing to lose but his mind…Anthony Perkins and Glynis Barber from East Enders.
Elves
A woman discovers that she is being used in an evil Nazi eugenics experiment involving selective breeding and Christmas elves in an attempt to create a race of supermen. She and her friends are trapped in a department store with an evil elf, and only Grizzly Addams’s Dan Haggerty posing as Santa Claus can save them and presumably the world from Nazi fueled Elves. This is a classic so bad its good movie and there is nothing I could add to that intro that could make it more compelling so please watch this.
Dead Calm
After a tragedy, Sam Neill’s John Ingram and his wife Nicole Kidman’s Rae spend some time isolated at sea on a yachting expedition. They soon come across a Billy Zane who has abandoned a sinking ship and they rescue the sole survivor. The couple discovers that the seemingly harmless survivor is actually a vicious murderer, and a tense showdown on the open seas ensues. Unlike Elves or Things this is a so good its good movie. The cast is fantastic and even Nicole Kidman pulls off a sympathetic character in this one. Billy Zane as the heavy was impressive and as usual Sam Neill brings the whole thing together.
This movie was incredibly tense and although several listing place it in the “mystery and suspense” category I recommend it as a horror film with gusto. The use of isolation is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s The Thing and the dread of being trapped below decks on a sinking ship is so well portrayed by Sam Neill that I actually had a nightmare after seeing it.
Communion
Whitley Strieber played by Christopher Walken goes with his family and some friends to his holiday home in the forest. They experience some weird things and he concludes, of course, its aliens. Whitley is presumably abducted and then must struggle with the idea that he may be going crazy, as I was also doing during the dreamer scene where Christopher Wilken talks to himself with A Clockwork Orange eye liner on. He sees a psychiatrist who tries to use hypnotic regression to discover the truth which end with more craziness and an increasingly unhinged Walken.
Whitley Strieber is actually a real author and wrote this book as well as The Wolfen and The Hunger, which are both awesome movies. He claims this is his true account of his alien abduction. It should be no surprise that the successful horror writer had a scary encounter. Weird isn’t it?
True or not we must never miss a chance to see Christopher Walken play a character slowly descending into what may be madness and this is as good as that sounds. Lindsay Crouse plays Strieber’s wife and as always she does a great job. This is a weird movie and it really goes off the rails a few times in a good way. The resolution is weak but the ride is really fun and actually frightening a few times. Walken elevates this to a must watch.
So what is your choice for the best horror movie of 1989? IF you disagree with me post it below and we will try to include in the a future video.