The
’80s were a strange time—coupled with the nascent popularity of horror,
horror comedy and special effects, ghost stories not only became
stranger, but very popular. And, now, iconic even. Here is a list of
eight of the most memorable movie ghosts from the ’80s, starting with
the one ranks highest in our reoccurring nightmares…1. Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund), A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund) whiles his nights away murdering teenagers in their dreams. In his lifetime, Freddy was the ultimate stuff of nightmares as a child serial killer. After he was acquitted on a technicality, he was murdered by the parents of his town, only to return in the dreams of the town teenagers. The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise gave the horror genre some of its most iconic imagery, from Freddy’s clawed hand coming up from inside your own bathtub, to a bed that consumes its victims and then spurts out blood like a geyser.
2. Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice was a landmark in many regards; not only did it cement the aesthetic that would define Tim Burton’s career, but it also gave us one of the most iconic film characters of the 1980s with Michael Keaton’s eponymous Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice, despite being quite powerful, can only enter the land of the living if someone says his name three times. This comes to a head when he nearly forces Lydia (Winona Ryder), to marry him.
3. The Beast, Poltergeist
The Freeling family have something of a ghost infestation. Not just one ghost, but several, and they tend to break glasses and possess children. It is revealed by some “parapsychiatrists” that there is a big bad ghosts called “the Beast” who is not only controlling the other spirits in the house, but possesses the Freelings’ youngest daughter, Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke). As it happens, the little girl’s closet is the gateway to the other dimension where the ghosts should be heading. Truly, the stuff of children’s nightmares.
4. The Ghosts of the Overlook Hotel, The Shining
In Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining it’s clear that something is up with that hotel, but we never really learn what—other than the fact that people who spend the winter alone up there tend to go crazy and murder everyone in sight. We learn from the hotel chef that the hotel has a “shine,” meaning some supernatural presence. Jack Torrance’s (Jack Nicholson) son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), can sense it. The most memorable ghostly image is that of the two twin girls, daughters of the last winter custodian of the hotel who were killed by their father.
5. Stay Puft, Ghostbusters
Stay Puft is not a spirit, but a mascot for a product that becomes something of an avatar for the god, Gozer (Slavitza Jovan). Knowing Gozer will take the form of something, Stanz (Dan Aykroyd) tries to imagine something “harmless,” and it backfires in the form of a hundred-foot mascot for a marshmallow company. He is only in the movie briefly, but the image of Stay Puft has become synonymous with the fond memories many have of Ghostbusters.
6. Slimer (Ivan Reitman), Ghostbusters
Slimer doesn’t have much in the way of supernatural abilities aside from, well, sliming, and being oddly hungry for an ethereal being. In the first movie, he’s the resident ghost in part of a hotel, more of a food-eating nuisance than a menace, when he first gets captured by the Ghostbusters. By the time of Ghostbusters II, Slimer appears to be something of a pet to the Ghostbusters, and is portrayed as more sympathetic.
7. Shigero, Otami and Masanori (Tsuiyuki Sasaki, Mako Hattori and Toshiya Maruyama), The House Where Evil Dwells
When a samurai in the in the 1840s is finds his wife in bed with another man, he kills them and then himself. One hundred and forty years later, an American family (played by Edward Albert and Susan George) moves into the house to eventually discover that the murder-suicide tragedy still haunts the house. The ghosts intend to reenact this gruesome murder-suicide once more, and go to some truly odd lengths to obtain this objective (at one form even taking the form of giant spider crabs). In the end, these ghosts actually achieve their objective, freeing themselves and trapping the new spirits in the house.
8. Big Ben (Richard Moll), House
House clearly takes some inspiration from The Shining—it’s about troubled writer Cobb (William Katt ), who’s having difficulty with his writing and goes to a new dwelling which appears to be haunted. Cobb is particularly troubled by his experience in Vietnam, particularly his friend Big Ben (Richard Moll) who he had failed to mercy kill in the field. Big Ben has held a grudge ever since and is haunting him. This is a film about, literally, escaping the ghosts of one’s past.
Poll
Which '80s ghost has the best legacy?
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