The Weirdest 1980s Sci-Fi Movies That Bewildered Audiences

Cinephiles love to debate their favorite cinematic decades and will find plenty of evidence to back up their claims. But when it comes to the weirdest ten-year run in movies, the 1980s are the uncontested champs.

Between the leaps in special effects technology that followed the release of Star Wars and the home video boom that demanded genre films to play on VCRs that everyone now owned, studios rushed a bevy of oddball features into production.

Not all of these flicks may not meet everyone’s definition of high cinema, but no one can deny their oddness. Have a look at the weirdest 1980s sci-fi movies that transfixed and puzzled audiences.

1. Dune (1984)

Although he had just two feature films to his name when he signed up to direct Dune, David Lynch already had a reputation for making weird movies. In most cases, that would make Lynch the perfect filmmaker to helm an adaptation of Dune, the strange but powerful epic from author Frank Herbert.

However, due to conflicting sensibilities and more than a little studio interference, David Lynch’s Dune stands as one of the strangest movies of all time, and not in a good way. Lynch retains Herbert’s deep world-building and reliance on inner monologue and renders it all with the most extreme and disgusting visuals. He brings in the most unusual parts of Dune lore, including a fish-like Guild Navigator added to the first. The finished film pleased neither Lynch fans nor Herbert fans, but fans of weird movies are delighted.

2. From Beyond (1986)

For Re-Animator, their first adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft work, director Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna pushed the limits of good tastes and special effects. When the duo returned to Lovecraft for From Beyond, they went even further.

Jeffrey Combs stars as Crawford, the apprentice of the mad Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel). When Pretorius invents a machine that allows humans a peak at an alternate reality, Crawford seeks the help of Dr. Katherine McMichaels (Barbara Crampton) and private investigator Bubba Brownlee (Ken Foree), all of whom go beyond the bounds of sanity.

Gordon and Yuzna fill the screen with gooey, stomach-churning effects and the plot makes no sense, but those qualities just underscore the movie’s effect.

3. Howard the Duck (1986)

The only thing more shocking than the fact that Howard the Duck is the first Marvel movie of all time is the fact that it came from George Lucas as a follow-up to Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi.

Despite that pedigree, Howard the Duck is a maddening and madcap mess. Director Willard Huyck, who co-wrote the script with Gloria Katz, strips all the satirical power from the Steve Gerber comics that inspired it, leaving behind ill-considered bawdy jokes.

And yet, in light of the big-budget Marvel movies that now dominate the box office, it’s easy to see the appeal of a movie in which a duck from another planet (voiced by Chip Zien and performed by Ed Gale) comes to Earth to make-out with a rockstar (Lea Thompson) while getting chased by a Lovecraftian Elder God.

4. The Stuff (1985)

“Enough is never enough.” So goes the slogan for the Stuff, a dairy-like product that becomes a health-food craze in the movie The Stuff, written and directed by provocateur Larry Cohen.

Nobody knows what the Stuff is, but everyone loves it — everyone except adolescent Jason (Scott Bloom), who resists his family’s urging to eat the substance. Turns out, Jason has the right idea, as corporate spy Mo Rutherford (Michael Moriarty) discovers when a group of Ice Cream producers hires him to uncover the secret of the Stuff.

Mo learns that the Stuff is in fact an alien substance that zombifies everyone who consumes it, turning those who eat it into fluffy white piles of goo. But will Mo convince Americans that they shouldn’t eat their new favorite health treat?

5. Videodrome (1983)

Videodrome comes from respected director David Cronenberg and has become a beloved cult classic. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that Videodrome is a very strange film about the effects of mass media.

James Woods plays UHF station president Max Renn, who learns of a pirate television station calling itself Videodrome. As Renn investigates Videodrome, he enters a world of a body-altering cult, whose belief in the new flesh paves the way for a reality dominated by mass media.

Between Woods’s unhinged performance and rock star Debbie Harry as the channel's seductive siren, Videodrome still shocks today, even after all the praise it earns.

