700UHF

(Photo by Orion Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection. Movie: UHF.)

UHF celebrates its 35th anniversary!

If a movie some distance from the mainstream inspires you to watch and watch again, quote obsessively, recommend to friends and family to occasional bewilderment, while finding community with other like-minded fans, congratulations: You may have just helped create a new cult classic.

And the 1980s may just have been the big boom of the cult movie, as the home market of VHS tapes and cable television let people re-visit and share movies like never before. It’s hard to imagine the movies without Blade Runner, The Thing, and Scarface now, but they were not huge box office successes on release (with Blade Runner and The Thing outright bombs), but the fandom grew them into the pop culture cornerstones they are today. Arguably, they are the greatest cult movie success stories ever.

Ditto for The Princess Bride and This Is Spinal Tap, both directed by Rob Reiner. Tap popularized the mockumentary format, and Bride has been welcomed into family homes for generations. Again, these movies are more of those muted box office stories that became publicly entrenched through generations of critics and audiences championing them.

And John Carpenter was the directing king of cults in the ’80s. Along with The Thing, he helmed They Live, Big Trouble in Little China, and Escape From New York. Terry Gilliam was no slouch either with Brazil and Time Bandits, along with David Lynch (Blue Velvet) and and David Cronenberg (Videodrome).

In selecting the 50 best cult movies of the 1980s, we tried to cover every corner and fanbase. There’s comedies whose off-kilter sense of humor have people feeling like that finally something out there understands them. We’re talking the likes of nowhere epic Repo Man, the Coen brothers’ comedy Raising Arizona, supremely cynical Heathers, relentlessly quotable Withnail and I, deeply deadpan Stranger Than Paradise, spatulatastic UHF, and big-bootay’d Buckaroo Banzai.

’80s horror is still celebrated and sought after today, and the fringes are what make them special, populated with the likes of Re-Animator (still the best movie with H.P. Lovecraft’s name hovering over it), musical Little Shop of Horrors, transgressive slasher Sleepaway Camp, Evil Dead 2 (throw in the first Evil Dead while you’re at it), and two vampiric servings of Near Dark and The Lost Boys.

Filed under fantasy: Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. While on the action shelf, you can pull To Live and Die in L.A. (with director William Friedkin topping his French Connection car chase), hard-boiled musical Streets of Fire, the Bruce Lee-inspired The Last Dragon, and The Legend of Billie Jean, which is Joan of Arc by way of neon spandex.

And some cult movies really started gaining traction in the online age, like Hard Ticket to Hawaii, whose widely-shared video clips had people seeking out context for the insanity, and Miami Connection, an earnestly incompetent martial arts movie lost until 2012. These days, you can watch it in 4K with surround dragon sound.

We’re sorting the best of ’80s cult movies by Tomatometer, with Certified Fresh films first, including cyberpunk flashpoint anime Akira, and superhero camp Flash Gordon.

#1

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Adjusted Score: 102829%

Critics Consensus: Brazil, Terry Gilliam’s visionary Orwellian fantasy, is an audacious dark comedy, filled with strange, imaginative visuals.

Synopsis: Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as… [More]

#2

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Adjusted Score: 102357%

Critics Consensus: Repo Man is many things: an alien-invasion film, a punk-rock musical, a send-up of consumerism. One thing it isn’t is boring.

Synopsis: After being fired from his job, Los Angeles slacker and punk rocker Otto (Emilio Estevez) lands a gig working for… [More]

#3

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Adjusted Score: 103761%

Critics Consensus: A delightfully postmodern fairy tale, The Princess Bride is a deft, intelligent mix of swashbuckling, romance, and comedy that takes an age-old damsel-in-distress story and makes it fresh.

Synopsis: A fairy tale adventure about a beautiful young woman and her one true love. He must find her after a… [More]

#4

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Adjusted Score: 102005%

Critics Consensus: Smartly directed, brilliantly acted, and packed with endlessly quotable moments, This Is Spinal Tap is an all-time comedy classic.

Synopsis: “This Is Spinal Tap” shines a light on the self-contained universe of a metal band struggling to get back on… [More]

#5

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Adjusted Score: 103689%

Critics Consensus: If audiences walk away from this subversive, surreal shocker not fully understanding the story, they might also walk away with a deeper perception of the potential of film storytelling.

Synopsis: College student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns home after his father has a stroke. When he discovers a severed ear… [More]

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#6

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Adjusted Score: 99790%

Critics Consensus: Dark, cynical, and subversive, Heathers gently applies a chainsaw to the conventions of the high school movie — changing the game for teen comedies to follow.

