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The 1980s era is famous for its trashy movies, but some are nothing but fun. Some of the best movies of all time are a product of the 80s, a time which is known for being cheesy, over-the-top, and full of enthusiasm. The world of film changes with every passing year, but the 1980s produced some of the most notable titles in cinematic history.

Trashy films are generally considered projects with certain defining features, such as confusing storylines, poor special effects, cringeworthy acting, or bad jokes. While some controversial 80s movies are labeled as such because their message is lost in translation, others are referred to as trashy because of the lack of effort or poor reception. Regardless of their execution, these trashy 80s movies are still fantastic and enjoyable to watch.

Body Double (1984) A Story About Strange Coincidences & Badly Timed Arrivals

Body Double

Body Double is a thriller film directed by Brian De Palma,...

Killer Collectibles highlights five of the most exciting new horror products announced each and every week, from toys and apparel to artwork, records, and much more.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

Thanksgiving Steelbook 4K from Sony

Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving carves into Steelbook 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital on October 15 via Sony. The slasher is presented in 4K with Dolby Vision, approved by director Eli Roth, and Dolby Atmos.

Jeff Rendell penned the script, based on the faux-trailer from 2007’s Grindhouse. Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon star.

Special features include: two new making-of featurettes; commentary by Roth and Rendell; deleted and extended scenes; outtakes; Behind the Screams; Gore Galore; and Massachusetts Movies: Eli & Jeff’s Early Films; a letter to the fans from Roth.

The Thing Pop from Funko

As if the inclusion of The...

Synopsis

Brian De Palma invites you to witness a seduction… a mystery… a murder. It’s Body Double — a spine-tingling look at voyeurism and sexuality from the modern master of suspense. Jake Scully (Craig Wasson), an unemployed actor, is asked to house-sit at a luxurious hillside apartment. As a bonus, the home offers Jake a telescopic peek into the bedroom of Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton), who performs an arousing striptease. When Jake discovers another man is also spying on Gloria, he begins an obsessive surveillance of her. Soon a grisly murder leads him into the world of X-rated film where he meets adult film star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), who is a key to the crime. De Palma has created a gripping adult thriller of eroticism and horror!

Disc Details And Bonus Materials

4K Ultra HD Disc

Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision

English Dolby Atmos + English 5.1 + English...

Synopsis

Brian De Palma invites you to witness a seduction… a mystery… a murder. It’s Body Double — a spine-tingling look at voyeurism and sexuality from the modern master of suspense. Jake Scully (Craig Wasson), an unemployed actor, is asked to house-sit at a luxurious hillside apartment. As a bonus, the home offers Jake a telescopic peek into the bedroom of Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton), who performs an arousing striptease. When Jake discovers another man is also spying on Gloria, he begins an obsessive surveillance of her. Soon a grisly murder leads him into the world of X-rated film where he meets adult film star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), who is a key to the crime. De Palma has created a gripping adult thriller of eroticism and horror!

Disc Details And Bonus Materials

4K Ultra HD Disc

Feature presented in 4K resolution with Dolby Vision

English Dolby Atmos + English 5.1 + English...

Netflix is continuing to roll out its celebration of iconic films, this time turning the page to 1984.

As part of the streaming platform’s “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection,” Netflix has unveiled the 1984 films celebrating their 40-year anniversary in 2024 with classics like “Footloose” and “Sixteen Candles” alongside Oscar contenders “Amadeus” and “Iceman.”

The Milestone Movies hail from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

Starting today, April 1, 2024, Netflix subscribers can revisit Brian de Palma’s erotic noir “Body Double” and Kevin Bacon’s breakout performance in “Footloose.” How about a double feature? There’s also “Repo Man” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” streaming just in time for franchise reboot “Beverly Hills Cop: Axle F” out this summer.

In addition to the cinematic celebrations in your Netflix queue, in-person special screenings of select films will continue at the Paris Theater in New York and Los Angeles...

Considering how long I’ve been writing this editorial series, it’s wild that this is the first entry tackling Brian De Palma. While there’s a history of contentious reactions to his works (primarily from feminists in the 70s and 80s who accused him of misogyny for his often brutal treatment of female characters), aside from Adrian Lyne, De Palma is easily one of the most significant directors to work on mainstream Erotic Thrillers.

Body Double is a solid entry in his filmography. It is also incredibly representative of his filmmaking interests in that it focuses on doubles, deep focus/split screens, Hitchcockian themes of obsession, sex and voyeurism, and, finally, a mystery murder that is more complicated than it initially appears.

For first time viewers, it might be surprising to learn that star Melanie Griffith does not appear until well past the one hour mark, after her doppelgänger,...

One of the few misfires of director Sidney Lumet’s extensive and impressive filmography, his 1992 romantic thriller A Stranger Among Us finds itself recuperated on Blu-ray. Infamously starring a miscast Melanie Griffith as an NYC cop who goes undercover as a Hasidic Jew to catch a killer lurking amongst their tight-knit community, the film was the fourth and last time Lumet competed at the Cannes Film Festival. Written by Robert J. Avrech, the plot is basically a lopsided love triangle masquerading as a murder mystery.…...

Brian DePalma has always come under the gun of the Movie Police, whether it’s for charges of Hitchcock “homages” or misogynistic attitudes towards his female characters. Well round up the paddy wagons for Body Double (1984), the clever thriller that mixes Vertigo, Rear Window, and the adult film industry into one heady stew that audiences took a hard pass on at the time. Maybe it was too classy?

Released in late October by Columbia Pictures, Body Double returned less than its $10 million budget and garnered the same mixed reviews that followed DePalma around for most of his career. (For those keeping count, Ebert gave it a three and a half star review; did his appreciation of the female form inform his opinion? Discuss amongst yourselves.) Regardless of its box office demise, Body Double lives on as one of DePalma’s cleverest magic tricks, a cinematic sleight of hand gussied up in fishnets and mirrored ceilings.

Body Double

Written by Robert J. Avrech and Brian De Palma

Directed by Brian De Palma

USA, 1984

It is obvious that Body Double (1984) is a combination of the plots of Vertigo (1958), Rear Window(1954) and Dial M for Murder (1955) by Alfred Hitchcock, and nearly as obvious to say that the film also takes cues from Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960) and elements from various slasher films like Abel Ferrara’s The Driller Killer (1979). Unfortunately, a good number of critical pieces on Brian De Palma are obsessed with listing off his influences and coming to the inept conclusion that he is merely a Hitchcock imitator with a couple of clever cinematic tricks up his sleeve. Few writers take De Palma on his own terms, though select critics are finally coming around, and most ignore the way he constructs his complex thriller narratives, creates exquisite images that take advantage of cinema’s unique artistic properties,...