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The 5 best cult films of the 1980s

For some of us who may have grown up in the 1980s there are a number of good films we remember from our childhoods, ones that allowed our imaginations to run wild with the chance to be like the characters in the movie. These were innocent times, we were kids and our dreams we’re yet focused on Prince Charming, but it’s interesting to look back at some films and see just how gay they were.

35 years ago on June 7, 1985 the Goonies was released. It was brilliant and thankfully hasn’t been remade (though rumors of a sequel persist). A month later Back to the Future hit screens, easily my favorite movie growing up. So it seems like a great time to take a walk down memory lane at some of the best cult teen films of the 1980s.

High-school kids were bad ass

No look at 80s films would be complete without the work of John Hughes, the master of 1980s teen angst. Hughes gave us Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day off (more on that later), Pretty in Pink, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck and Home Alone. A lot of actors got their start on a Hughes film, and some are still stars.

Out of that long list there are two easy picks: Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club. Released in February 1985, The Breakfast Club throw together a strange mix of popular and misfit high-school students who bounded over their shared Saturday detention. Despite being a film that in some ways presented realistic teen angst.

Often forgotten, Fast Times at Ridgemont High in many ways set the stage for 80s teen flicks. Based on a book by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous), we follow early 80s teenagers survive a year of high school. The movie also helped launch many careers with a cast that featured Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Judge Reinhold, and smaller roles for Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Cage and even Forest Whitaker.

It debuted third on its’ opening weekend behind Beverly Hills Cop and Witness, yet is well remembered as one of the best Hughes films, and best of 1985 (tough competition as we’ll see).

Rent or buy The Breakfast Club on: iTunes or amazon.com

Skip school and get away with it

What teenagers didn’t want to have the most epic day off from school after watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off achieve it so easily. The film spawned a short lived sitcom version, but the movie could never be made better. Ferris defies the odds and takes yet another sick day, gathers his friends and hits Chicago in a big way. Some have sad Ferris was all in Cameron’s mind but that just seems silly.

Another John Hughes classic, Ferris Bueller was released almost 29 years ago in early June when I bet most kids were seeing summer in sight and just trying to get through exams. Actually, though I missed this the many times I watched the film, the day off happened on June 5, 1985 with the film released just over one year later. Just as many people are remembering the Goonies for their 30th anniversary, Ferris’ actual day off was 30 years ago (although this is based on the baseball game in the film while other events in the movie such as the parade happen in September… the game must have been on when Hughes wrote the script but the parade coincided with filming).

Rent or buy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on: iTunes or amazon.com

A treasure hunt with your friends

The Goonies had everything: kids going on an adult-free adventure, treasure, pirates, a pirate built waterslide, criminals, and in the end the kids save the day from the evil developers. Plus the theme song and music video was the song “The Goonies R Good Enough” by Cyndi Lauper. Written by Chris Columbus who also penned Gremlins (and directed Home Alone, Adventures in Babysitting and a few Harry Potter movies).

The Goonies were the town outsiders, the misfit kids who now faced their last weekend together before their homes were to be foreclosed and their families would move away from rainy Astoria (where the film was actually shot). Stuck inside due to rain, the boys find a treasure map in the attic and plot their escape from the home and a way to rescue their homes. Along the way to find the pirate treasure the Goonies are joined by other town misfits, face bobby-traps worth of Indiana Jones all while being pursued by a criminal family who’s hideout happened to be at the entrance to the pirate tunnels. In fact as Steven Spielberg was an executive producer and one of the young actors also appeared in the Temple of Doom, seeing the Goonies as a kid version of Indiana Jones is not too farfetched.

Even 30 years on the film has held up well, it’s not dated or too nostalgic, and still a great fun film to watch.

Rent or buy The Goonies on: iTunes or amazon.com

Going back in time

Back the 80s Back to the Future was probably my favorite film and one of the first I saw several times (we didn’t have one of those fancy VCRs until the 90s… I think I even watched it at a friend’s on betamax!). It easily stands alone but wasn’t hurt by the follow up films that finished off the trilogy. To this day Back to the Future has to be one of Michael J. Fox’s best films (sure he also gave us 80s classic Teen Wolf) but this had time travel. Let’s ignore the whole traveling back in time and having your mom fall in love with you, this was about an average teen who some how has made friends with this old odd inventor (that’s a bit of background we could have used) and finds himself transported 30 years back in time.

Rent or buy Back to the Future on: iTunes or amazon.com

I wanted to be a vampire

My interest in vampires must have started with the Lost Boys. Up until then vampires were old creepy monsters, but suddenly they were eternally youthful sexy rockstar-like badasses who lived by their own rules and transformed into devilishly hot vampires. The 80s gave us numerous vampires from simple fanged gentlemen to nearly grotesque monsters baring unrealistic tusks. The Lost Boys changed the vampire genre, yet while these vampires scared me, they also turned me on.

While I’m not one for long-haired guys, the metal/punk rocker look the vampires sported was pure 80s and the two models turned actors, Billy Wirth & Brooke McCarter were hot as hell. The film brought together the two Coreys for the first time, before they would go on to make a string of teen films together (License to Drive, Dream a Little Dream, the Two Coreys tv show and the direct to video Lost Boys 2: The Tribe). I was less happy about the ending, and most of the actors haven’t aged well (or in the case of Corey Haim, survived), but Lost Boys still remains one of my favorite movies of the 80s which I still watch regularly.

Rent or buy The Lost Boys on: iTunes | iTunes UK | Amazon (rent for free by joining AmazonPrime for 30-day free trial)