Red Riding Hood (1987)
Fairy-Tale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations that Cannon Films made during the 1980s
Films of 1987
Retribution (1987)
Possession Film
Interestingly watchable 80s film where a man becomes possessed by a disembodied soul that sets out seeking revenge against its killers. With lots of entertainingly lurid despatches
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1987)
Sherlock Holmes Unfrozen in the Present
Unsold tv pilot that features Sherlock Holmes cryogenically unfrozen in the present-day. While the characters have some quirky appeal, the exercise seems construed more as a copy of a tv show of the era like Moonlighting
A Return to Salem’s Lot (1987)
Town of Vampires
Cult director Larry Cohen makes a sequel to the Stephen King mini-series but throws most connection out to make his own wry, occasionally amusing vampire film
RoboCop (1987)
Cyborg Cop
A popular hit that spins the cyborg cop theme through a Cyberpunk future, while director Paul Verhoeven piles on excesses of violence and black humour. A darkly funny satire of Reaganite America, this is an entertainingly slick comic-book of a movie
Robot Carnival (1987)
Anime Anthology of Robot Tales
One of the earliest works from Katsuhiro Otomo, the cult director of Akira, although he only contributes one episode to an anthology of anime tales with the common theme of robots. The collection contains some impressive and visually striking episodes
Rock’n’Roll Nightmare (1987)
Bad Movie Classic/Heavy Metal Star vs Demonic Forces
A bad movie classic. A vanity project for Canadian heavy metal star/bodybuilder Jon-Mikl Thor who plays a heavy metal star who takes frequently his shirt off to pose while his band are killed by demonic forces (represented by the screen’s maybe worst ever puppet effects) as they try to record an album
The Rosary Murders (1987)
Catholic Serial Killings
Extremely good thriller from an Elmore Leonard script with Donald Sutherland as a Catholic priest who tries to stop a serial killer without violating the sanctity of the confessional
Rumpelstiltskin (1987)
Fairy-Tale
Another of Cannon Films cheaply made fairytales with Amy Irving starring in an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin
The Running Man (1987)
Action/Future Televised Gladiatorial Combat
This adapts one of Stephen King’s Richard Bachman novels but the book is sidelined to become an Arnold Schwarzenegger action comic-book on the oft-used theme of a future where people compete in televised gladiatorial games
Scared Stiff (1987)
Haunting
An incredibly bad film from the heyday of the VHS era. The incoherent plot involves hauntings and a voodoo curse before arriving at a totally surreal ending
Siesta (1987)
Deathdream
This directorial debut for Mary Lambert is a stylish but empty-headed erotic mystery that eventually settles for a fantastical twist ending
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)
Christmas Slasher Film
The first sequel to the Santa slasher film. This has become a bad movie classic because half the film brazenly consists of footage recycled from the first, while the other half is dominated by the hilariously bad acting of psycho Eric Freeman
Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity (1987)
Bimbos in a Planetary Adventure
Easily dismissed because of its deliberately cheesy title, this is a modestly enjoyable relocating of The Most Dangerous Game on another planet
Sleeping Beauty (1987)
Fairytale
One of the cheap fairytale adaptations made by Cannon Films in the 1980s. A dreary impoverished run through by the numbers with Morgan Fairchild as the Wicked Stepmother and Tahnee Welch in the title role
Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)
Slasher Film
The Slumber Party Massacre was an mundane and unmemorable slasher entry; this is a nonsensical sequel that tries to turn it into a copy of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Contains some of the bizarrely ridiculous scenes to ever take part in any slasher film of the era
Snow White (1987)
Fairy-Tale
One of the better of Cannon Films cheap fairytale adaptations featuring a grandly over the top Diana Rigg as the Wicked Stepmother
Sorority Babes at the Slimeball Bowl-o-Rama (1987)
Demonic Imp
A David DeCoteau film that comes with one of the great exploitation titles of all time but is otherwise a cheap Scream Queen vehicle about a demonically possessed bowling trophy
Spaceballs (1987)
Star Wars Parody
Mel Brooks parodies the Star Wars films. As with most Brooks films, the humour is broad and scattershot but occasionally amusing
The Spirit (1987)
Comic-Book Superhero