6. Altered States (1980)

“You are a Faust freak, Eddie. You’ll sell your soul in pursuit of great truths.” The fact that scientist Emily (Blair Brown) makes this claim while she and Edward Jessup (William Hurt) stand in a high-tech research lab tells viewers everything they need to know about Altered States.

Directed by British provocateur Ken Russell, from a script from legendary writer Paddy Chayefsky (who removed his name from the project), Altered States combines religion, science, and mysticism into something that could come from no other decade. As Edward pushes the bounds of reality to find new states of consciousness, his body changes with his mind.

The story allows Russell to make bold claims about God, humanity, and nature, which don’t always convince viewers, but they do make for one of the weirdest 1980s sci-fi movies.

7. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

Directed by W. D. Richter and written by Earl Mac Rauch, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension features the world’s foremost physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock star, Dr. Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) and his team of heroes.

Drawing from pulp stories about Doc Savage and the Shadow, Buckaroo Banzai follows new recruit Dr. Sidney Zweibel aka New Jersey (Jeff Goldblum), who joins up just in time to take on the evil Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow). Rauch’s plot may stick to established genre structures, but he and Richter make the tale as weird as possible, without ever winking at the camera.

8. Time Bandits (1981)

Time Bandits director Terry Gilliam got his start as a member of the English comedy troupe Monty Python, giving the group a distinctive visual look with his collage style of animation. With Time Bandits, Gilliam combines boy’s adventure and dark themes with cosmic horror and the Pythons’ absurd humor.

Working from a script that he co-wrote with fellow member Michael Palin, Time Bandits follows English boy Kevin (Craig Warnock) as he gets involved with the titular bandits, who have stolen a map of reality from the Supreme Being (Ralph Richardson), a map desired by the manifestation of Evil (David Warner). As Bandit Randall (David Rappaport) leaves Kevin and the others away from their pursuers, they meet legends of history, including John Cleese as Robin Hood and Sean Connery as Agamemnon.

9. Tetsuo: The Iron Man

Don’t be fooled by the title. Tetsuo: The Iron Man has nothing to do with Tony Stark or anyone in the MCU. Instead, writer and director Shinya Tsukamoto mirrors the sensibilities of David Lynch, crafting a movie more about disturbing imagery than any sort of plot.

Tomorowo Taguchi plays a nondescript Japanese man who finds his body turning metallic after accidentally hitting a man who puts metal into his limbs. What follows is an upsetting transformation, one that might make a point about humanity’s relationship to technology. Or it might just exist to gross out viewers.

10. Lifeforce (1985)

Lifeforce comes from director Tobe Hooper, who made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, writer Dan O’Bannon, co-creator of Alien, and is produced by Canon Pictures, the home of cheeseball movies such as Bloodsport and Masters of the Universe.

That combination promises something indescribable, and Lifeforce delivers. However, Lifeforce also tells a beautiful and haunting movie, as a woman from space (Mathilda May) moves through London and saps away the energy of everyone she meets, including a doomed researcher played by Patrick Stewart.

11. Mac and Me (1988)

With Mac and Me, McDonald‘s and the Coca-Cola company had big dreams. They hoped to create their own version of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, one that won the hearts of American moviegoers while also peddling the respective companies’ wares.

Unfortunately for them, director Stewart Raffill and writers Steve Feke and Stewart Raffill fall far short of Stephen Spielberg and Melissa Mathison. The problems begin with the hideous design of the main alien, dubbed “Mac” for his love of McDonald’s, and continue through a film that swings in tone from the maudlin to the crass (such as an extended dance sequence in McDonald’s while drinking Coke) to the misjudged, in the many times that the child protagonist Eric (Jade Calegory) faces death.

It’s enough to make anyone lose their lunch, even a bunch of Big Macs and Coke.

12. Space Mutiny (1988)

To the surprise of no one, space operas filled the theaters after Star Wars became such a big hit. And also to the surprise of no one, they failed to match their forerunner.

