Amanda's Horror Years- 1983

So, this time around, we are in 1983 for more great films. This was a great year for the horror genre with some classic movies being released.

I will start with my favourites and go on from there. Christine is the first one that I will talk about. It is based on the book by Stephen King and is about a car who takes over it's owner. It is one of my favourite King adaptations. It is directed by John Carpenter and it is a classic in my opinion. The story is great and the actors are good in their roles too. Another King story made into a movie is Cujo. This is also based on a novel by King. Cujo is a large St.Bernard dog who terrorises a woman and her son who get stuck in a car when Cujo gets rabies and turns vicious. I love this movie too and I find that it is often overlooked when Stephen King adaptations are discussed. Last on my Stephen King list is The Dead Zone which is directed by David Cronenberg. I liked this too despite the sad ending. Sleepaway Camp is next and I liked this movie. It was a great slasher with a good twist ending. There are a few sequels, but they don't match up to the original.

David Cronenberg directed another great film in 1983 called Videodrome starring James Woods and Debbie Harry. I loved this movie too. It is so strange and weird but it is a classic. Another entertaining movie is The House on Sorority Row which is a slasher movie but great fun. Some more movies released this year are Mausoleum, A Blade in the Dark, Microwave Massacre,Curtains, Frightmare, American Nightmare and House of the Long Shadows with three horror greats- Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. The Keep was released this year and this was an interesting film. It has a good cast with Gabriel Byrne, Ian McKellan, Jurgen Prochnow and Scott Glenn. It is directed by Michael Mann so it is an atmospheric movie. There are some good scenes here and the keep is a creepy building. Twilight Zone:The Movie was a fun remake of sorts of the original series. There was a very good cast. I like anthologies so I did enjoy it. Another anthology movie that I liked was Nightmares. There are four stories in this and one of them stars Emilio Estevez.

Another movie from this year was Sweet Sixteen but there wasn't much sweet about this. It wasn't great at all. Sledgehammer is another dire movie. It was really bad. So, anyway, on to the sequels of this year. One of my all time favourite films was released and it is Psycho 2. I love this film almost as much as the original and it is exceptional. I love it and I have watched it so many times that I know it inside out. This is one of the few examples where the sequel is almost as good as the original. Jaws 3-D was also out but it wasn't great. Amityville was also 3-D which was big at the time. The third movie in the franchise was not too bad.

So, that is my selection of movies from 1983. I am sure that I have left some out so if you have any favourites, let me know!