Most Terrifying 80s Sci-Fi Movies

Maybe burying your dead pet in that haunted cemetery wasn't the best idea. Whether it's Pet Sematary or The Fly, America loves horror movies. Add some science fiction into the mix, and it's a recipe for disaster for the characters, but success in the movie business. Terrifying 80s sci-fi movies encompass everything that scares us—whether it's the terror of death or disaster—but they also make us think long and hard after the movie is over about its scientific realities. Could we really have a serum that rejuvenates dead people in the future like Re-Animator? Or would we really want our dead cat Fluffy to come back from the dead like Pet Sematary? Or what if, like in Parasite, we were run by an organization other than a government and they wanted to control the population with a deadly parasite? It's the mystery of terrifying 80s sci-fi movies that drive us to watch them over and over.

Parasite is a 1982 film directed by Charles Band. It's set in the near future (no matter when you watch it) to a time when an atomic disaster has reduced the world to poverty. America is now run by an organization called the Merchants, rather than by a government. The Merchants force Dr. Paul Dean to develop a new life in the form of a parasite to keep control of the population. Dean recognizes the terror in creating such a harmful parasite and flees from the Merchants so he can find a way to destroy it, all the while he is being hunted by a Merchant. During an altercation, the parasite escapes its protective holder and chaos ensues. Demi Moore stars in one of her very first roles as Patricia Welles, alongside Robert Glaudini, Luca Bercovici, and many others.

The Fly is a 1986 film that was directed and co-written by David Cronenberg, who also directed the prophetic Videodrome. It is loosely based on George Langelaan's 1957 short story of the same name. This book was also the basis for the 1958 film. Seth Brundle, a brilliant scientist, beings to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong. When he decides to teleport himself in a fit of rage, he is unaware that a housefly has slipped inside the transmitter pod with him. He begins to deteriorate and look less like a human in appearance. The main stars in The Fly are Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle, Geena Davis, and John Getz.

Altered States is a film adaptation of a novel of the same name by Paddy Cayefsky. The film and the novel are both based on John C. Lilly, a researcher who studied sensory deprivation conducted in isolation tanks while taking drugs like ketamine, LSD, and mescaline. In the film, university professor Edward Jessup teaches abnormal psychology. He begins experimenting with sensory deprivation using a flotation tank. Jessup travels to Mexico to study Mexican tribes who experience shared illusions, and while there, he acquires a tincture which he takes orally before his experiments back in the US. As a result, he experiences physical biological devolution, the stages of which grow increasingly worse. Talent in Altered States includes William Hurt, who plays the part of Edward Jessup, Blair Brown, and Drew Barrymore.

A Nightmare on Elm Street comes from mastermind Wes Craven, and is one of the scariest 80s horror movies, sci-fi or otherwise. Set in a fictional town in Ohio, several teenagers are stalked and killed in their dreams by maniac Freddy Krueger. This sweater clad murderer doesn't miss a chance to kill any survivors and visits them several times if necessary. The teens try everything to avoid the killer in their dreams, but they don't all make it out alive. This film is the first of the Freddy Krueger franchise. The cast of A Nightmare on Elm Street includes Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, as well as John Saxon, Johnny Depp, and Heather Langenkamp.

The Blob, written and directed by Chuck Russell, is a 1988 film that is a remake of the 1958 classic of the same name. After a meteorite crashes in Arborville, California, a worker discovers a massive slimy substance within the meteorite. While he is looking at it, the slime attaches itself to his hand. Luckily, three high school students happen upon the worker and bring him to the hospital. At the hospital, The Blob begins to devour the worker and then moves on to the students. A few get away, uncover the origin of The Blob, and realize they must destroy it in order to survive. The Blob features Kevin Dillon, Shawnee Smith, and Donovan Leitch, as well as many others.

Another terrifying 80s sci-fi movie by David Cronenberg, Scanners is a 1981 film about people with unusual telepathic and telekinetic powers. "Scanners" are the people who possess these powers and ConSec, a private security firm, is seeking these individuals for their personal benefit. However, when ConSec's scanner tries to read a volunteer's mind, the scanner's head explodes. The volunteer—himself a scanner—is taken into custody and then escapes. Ultimately, ConSec plans to infiltrate and bring down another scanner group led by Darryl Revok. Scanners is manned by a relatively small cast, including Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, and Patrick McGoohan.

The 1985 film Re-Animator is loosely based on an episodic novella by H.P. Lovecraft, whose works inspired a wide array of nightmarish monsters in science fiction. Herbert West, a native of Switzerland, arrives at a university in New England to further his studies. He rents a room from Dan Cain, another medical student, and converts the basement of the home into his personal laboratory. There, he reanimates Cain's dead cat. When he reveals his method to Cain, he is surprised and excited by West's genius. Cain tries to bring positive attention to West's work by telling the dean of the school, and the two are banned from school under the verdict that the two have gone mad. West and Cain break into the morgue and inject a body with the serum to test if it will work on human tissue. The cast is made up Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, and many others.

From Beyond is another terrifying 80s sci-fi movie based on a book by H.P. Lovecraft. The film centers on a pair of scientists, Dr. Edward Pretorius and his assistant, Dr. Crawford Tillinghast. Pretorius has developed a machine that allows whoever is within a certain range to see beyond normal perceptible reality. Crawford is testing the machine and soon sees strange creatures in the air. He asks Pretorius to shut it off, but the mad scientist refuses, and as a result, winds up decapitated after Crawford flees. Crawford is accused of Pretorius's death and is entered into a psychiatric ward. His doctor feels he is innocent, and to prove it, she releases him from the hospital and accompanies him back to Pretorius's house to investigate the Resonator. Nothing good comes of this action and chaos ensues around the machine. From Beyond has some repeat actors from Re-Animator, including Jeffrey Combs, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, and Barbara Crampton.

Galaxy of Terror is a 1981 film produced by Roger Corman and directed by Bruce D. Clark. It takes place in space and opens on a desolate, storm-ravished planet called Morganthus, where the last survivor of a crashed spaceship is attacked and killed. A very long distance away on another planet, a crew is sent to go investigate Morganthus and the spacecraft. Their explorations of the planet lead to a series of very violent and deadly encounters as they discover the truth about what happened to the crew who visited Morganthus. The cast of Galaxy of Terror includes Erin Moran, Edward Albert, and Ray Waltson.

Pet Sematary is a 1989 adaptation of a Stephen King's novel. The Creed family—a husband, wife, and their two children—move to Maine from Chicago. There they meet an elderly neighbor who tours them around an isolated pet cemetery behind their new home. Mr. Creed meets a man who warns him about the pet cemetery, even though the two don't know one another prior to this meeting. When the family cat is killed by a truck, they bury it in the cemetery. The cat comes back to life, more feral than before. Some time later, the son of the Creed family dies. His body is later exhumed by Mr. Creed to be buried in the pet cemetery, in hopes he will come back to life. When the son comes back to life, he is not the same as before, and terror reaps over the family. This terrifying 80s sci-fi movie is the first in a two-part series, though the second didn't do as well. The cast of Pet Sematary includes Dale Midkiff, Miko Hughes, and Denise Crosby.