But one of the more entertaining knock-offs came with 1988’s Space Mutiny, a staple of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Reb Brown stars as a beefy soldier recruited by space witches to thwart a hostile mutiny on a ship the size of a city.

Nothing that directors David Winters and Neal Sundstrom do with Maria Danté’s script results in a coherent plot. But Space Mutiny refracts Star Wars plots in such a weird manner that it remains entertaining.

13. Millennium (1989)

Millennium may have hit screens in 1989, but star Kris Kristofferson looks just as grizzled as he did in his 70s heyday.

That incongruity matches the themes of Millennium, in which an airplane appears out of nowhere and crashes into another airliner, leaving behind a mysterious gadget. The screenplay by John Varley, who adapts his own short story, has a lot of neat time-travel concepts, most often involving traveler Louise (Cheryl Ladd).

Director Michael Anderson doesn’t always know what to make of those ideas, driving the story too often into schmaltzy romance. But when Kristofferson growls about unexplainable phenomena, Millennium becomes a lot of cheesy fun.

14. Happy Birthday to Me (1981)

Anyone who didn’t watch Happy Birthday to Me might question its inclusion on this list. For most of the movie’s runtime, Happy Birthday to Me plays like a standard slasher, in which the friends of Ginny (Melissa Sue Anderson of Little House on the Prairie fame) get picked off one by one. Only her consults with her psychiatrist (Glenn Ford) have the slightest hint of sci-fi.

It’s impossible to explain why Happy Birthday to Me, directed by J. Lee Thompson, belongs on this list without giving major spoilers. However, once screenwriters Timothy Bond, Peter Jobin, and John Saxton finish explaining Ginny’s secret, no viewer will disagree that the movie has the most fictional science ever committed to screen.

15. Street Trash (1987)

As its title might suggest, Street Trash exists for no other reason than to offend viewers with its poor taste and quality. Director J. Michael Muro, who would go on to serve as camera operator for respected films such as Titanic, and writer Roy Frumkes include every type of provocation in the script, none of which can be described here.

Tying the set pieces together is a story about toxic-radiated alcohol that reduces anyone who drinks it into a pile of goo. For all its bad intentions, Street Trash is so trashy that viewers cannot help but laugh.

16. TerrorVision (1986)

Ever since Mary Shelley told Lord Byron and other houseguests the story of Frankenstein, scientific progress has been fertile ground for horror. TerrorVision tries to make a monster of satellite television, a luxury item back in the mid-1980s.

Directed by Ted Nicolaou, who co-wrote the script with legendary schlock producer Charles Band, TerrorVision follows a night in the life of a prototypical 80s family, whose satellite dish beams in an alien from another planet. The broad jokes about aged hippies and young metal heads might strike some as too sitcom-esque, but no one can deny that the alien effects from special effects giant John Carl Buechler look great.

17. Enemy Mine (1985)

Enemy Mine has its heart in the right place, walking in the path of great science fiction stories that double as social allegory. Dennis Quaid stars as Will Davage, a soldier in the Earth military who gets stranded on a hostile planet with Jareeba Shigan (Louis Gossett Jr.), a member of an enemy alien race.

The two must overcome their shared hatred to survive, allowing screenwriter Edward Khmara, who adapts a novella by Barry B. Longyear, to make a point about human prejudice via inhuman characters. Cheesy as that premise might sound, director Wolfgang Petersen knows how to construct a cracking action sequence and the stars have charisma to spare, especially Gossett, who projects warmth and humor from under layers of makeup.

18. The Brain (1988)

“That’s food for thought” quips Dr. Anthony Blakely (David Gale) after watching his assistant get devoured by a giant anthropomorphized brain.

Anyone who chuckles at that joke may enjoy The Brain, a nifty creature feature from director Edward Hunt and writer Barry Pearson. The Brain is indeed about a brain, a giant mutant monster who allows Gale to control the minds of anyone, starting with bad boy Jim Majelewski (Tom Bresnahan). No part of The Brain reinvents the wheel, following the standard “rebel teen saves the town from square adults” plot popularized in the 1950s. However, the effects and outlandish way it treats the central monster puts The Brain above its lesser influences.

