1981 Archives

Alison’s Birthday

During a Ouija board session with her teenaged friends, 16-year-old Alison gets a message from beyond the grave not to go home for her birthday three years later.

NR

5.417

1981 Horror 99 min Play

5.533

Eyewitness

NYC custodian Daryll Deever is a big fan of local news reporter Tony Sokolow, so he is intrigued when she shows up to cover a story at his workplace. There's been a murder in the office building, and Tony suspects that Daryll may have insight into the crime, a notion that he furthers to stay close to her. However, when those behind the killing begin to think that he really knows something, they target the pair to keep their secrets hidden.

R

5.533

1981 Thriller 103 min Play

6.457

Dark Night of the Scarecrow

Bubba, an intellectually disabled man, is falsely accused of attacking a young girl. Disguised as a scarecrow, he hides in a cornfield, only to be hunted down and shot by four vigilante men. After they are acquitted due to lack of evidence, the men find themselves being stalked one by one.

NR

6.457

1981 Horror 96 min Play

7.349

Possession

A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.

NR

7.349

1981 Horror 124 min Play

7.4

An American Werewolf in London

Two American tourists in England are attacked by a werewolf that none of the locals will admit exists.

R

7.4

1981 Comedy 97 min Play

6.4

Dead & Buried

After a series of gory murders commited by mobs of townspeople against visiting tourists, the corpses appear to be coming back to life and living normally as locals in the small town.

R

6.4

1981 Horror 94 min Play

6.1

Just Before Dawn

In the Oregon mountains, a pair of hunters encounter a machete-wielding killer in an abandoned church. Meanwhile, five campers arrive to examine some property one of them has inherited but are warned by the forest ranger not to venture forth. Soon after they set up camp, they begin hearing strange noises, encounter a mysterious singing girl and start disappearing one by one.

R

6.1

1981 Horror 90 min Play

7.1

Escape from New York

In the future, crime is out of control and New York City's Manhattan is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President's plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed lone warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables.

R

7.1

1981 Action 99 min Play

8.1

Das Boot

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.

R

8.1

1981 Drama 150 min Play

5.9

The Prowler

A masked killer, wearing World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small New Jersey town bent on reliving a 35-year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual Spring Dance.

NR

5.9

1981 Horror 89 min Play

5.7

The Salamander

An Italian policeman investigates a series of murders involving people in prominent positions. Left behind at each murder scene is a drawing of a salamander. The policeman begins to suspect these murders are linked to a plot to seize control of the government.

NR

5.7

1981 Thriller 103 min Play

5.9

Wolfen

A city cop is assigned to solve a bizarre set of violent murders where it appears that the victims were killed by animals. In his pursuit he learns of an Indian legend about wolf spirits.

R

5.9

1981 Horror 115 min Play

6.3

Night of the Werewolf

An evil witch brings back to life the infamous Elizabeth Bathory, who was executed several hundred years previously for murdering young women and bathing in their blood.

R

6.3

1981 Horror 92 min Play

6.4

The French Lieutenant’s Woman

In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.

R

6.4

1981 Drama 124 min Play

5.3

Lady Chatterley’s Lover

A film adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel. After a crippling injury leaves her husband impotent, Lady Chatterly is torn between her love for her husband and her physical desires. With her husband's consent, she seeks out other means of fulfilling her needs.

R

5.3

1981 Drama 104 min Play

6.5

The Howling

After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a newswoman is sent to a rehabilitation center whose inhabitants may not be what they seem.

R

6.5

1981 Horror 91 min Play

5.5

Quartet

When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple.

R

5.5

1981 Drama 101 min Play

TV 7.9

Only Fools and Horses

The misadventures of two wheeler dealer brothers Del Boy and Rodney Trotter of “Trotters Independent Traders PLC” who scrape their living by selling dodgy goods believing that next year they will be millionaires.

NR BBC One

7.9

1981 Comedy 30 min Play

6.4

Porky’s

Set in 1954, a group of Florida high schoolers seek out to lose their virginity which leads them to seek revenge on a sleazy nightclub owner and his redneck sheriff brother for harassing them.

R

6.4

1981 Comedy 94 min Play

5.7

Fever

The film is set in 1905, in a time of feverish revolutionary underground activity in Poland partitioned between three neighbours. All the characters are committed anarchists. The bomb maker puts an invention together to place it at the disposal of young inexperienced terrorists fighting against Tsarist oppression. The story follows the passing of this bomb from anarchist to anarchist as several attempts are made on the life of Tsarist governor general, until, at the end, it is effectively ...