Synopsis: Veronica (Winona Ryder) is part of the most popular clique at her high school, but she disapproves of the other… [More]

#7

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Adjusted Score: 99889%

Critics Consensus: Perfectly mixing humor and horror, the only thing more effective than Re-Animator‘s gory scares are its dry, deadpan jokes.

Synopsis: A medical student (Jeffrey Combs) brings his headless professor back from the dead with a special serum…. [More]

#8

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Adjusted Score: 96780%

Critics Consensus: A terrifically original, eccentric screwball comedy, Raising Arizona may not be the Coens’ most disciplined movie, but it’s one of their most purely entertaining.

Synopsis: An ex-con and an ex-cop meet, marry and long for a child of their own. When it is discovered that… [More]

#9

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Adjusted Score: 95462%

Critics Consensus: Akira is strikingly bloody and violent, but its phenomenal animation and sheer kinetic energy helped set the standard for modern anime.

Synopsis: In 1988 the Japanese government drops an atomic bomb on Tokyo after ESP experiments on children go awry. In 2019,… [More]

#10

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Adjusted Score: 95917%

Critics Consensus: Time Bandits is a remarkable time-travel fantasy from Terry Gilliam, who utilizes fantastic set design and homemade special effects to create a vivid, original universe.

Synopsis: Young history buff Kevin (Craig Warnock) can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former… [More]

#11

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Adjusted Score: 96228%

Critics Consensus: Remixing Roger Corman’s B-movie by way of the Off-Broadway musical, Little Shop of Horrors offers camp, horror and catchy tunes in equal measure — plus some inspired cameos by the likes of Steve Martin and Bill Murray.

Synopsis: Meek flower shop assistant Seymour (Rick Moranis) pines for co-worker Audrey (Ellen Greene). During a total eclipse, he discovers an… [More]

#12

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Adjusted Score: 102854%

Critics Consensus: Misunderstood when it first hit theaters, the influence of Ridley Scott’s mysterious, neo-noir Blade Runner has deepened with time. A visually remarkable, achingly human sci-fi masterpiece.

Synopsis: Deckard (Harrison Ford) is forced by the police Boss (M. Emmet Walsh) to continue his old job as Replicant Hunter…. [More]

#13

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Adjusted Score: 96074%

Critics Consensus: Visceral, energetic, and often very sad, Sid and Nancy is also a surprisingly touching love story, and Gary Oldman is outstanding as the late punk rock icon Sid Vicious.

Synopsis: Following their breakout success in England, flagship punk rock band the Sex Pistols venture out on their first U.S. tour…. [More]

#14

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Adjusted Score: 95761%

Critics Consensus: Less a continuation than an outright reimagining, Sam Raimi transforms his horror tale into a comedy of terrors — and arguably even improves on the original formula.

Synopsis: The second of three films in the Evil Dead series is part horror, part comedy, with Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell)… [More]

#15

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Adjusted Score: 92405%

Critics Consensus: With coke fiends, car chases, and Wang Chung galore, To Live and Die in L.A. is perhaps the ultimate ’80s action/thriller.

Synopsis: When his longtime partner on the force is killed, reckless U.S. Secret Service agent Richard Chance (William L. Petersen) vows… [More]

#16

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Adjusted Score: 94886%

Critics Consensus: Featuring an atmospherically grimy futuristic metropolis, Escape from New York is a strange, entertaining jumble of thrilling action and oddball weirdness.

Synopsis: In 1997, a major war between the United States and the Soviet Union is concluding, and the entire island of… [More]

#17

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Adjusted Score: 92483%

Critics Consensus: A politically subversive blend of horror and sci fi, They Live is an underrated genre film from John Carpenter.

Synopsis: Nada (Roddy Piper), a wanderer without meaning in his life, discovers a pair of sunglasses capable of showing the world… [More]

#18

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Adjusted Score: 92411%

Critics Consensus: Grimmer and more terrifying than the 1950s take, John Carpenter’s The Thing is a tense sci-fi thriller rife with compelling tension and some remarkable make-up effects.

Synopsis: In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at… [More]

#19

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Adjusted Score: 89926%

Critics Consensus: Near Dark is at once a creepy vampire film, a thrilling western, and a poignant family tale, with humor and scares in abundance.

Synopsis: Cowboy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) meets gorgeous Mae (Jenny Wright) at a bar, and the two have an immediate attraction…. [More]

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#20

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Adjusted Score: 88884%

Critics Consensus: Visually audacious, disorienting, and just plain weird, Videodrome’s musings on technology, entertainment, and politics still feel fresh today.

Synopsis: As the president of a trashy TV channel, Max Renn (James Woods) is desperate for new programming to attract viewers…. [More]

#21

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Adjusted Score: 88233%

Critics Consensus: Campy charm and a knowing sense of humor help to overcome a silly plot involving a spacefaring ex-football player, his adoring bevy of groupies, and a supervillain named Ming the Merciless.