19. Chopping Mall (1986)

Viewers of Chopping Mall may feel inundated with questions: why does a shopping mall need killer robot security guards? How did nobody notice these dumb teens trying to stay in the mall overnight? Why does a surge of electricity make the docile robots turn into terminators?

Chopping Mall writer/director Jim Wynorski and co-writer Steve Mitchell provide no answers to these vital inquiries, but that doesn’t matter. Stacked with a cast that includes b-movie queen Barbara Crampton and lots of neat special effects, Chopping Mall is a lowbrow blast to behold, and easily some of the weirdest 1980s sci-fi.

20. The Ice Pirates (1984)

Every now and then, The Ice Pirates shows signs of brilliance. Star Robert Urich makes for a charming space rogue in the vein of Han Solo, and Angelica Huston shines as a sword-wielding killer. The Ice Pirates even has enough sense to cast a young Ron Perlman as one of the baddie’s thugs.

However, these moments aren’t enough to make director Stewart Raffill’s The Ice Pirates, co-written with Stanford Sherman, into the coherent space opera it longs to be. In the place of logic, The Ice Pirates has audacity. Sometimes, the audacity leads to good scenes — such as a synthetic, rainy love scene or a fight sequence occurring in accelerated time — and sometimes it leads to nightmares, including a major role for Bruce Vilanch as a wisecracking decapitated head.

21. Flash Gordon (1980)

The comic book movie Flash Gordon made a huge error in casting football player turned actor Sam J. Jones is the lead. Despite his can-do attitude, Jones lacked the charisma and star presence necessary to play the savior of the universe.

Then again, it’s hard to notice Jones’s shortcomings within the massive Dino De Laurentiis production, one filled with memorable actors — including Max von Sydow as villain Ming the Merciless, Topol as scientist Hans Zarkov, and a bellowing Brian Blessed as leader of the bird-people Prince Vultan. Between Lorenzo Semple Jr.’s overpacked script, Mike Hodges’s bombastic direction, and amazing sets from designer Danilo Donati, Flash Gordon feels like a comic book come to life.

22. Outland (1981)

Unlike most of the movies on this list, Outland has a quiet, somber tone. That’s because writer and director Peter Hyams has the Old West in mind, remaking High Noon as a science fiction movie.

Sean Connery, at a low point in his career, plays Marshal William T. O’Niel, the law on the mining outpost Con-Am 27 on one of Jupiter’s moons. O’Niel lives a dull but secure life, despite the growing tensions in his marriage. But when his investigations threaten to expose plant manager Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle), O’Niel must decide to stick with his principles or take the safe road.

23. Xtro (1982)

If one pauses the video during the first alien sighting in the British sci-fi film Xtro, one can tell that the extraterrestrial is nothing more than a person doing a crab walk, with a mask on the back of their head. But director Harry Bromley Davenport shoots the image so quickly and at such an odd angle, that the creature feels like something that should never exist on Earth.

Such is the magic that Davenport brings to Xtro, a troubling family drama/alien invasion flick that he co-wrote with Michel Perry, Iain Cassie, and Robert Smith. Davenport and crew take a kitchen-sink approach to the story, which never makes sense, but manages to create chills nonetheless.

24. Arena (1989)

The season one Star Trek episode of “Arena,” in which Captain Kirk fights the Gorn captain on a desert planet, stands as one of the all-time best episodes of the groundbreaking series. So director Peter Manoogian and screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo deserve some credit for stealing from the best.

Arena has a simple premise, in which human Steve Armstrong (Paul Satterfield) climbs the ranks of an alien fighting tournament. It lacks the high-minded ideals of the episode that inspired it — despite counting among its cast Armin Shimerman and Marc Alaimo, who would go on to star in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — but it does have plenty of great-looking aliens.