Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

There's a bunch of great Stephen King based stuff that came out in the 80s that falls right in line with this...

Silver Bullet
Graveyard Shift
Cat's Eye
Maximum Overdrive
Creep Show
are all must-haves as far as slightly lesser-known stuff (as in lesser-known than Cujo, Salem's Lot, etc)

I'll deviate from 80s movies strictly into just movies along these lines and mention a few
Eight Legged Freaks (I though it was a fun, brainless romp)
Mars Attacks!
Pumpkinhead
Ginger Snaps
Bad Moon
The Howling
The Blob
Prince of Darkness (even though you mentioned Carpenter already)
and again even though you've mentioned Carpenter, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention
THEY LIVE

you left out "Creature" itself, which is PD and can be picked up in most cheap comps anywhere. Romero's first zombie movie was in 1968.
how about "Return of the Living Dead"? i wouldn't really call zombies creatures though, but that's me. there are also the Howling movies and "Ghoulies". i think a monster or two is in the House movies as well.

David

Cat's Eye is like three mini films in one...
it's not REALLY a creature feature though...

First story is called Quitter's Inc. about a place that will 'help' you quit smoking NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES. Second is called The Ledge, about a man who gets caught cheating with another guy's wife, so he forces him to attempt to walk around the 6 inch wide ledge of his 30 story high building.
Third is the 'creature feature' portion. A small troll is attempting to suck the life out of a little girl.

It's entertaining, though not necessarily up the alley of this list. (I got it as part of a 4-pack with Dreamcatcher, Creepshow and Dolores Claiborn)

There's also
Willard
Food of the Gods
Prophecy

dam, I really should sat and thought about this and just come up with one big list before responding so many times...

In your initial list I noticed you have a few misplaced titles

Alien came out in 1979 and Alien 3 came out in 1992.

Predator 2 came out in 1991

As for creature flicks of the 80s I would suggest

Waxworks I and Waxworks II both feature creatures Waxworks II even has a cameo by Godzilla.

Then there's the 80s fantasy films like Deathstalker series which features creatures in it.

I haven't seen it but I heard The Deadly Spawn is good.

What a great thread... I love 80s horror. To me, horror stopped moving forward after the 80s... there have been some gems here and there like Candyman, the Mist, etc. but for the most part, horror as a genre hasn't had the same soul since then. I think the slasher craze kinda killed off good, serious, original horror. By the way, you should love FROM BEYOND. That's a favorite of mine.

ANYWAY. That's a great list you got there. You and others already mentioned most of the films that come to my mind when I think of that era, but here's some stuff I'd recommend based on your list... I'm gonna deviate from the 80s rule a bit though. So here's some stuff that any 80s creature fan should enjoy:

-Nightbreed
-Bad Taste
-Possession (1981)- out of print, obscure as hell, and hard to find BUT OH SO WORTH IT! A truly amazing masterpiece of avant garde horror. You can get the VHS on Amazon marketplace for a decent price.
-Basket Case Trilogy
-Night of the Creeps
-Brain Damage
-Street Trash
-They Live
-Meet the Feebles
-Humanoids from the Deep
-Invaders from Mars
-Ghostbusters 1 & 2
-Creepshow 2 (saw you had the first but not the 2nd, which has the Raft, a great creature segment about a blob in a lake)
-Troll and Troll 2 are so bad, they are brilliant (especially the notorious Troll 2)... really fun movies to watch!

Here's some older, pre-80s stuff:

-The original Fly trilogy
-Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy
-Eraserhead
-The Brood (1979)- I know you already mentioned Cronenberg and its not an 80s movie, but still...
-The Tingler
-Equinox
-It! The Terror from Beyond Space
-Anything Harryhausen ever touched
-Matango
-The Thing From Another World! (the original Thing)

And here's some post 1980s movies you'd probably dig:

-Castle Freak (1995)
-Dagon (2001)
-Little Otik (2000)
-Pan's Labyrinth
-Mulberry St.
-The Mist (2007)
-Teeth (2008)
-Cloverfield
-The Host
-Tremors
-Hellboy 1 & 2
-Great Yokai War
-Gremlins 2 (saw you had the original in your list)
-In the Mouth of Madness (I know you mentioned Carpenter, but this is a good one of his from the 90s)
-Splinter (2008)

Deep Star Six. Features a rather nasty crustacean.

Mouth...kindred spirits my friend....thats all I can say(are you by any chance a Lovecraft fan)...very inclusive and great list there. Ya know one of the great thing about the 80's is that you have two succesful genres within horror each doing well. I can't recall another decade like that within horror...horror seems to have a theme for every decade...new decade...new type of horror film. The 80's had both the slasher film and the creature flick both going strong with some remenants of the 70's psychological horror popping up from time to time. You're right though....the 80's was the peak for horror...When its all said an done I love the original Universal Classics and Hammer films for their atmosphere and more importantly they amazing star qualaty they had (Bela Lugosi!!!!) but its the 80's films that are to me what the original horror films were to a whole generation of film-makers ranging from Speilberg ...to Bradbury. I like a good marriage of the two which is why although flawed...I really dig Coppola's Dracula and anticipate the new Wolfman movie a great deal.. Thanks for the help everyone...

Since we are being totally inclusive gotta add
Feast...probably the most recent film of that ilk I've seen thats been any good
KG

you guys covered it all damn!

How about "The Being" and "Without Warning"? Are those 80's flicks?
I think Martin Landau was in both. Also Larry Storch was in "Without
Warning" and Ruth Buzzi was in "The Being". If these were mentioned
already........sorry about that.

I've heard alot of good things about Tetsuo....when Japanese horror/ sci-fi is done right its awesome but lately everything seems the same over there...I'm not that big of a fan Kitamura or Miike...I prefer the Vengance trilogy compared to Verses or anything Miike has done except Zebraman and Ichi. But I'm always looking for that next "high" of finding something new that just blows my mind...I really hope Tetsuo and Eraserhead do just that.