Synopsis: Although NASA scientists are claiming the unexpected eclipse and strange “hot hail” are nothing to worry about, Dr. Hans Zarkov… [More]

#22

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Adjusted Score: 86941%

Critics Consensus: Director Brian De Palma and star Al Pacino take it to the limit in this stylized, ultra-violent and eminently quotable gangster epic that walks a thin white line between moral drama and celebratory excess.

Synopsis: After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) stakes a claim… [More]

#23

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Adjusted Score: 82672%

Critics Consensus: The Dark Crystal‘s narrative never quite lives up to the movie’s visual splendor, but it remains an admirably inventive and uniquely intense entry in the Jim Henson canon.

Synopsis: Jen (Stephen Garlick), raised by the noble race called the Mystics, has been told that he is the last survivor… [More]

#24

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Adjusted Score: 84030%

Critics Consensus: Flawed but eminently watchable, Joel Schumacher’s teen vampire thriller blends horror, humor, and plenty of visual style with standout performances from a cast full of young 1980s stars.

Synopsis: Teenage brothers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) move with their mother (Dianne Wiest) to a small town in… [More]

#25

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Adjusted Score: 82001%

Critics Consensus: While it’s arguably more interesting on a visual level, Labyrinth provides further proof of director Jim Henson’s boundless imagination.

Synopsis: Frustrated with babysitting on yet another weekend night, Sarah (Jennifer Connelly), a teenager with an active imagination, summons the Goblins… [More]

#26

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Adjusted Score: 80614%

Critics Consensus: Brimming with energy and packed with humor, Big Trouble in Little China distills kung fu B-movies as affectionately as it subverts them.

Synopsis: Kurt Russell plays hard-boiled truck driver Jack Burton, who gets caught in a bizarre conflict within, and underneath, San Francisco’s… [More]

#27

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Adjusted Score: 80051%

Critics Consensus: Though perhaps not as strong dramatically as it is technologically, TRON is an original and visually stunning piece of science fiction that represents a landmark work in the history of computer animation.

Synopsis: When talented computer engineer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) finds out that Ed Dillinger (David Warner), an executive at his company,… [More]

#28

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Adjusted Score: 97884%

Critics Consensus: A striking debut for director Jim Jarmusch, Stranger than Paradise is an effortlessly cool exploration of finding meaning in the mundane.

Synopsis: New York City layabout Willie (John Lurie) and his dopey sidekick, Eddie (Richard Edson), get by on TV dinners and… [More]

#29

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Adjusted Score: 94859%

Critics Consensus: Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann prove irresistibly hilarious as two misanthropic slackers in Withnail and I, a biting examination of artists living on the fringes of prosperity and good taste.

Synopsis: Two out-of-work actors — the anxious, luckless Marwood (Paul McGann) and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail (Richard E. Grant) –… [More]

#30

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Adjusted Score: 91379%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: South Bronx graffiti artist Shy Zoro is commissioned to paint a backdrop for a rap/break-dance concert…. [More]

#31

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Adjusted Score: 83411%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo tour the kinky realm of little King Fausto (Herve Villechaize) and his queen (Susan… [More]

#32

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Adjusted Score: 83135%

Critics Consensus: Sleepaway Camp is a standard teen slasher elevated by occasional moments of John Waters-esque weirdness and a twisted ending.

Synopsis: Bunks and the showers are a mad stabber’s beat at a summer camp strictly for teens…. [More]

#33

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Adjusted Score: 80770%

Critics Consensus: Its kitschy leanings may wear thin on some, but True Stories is a disarmingly big-hearted, dreamy vision of Americana.

Synopsis: Talking Heads singer David Byrne plays host to this bizarre patchwork of tabloid-inspired tales, set in the fictional town of… [More]

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#34

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Adjusted Score: 78756%

Critics Consensus: Better Off Dead is an anarchic mix of black humor and surreal comedy, anchored by John Cusack’s winsome, charming performance.

Synopsis: Lane Meyer (John Cusack) is a teen with a peculiar family and a bizarre fixation with his girlfriend, Beth (Amanda… [More]

#35

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Adjusted Score: 74028%

Critics Consensus: A robust ensemble of game actors elevate Clue above its schematic source material, but this farce’s reliance on novelty over organic wit makes its entertainment value a roll of the dice.

Synopsis: Based on the popular board game, this comedy begins at a dinner party hosted by Mr. Boddy, where he admits… [More]

#36

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Adjusted Score: 72163%

Critics Consensus: A silly and ribald superhero spoof, Toxic Avenger uninhibited humor hits more than it misses.

