One eighties film an episode, classic or not so classic.
Decades of Horror 1980s gives each episode to one film from the decade, with picks ranging from Hell Night and Hello Mary Lou Prom Night II to Predator and Excalibur. Host Doc Rotten and co-hosts including Crystal Cleveland trade favorite scenes, casting trivia and cheerful tangents, and the not-so-classics get as much room as the classics.
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Decades of Horror 1980s runs on a tidy premise. Each episode takes one film released between 1980 and 1989, and the host's intro allows that the pick may be a classic or not so classic. Doc Rotten hosts. Co-hosts including Crystal Cleveland, Bill and Chad fill out the conversation, and he sometimes greets them as his co-ghosts. The frame stays steady from episode to episode. Several open on a line of dialogue from the film, the intro gives the episode number and the date it was recorded, and the group signs off by saying good night. What changes is the film, and the range is wide: Hell Night, Excalibur, Predator, The Dead Next Door, Hello Mary Lou Prom Night II and Forbidden World. The talk is chatty and prone to wandering. On Predator, the group ranks the film with The Dirty Dozen, just with an alien, and runs through the five-man army trope: leader, second-in-command, muscle, wisecracker, explosives expert. From there it drifts to Johnny Carson and the idea that he was never funnier than when a joke bombed. The Hell Night conversation becomes a joint effort to pin down how old one actress was during filming, set against her age in The Exorcist. Hello Mary Lou Prom Night II brings a confession scene that gets called brilliant, a check on whether everyone saw the same version of a moment, and remarks on the ages of the actors playing high schoolers. Craig, the principal's son, takes some ribbing: he rides a motorcycle, yet the group finds him no rebel at all. Excalibur draws open admiration, both for a showman performance one host calls the spine of the movie and for magic that has to take from something rather than appear out of nothing. Forbidden World sends the talk toward programmable DNA, regenerated organs and algae that tastes like lamb chops. The Dead Next Door episode turns at one point to Ozone, with a quoted estimated budget of $3,500, and to Robot Ninja, described as work for hire. A cat interrupts along the way. Classics and oddities get the same attention here. The payoff is the company: a group that enjoys these films and lets the conversation go wherever it goes.
Made for: Suits a listener who enjoys 1980s genre films, classics and not-so-classics alike, and likes film talk that wanders into casting trivia, Johnny Carson and science tangents.
What sets it apart: It sticks to one decade and one film per episode, yet the picks stretch from a high-school prom sequel to Predator and Excalibur. A recurring crew of named co-hosts makes each review a group conversation, heavy on tangents and trivia.
From the grue-crew behind Horror News Radio, Decades of Horror 1980s covers the horror, sci-fi and fantasy films from the Eighties. Classics from John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg and more.
A rolling critter ball leaves a skeleton; you get to hear why that gag made the cut.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A loose, funny horror discussion finds odd charm in Forbidden World's scientists and raw-science detours.
Forbidden World (1982) gives Decades of Horror 1980s a handy reason to lean into raw science, with Doug Brown, Crystal Cleveland, and Bill circling strange lab talk, sexual attention, and a scientist whose wild-eyed performance becomes part of the fun.
A loose, funny horror-film discussion finds fresh life in a movie one panelist had not seen in years.
Episode 307 takes up Hello Mary Lou, Prom Night 2 as a strange, funny return to 1980s horror. After a mock confession opens the show, Doc Rotten, Crystal Cleveland, and the panel settle into the movie's particular pleasures: a standout scene, the cross and its hazy aftermath,…
A lively Predator revisit where squad chemistry, comic timing, and creature-feature affection carry the discussion.
Predator gets a lively Decades of Horror 1980s return, with the panel sounding almost amused that the full crew had gone this long without tackling one of the decade's most familiar horror titles.
Merlin's charm and the cost of magic give the review its cleanest and most durable thread.
The review is strongest when it follows the movie's idea of magic as a force that always asks for something in return. Merlin becomes the natural center of that thread: charismatic, funny, a little theatrical, and important enough that his performance is treated as the movie's…
A relaxed Hell Night discussion leans on actress-focused detours and an easy, joking panel dynamic.
Decades of Horror 1980s treats Hell Night as a loose, conversational group review, with Doc Rodman joined by Crystal Cleveland, Bill Mulligan, and Rom.
Decades of Horror, the 1980s reviews Forbidden World (1982), a New World Pictures sci-fi horror film set around a remote lab and a runaway genetic experiment.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 307 reviews Hello Mary Lou, Prom Night 2 (1987), framing it as a 30-years-later return to Hamilton High after a 1957 prom-night death.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 306 reviews J.R.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 305 reviews Predator (1987) with Doc Rodden, Crystal Cleveland, Bill Mulligan, and Jed Hunt, recorded February 18, 2026.
Decades of Horror, the 1980s episode 304 reviews John Borman's Excalibur (1981) with Doc Rod, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Bill Mulligan.
Decades of Horror 1980s reviews Tom DeSimone's 1981 Hell Night, a sorority-hazing slasher set at Kimberly Crest Estate in California, and the card notes an estimated 1.4 million budget and about 2.3 million in box office.