NR

5.7

1981 Drama 122 min Play

5.7

Strange Behavior

A scientist is experimenting with teenagers and turning them into murderers.

R

5.7

1981 Horror 99 min Play

5.8

Omen III: The Final Conflict

Damien Thorn has helped rescue the world from a recession, appearing to be a benign corporate benefactor. When he then becomes U.S. Ambassador to England, Damien fulfils a terrifying biblical prophecy. He also faces his own potential demise as an astronomical event brings about the second coming of Christ.

R

5.8

1981 Horror 108 min Play

5.9

The Hand

Jon Lansdale is a comic book artist who loses his right hand in a car accident. The hand was not found at the scene of the accident, but it soon returns by itself to follow Jon around, and murder those who anger him.

R

5.9

1981 Horror 104 min Play

5.3

Deadly Blessing

After her husband dies of mysterious circumstances, a widow becomes increasingly paranoid of the neighboring religious community that may have diabolical plans for her.

R

5.3

1981 Horror 100 min Play

6.8

Scanners

After a man with extraordinary—and frighteningly destructive—telepathic abilities is nabbed by agents from a mysterious rogue corporation, he discovers he is far from the only possessor of such strange powers, and that some of the other “scanners” have their minds set on world domination, while others are trying to stop them.

R

6.8

1981 Horror 103 min Play

6.7

Eye of the Needle

Great Britain, 1944, during World War II. Relentlessly pursued by several MI5 agents, Henry Faber the Needle, a ruthless German spy in possession of vital information about D-Day, takes refuge on Storm Island, an inhospitable, sparsely inhabited island off the coast of northern Scotland.

R

6.7

1981 Drama 108 min Play

7.4

Mad Max 2

Max Rockatansky returns as the heroic loner who drives the dusty roads of a postapocalyptic Australian Outback in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defendants of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by the charismatic Lord Humungus, a violent leader whose scruples are as barren as the surrounding landscape.

R

7.4

1981 Action 96 min Play

6.9

Chariots of Fire

In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest.

NR

6.9

1981 Drama 123 min Play

7.2

Thief

Frank is an expert professional safecracker, specialized in high-profile diamond heists. He plans to use his ill-gotten income to retire from crime and build a nice life for himself complete with a home, wife and kids. To accelerate the process, he signs on with a top gangster for a big score.

R

7.2

1981 Action 123 min Play

6.5

Heavy Metal

The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.

R

6.5

1981 Adventure 90 min Play

7.1

Reds

An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant.

PG

7.1

1981 Drama 195 min Play

6.5

The Postman Always Rings Twice

The sensuous wife of a lunch wagon proprietor and a rootless drifter begin a sordidly steamy affair and conspire to murder her Greek husband.

R

6.5

1981 Crime 122 min Play

7.3

The Professional

French secret service agent Josselin Beaumont is dispatched to take down African warlord N'Jala. But when his assignment is canceled, he's shocked to learn that his government is surrendering him to local authorities. He is given a mock trial and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. But Beaumont escapes from prison and vows not only to avenge himself against his betrayers but also to finish his original assignment.

NR

7.3

1981 Action 108 min Play

5.8

Private Lessons

Phillip Filmore is a naive, 15-year-old, preoccupied with sex, who develops a crush on Nicole Mallow, the new 30-something, French housekeeper and sitter to look after him when Phillip's father is out of town for the summer on a "business" trip. But Mr. Filmore's unscrupulous chauffeur, Lester Lewis, takes advantage of Phillip's crush on Nicole to hire her to seduce the youth, then draws her into a plot to fake her own death in a blackmail scheme aimed to drain Phillip's trust fund.

R

5.8

1981 Comedy 87 min Play

6.3

Hands Up!

The reunion of a group of former medical students results in a flood of bitter memories.

NR

6.3

1981 Comedy 76 min Play

6.5

Fort Apache, the Bronx

From the sight of a police officer this movie depicts the life in New York's infamous South Bronx. In the center is "Fort Apache", as the officers call their police station, which really seems like an outpost in enemy's country. The story follows officer Murphy, who seems to be a tuff cynic, but in truth he's a moralist with a sense for justice.

R

6.5

1981 Crime 125 min Play