Synopsis: A 98-pound nerd (Mark Torgl) from New Jersey lands in a vat of toxic waste and becomes a benevolent monster… [More]

#37

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Adjusted Score: 72190%

Critics Consensus: Peter Jackson’s early low-budget shocker boasts a disgusting premise – aliens harvesting humans for fast food – that gives the budding auteur plenty of room for gross-out visuals and absurd cleverness.

Synopsis: Gun-toting assassins try to wipe out a group of aliens that wants to use humans in New Zealand for food…. [More]

#38

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Adjusted Score: 72091%

Critics Consensus: Streets of Fire may sometimes buckle under the strain of its ambitious fusion of disparate genres, but Walter Hill’s bravura style gives this motorcycle musical fuel to burn.

Synopsis: Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe), along with his gang of merciless biker friends, kidnaps rock singer Ellen Aim (Diane Lane). Ellen’s… [More]

#39

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Adjusted Score: 69533%

Critics Consensus: Sci-fi parodies like these usually struggle to work, but Buckaroo Banzai succeeds through total devotion to its own lunacy.

Synopsis: Buckaroo Banzai is caught with his trusted allies, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, in a battle to the death between evil… [More]

#40

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Adjusted Score: 68833%

Critics Consensus: It’s sexist, juvenile, and dated, but Heavy Metal makes up for its flaws with eye-popping animation and a classic, smartly used soundtrack.

Synopsis: Adventures from deep space to futuristic New York, and beyond. Each world and story is dominated by the presence of… [More]

#41

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Adjusted Score: 66023%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: Drug dealers get a free tae-kwon-do lesson from a college band called Dragon Sound (Y.K. Kim, Vincent Hirsch, William Ergle)…. [More]

#42

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Adjusted Score: 64438%

Critics Consensus: UHF is bizarre, freewheeling, and spotty, though its anarchic spirit cannot be denied.

Synopsis: After losing yet another job, George (Weird Al Yankovic) wonders if there is any career that can handle his outrageous… [More]

#43

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Adjusted Score: 62438%

Critics Consensus: The Last Dragon is a flamboyant genre mashup brimming with style, romance, and an infectious fondness for kung fu, but audiences may find the tonal whiplash more goofy than endearing.

Synopsis: Leroy Green (Taimak), a young martial artist living in New York City, trains tirelessly to attain the same level of… [More]

#44

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Adjusted Score: 61028%

Critics Consensus: Return to Oz taps into the darker side of L. Frank Baum’s book series with an intermittently dazzling adventure that never quite recaptures the magic of its classic predecessor.

Synopsis: Dorothy discovers she is back in the land of Oz, and finds the yellow brick road is now a pile… [More]

#45

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Adjusted Score: 57816%

Critics Consensus: A fun ’80s adventure with a slightly scary twist, The Monster Squad offers tween-friendly horror with just enough of a kick.

Synopsis: Members (Andre Gower, Robby Kiger) of a monster fan club meet Count Dracula, Wolfman, Frankenstein, the Mummy and Gill Man…. [More]

#46

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Adjusted Score: 57528%

Critics Consensus: A gothic, campy, raunchy comedy elevated by Cassandra Peterson’s iconic persona yet driven off course by one-note jokes, this isn’t the best — or worst — introduction to Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Synopsis: The cult-movie TV hostess (Phil Rubenstein) inherits an old New England house, a poodle and a black-magic cookbook…. [More]

#47

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Adjusted Score: 52259%

Critics Consensus: Mommie Dearest certainly doesn’t lack for conviction, and neither does Faye Dunaway’s legendary performance as a wire-wielding monster; unfortunately, the movie is too campy and undisciplined to transcend guilty pleasure.

Synopsis: In this biographical film, glamorous yet lonely star Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) takes in two orphans, and at first their… [More]

#48

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Adjusted Score: 47957%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A San Francisco architect (Lenny Von Dohlen) woos the cellist (Virginia Madsen) next door; so does Edgar, his personal home… [More]

#49

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Adjusted Score: 42028%

Critics Consensus: Rebellious in spirit and anarchic in style, this Helen Slater-starring vehicle holds a certain youthful cool but is otherwise a disjointed retelling of an oft-repeated legend.

Synopsis: Restless teenager Billie Jean Davy (Helen Slater) and her brother, Binx (Christian Slater), dream of leaving oppressive Corpus Christi, Texas,… [More]

#50

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Adjusted Score: 20858%

Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.

Synopsis: A man (Ronn Moss) with a bazooka helps air-freighters Donna (Dona Speir) and Taryn (Hope Marie Carlton) against drug smugglers… [More]

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