Doc Rod, Crystal Cleveland, Bill Mulligan, and Chad Hunt review the 1989 horror film The Horror Show, directed by James Isaac and led by Lance Henriksen and Brian James.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 301 examines Ken Russell’s 1980 film Altered States, written by Patty Chayefsky and starring William Hurt and Blair Brown.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 299 reviews Umberto Lenzi's 1980 film Nightmare City, released in Italy on December 11, 1980, and in the United States on November 18, 1983.
Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Bill Mulligan analyze John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, including its $111,000 budget, Chicago production, and delayed U.S.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Jack Clayton’s 1983 adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, featuring Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Vidal Peterson, and Sean Carson.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Poltergeist II: The Other Side, a 1986 sequel about the Freeling family facing supernatural forces in a new house.
Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Bill Mulligan discuss Michael Mann's 1986 film Manhunter, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1981 novel Red Dragon.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Wolfen, the 1981 Michael Wadley film starring Albert Finney, Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, and Gregory Hines.
Decades of Horror 1980s reviews Jean-Paul Ouillet's 1988 adaptation of H.P.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Kevin Tenney’s 1988 film Night of the Demons, a $1.2 million production that earned $3.1 million domestically.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines The McPherson Tape, a 1989 alien-abduction film also released as UFO Abduction, with host Jeff Moore and guests Michael Steinberg, Crystal Cleveland, and Chad Hunt.
Jeff Moore, Bill Mulligan, Christopher Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Crystal Cleveland review the 1985 anime Vampire Hunter D, directed by Toyo Ashida and adapted from Hideyuki Kikuchi's 1983 novel.
Decades of Horror 1980s, episode 288, examines Jörg Buchereit's 1988 Berlin-premiered no-budget film Necromantik.
Decades of Horror 1980s reviews Silent Rage, a 1982 Columbia Pictures film directed by Michael Miller and starring Chuck Norris as a sheriff facing a self-healing murderer.
Decades of Horror 1980s reviews Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker (1981), a film about an orphaned teenager dominated by his aunt, with discussion led by Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Bill Mulligan.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Scott Spiegel’s 1989 supermarket slasher Intruder, made for a reported $130,000 and released after Empire folded.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Critters 2: The Main Course, the 1988 Mick Garris sequel discussed by Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, Bill Mulligan, and effects artist Ralph Miller III.
Jeff Moore, Bill Mulligan, Crystal Cleveland, and Chad Hunt review Critters, the 1986 Stephen Herrick film about escaped Krites, two bounty hunters, and a small farm town.
Decades of Horror 1980s reviews Fred Dekker's 1987 film The Monster Squad, written by Dekker and Shane Black, with Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Bill Mulligan.
Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, and Bill Mulligan analyze Dario Argento's 1980 film Inferno, the second entry in the Three Mothers series.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Angel, a film about high-school student Molly living as a street prostitute while a serial killer targets women in her profession.
Jeff Moore, Bill Mulligan, Chad Hunt, and special-effects artist Ralph Miller III review Blue Monkey, a 1987 Canadian horror film set around a quarantined hospital and a deadly insect.
Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Bill Mulligan, and Gregory Crosby examine Gary Sherman’s 1981 horror film Dead and Buried, set in Potter’s Bluff and starring James Farentino, Melody Anderson, and Jack Albertson.
Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Bill Mulligan review Dario Argento's 1987 film Opera, focusing on its opera-house setting, ravens, graphic kills, and eye-needle image.
Jeff Moore, Bill Mulligan, Chad Hunt, and Crystal Cleveland review Ted Nicolau’s 1986 film TerrorVision, about a satellite television system receiving signals from an alien world.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 273 examines Graydon Clark's 1980 film Without Warning, a $150,000 alien-hunting movie filmed around California's Paramount Ranch and Malibu Creek State Park.
Decades of Horror 1980s, Episode 272 examines Tibor Hockert’s 1987 film The Gate with hosts Jeff Moore, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and Bill Mulligan.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Umberto Lenzi's 1981 film Cannibal Ferox, also released in the United States as Make Them Die Slowly.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Ghost Story (1981), directed by John Irvin and adapted by Lawrence D.
Host Jeff Moore and co-host Crystal Cleveland introduce an episode of Decades of Horror 1980s, discussing their excitement to cover a classic horror film from the decade.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 267 examines Death Ship (1980), directed by Alvin Rakoff and centered on survivors boarding a ghostly World War II Nazi torture vessel.
Jeff Moore, Bill Mulligan, Crystal Cleveland, Chad Hunt, and guest Dirk Rogers examine XTRO, a British 1982-83 horror film directed by Harry Bromley Davenport.
Decades of Horror 1980s, episode 265, examines Lucio Fulci’s Enigma, a film about a comatose girl’s spirit possessing a newcomer at a girls’ boarding school.
Decades of Horror 1980s episode 264 examines Parents, a 1989 film directed by Bob Balaban about a boy in 1958 suburbia who suspects his parents are cannibalistic murderers.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Evil Speak, the 1981 Eric Weston film starring Clint Howard as a bullied military-school student who uses a computer to summon demons.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Richard Franklin’s 1981 Australian thriller Road Games, starring Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis as travelers on a highway where a green van may be linked to murdered young women.
Decades of Horror 1980s examines Charles Kaufman's 1980 film Mother's Day, a Troma Entertainment production filmed in New Jersey and released on September 19, 1980.