Few people today have an idea of what a huge name comic-book creator Will Eisner was. This was an unsold tv pilot adaptation of Eisner’s most famous creation, the masked hero The Spirit. The pilot is not a very successful effort but at least it makes an effort to get many of the details and zany spirit of the comic right
Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds (1987)
Post-Apocalyptic Film
The first film from Alex Proyas who once seemed a director of great promise with The Crow and Dark City, this seems to be trying to create a Mad Max post-apocalyptic film as a student art film
StageFright – Aquarius (1987)
Giallo Psycho-Thriller
Giallo thriller about a series of murders during the rehearsal for a play. Michele Soavi directs a series of vivid suspense set-pieces
Steel Dawn (1987)
Post-Holocaust Action
Patrick Swayze vehicle that uncreditedly relocates the Western Shane into a post-holocaust setting
The Stepfather (1987)
Psycho Stepfather
Great psycho-thriller with Terry O’Quinn as a man determined to marry into the perfect family who then slaughters the family when they fail to meet expectations. This digs into 80s Family Values with scabrous regard
The Stepford Children (1987)
Android Teenager Replacements
The second of three sequels to The Stepford Wives. I found the original implausible on any level and this is quadrupled when you get to replacing their children with android duplicates. A film that has been generated without anybody sitting and thinking about the premise on a practical level
Stranded (1987)
Alien Refugees/Hostage Standoff
This is essentially E.T. by way of The Desperate Hours where aliens on the run take a family hostage
Street Trash (1987)
Gooey Meltdowns & Splatter
Low-budget, almost entirely plotless film about a cheap liquor that starts causing the bums in the area to meltdown. A film that in lieu of anything else readily dives into bad taste
Stripped to Kill (1987)
Undercover in a Strip Club Psycho-Thriller
The very first film with the plot of a woman cop going undercover in a strip club. The police procedural plot and psycho element takes a very clear backseat to the stripper set-pieces, some of which are imaginatively staged. On the plus side, the film is directed by a woman
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)
Comic-Book Superhero
The last of the Christopher Reeve Superman films after the series was taken over by Cannon Films. Usually regarded as the series low point due to the cheapness of the effects, this to its credits abandons the comedy focus of the preceding two films and has some not uninteresting aspects
Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)
Post-Holocaust Surfer Gangs/Troma Film
Classic Troma title that is more interesting than the actual film, although the film does eventually achieve a bizarre over-the-top lunacy
Teen Wolf Too (1987)
Teenage Werewolf Comedy
Feeble sequel to the unexpected Michael J. Fox comedy hit where Jason Bateman plays his cousin who discovers his inner wolf as he heads to university
Terminus (1987)
Future Truck Race
Very strange French SF film about a futuristic truck race
Those Dear Departed (1987)
Ghostly Vengeance Black Comedy
An excruciatingly unfunny Australian comedy about a man murdered by his wife returned as a ghost to bring her to justice
The Time Guardian (1987)
War Across Time
An Australian entry in the 1980s time travel film fad featuring Carrie Fisher engaged in a war across time in a time-travelling city
The Video Dead (1987)
Zombies Out of the TV Set
An entry from the classic 1980s era of the zombie film about zombies that emerge from a cursed tv set
White of the Eye (1987)
Psycho-Thriller
Dazzlingly stylish psycho-thriller from the underrated Donald Cammell with David Keith as a serial killer in a small Arizona town
Wicked City (1987)
Anime/War with Demon Dimension
Anime from Yoshiaki Kawajiri about a war with a demon dimension that falls halfway between H.P. Lovecraft and a hard-boiled detective thriller and brims over wit fascinatingly pathological sexual imagery
Wings of Desire (1987)
Angels
Wim Wenders’ exquisitely lovely film about angels that hover over West Berlin invisibly observing the human condition. One of the most beautiful of all paeans to the human condition.
The Wings of Honneamise (1987)
Anime/Alternate World Spacelaunch
Little-seen but beautifully made anime set in an alternate timeline where a young man becomes the volunteer for the first space launch
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Witches vs the Devil/War of the Sexes Comedy
Deliriously frothy and enjoyable George Miller film with Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer as three witches who conjure forth Devil figure – Jack Nicholson in full barnstorming mode