There were several movies in the 80s that were just kind of odd and a little chilling, and the mystery thrillers were definitely among them since they left people wondering what in the heck was going on a lot of times and delivered interesting twists that people weren’t expecting. Sometimes the ending leaves a person satisfied, other times all that build-up doesn’t really lead anywhere, which obviously leaves people a bit frustrated. But movies in the 80s were at times hampered with the various limits that had to be imposed on them, while at other times there were movies that went beyond those limits and were either loved or vilified and almost forgotten since they crossed those lines in the first place. The funny thing is that some of those are the best simply because they decided to go that far and weren’t about to be pushed into creating a substandard experience. In this light, it’s very easy to say that some of the best mystery movies from the 80s are those that managed to slip in under the radar and were almost forgotten as the decade rolled on and bigger movies started to eclipse them.
Here are five of the best mystery thrillers from the 80s.
5. Frantic
When a surgeon and his wife are visiting Paris they soon find that she has picked up the wrong suitcase at the airport, which in turn leads to her disappearance as the contents of the suitcase that she unwittingly picked up are important enough that people would kill to retrieve them. Along with a streetwise woman that is determined to get her payday by delivering the bag the surgeon sets out to look for his wife but is given little to no help by anyone that might know what’s going on, or even those that don’t. In the end, the individual helping is killed, his wife is found, and he ends up throwing the parcel into the river, which is a bit unsatisfying, but is still kind of hard not to get behind.
4. Miracle Mile
It’s not every day that you hear a voice on the other end of a phone saying that the world is going to end right before they’re shot. When it turns out the threat is real though Harry attempts to make his way to safety while finding his lady friend Julie and causing a bit of chaos along the way. It’s not too hard to think that a city such as Los Angeles would be thrown into utter ruin if people were to be told that the end was coming and that it was nearly there, but seeing how 2020 has been going thus far it’s likely that no one should do this just for kicks since obviously some folks would take it way too seriously.
3. Thief
If there’s one thing that a person shouldn’t do to a thief, it’s try to cheat them out of their money or threaten those that they care about. Thieves tend to have a very heightened sense of survival and don’t always take kindly to people telling them what to do, especially if they’ve become self-made and aren’t beholden to anyone. When Frank finds that he’s in a spot where he can’t get out unless he reminds the man that’s holding his life and that of his family over his head, sending his family away before going megaton on the crime boss that dared to assume that he was under his thumb.
2. Dead Ringers
It would be a little odd to see twin brothers become gynecologists and share women, but it’s also something that plays well into a suspense movie since it does have a sense of the macabre to it that people tend to enjoy. With that in mind, the two brothers couldn’t be any more different since one of them is exceedingly shy and lacking in confidence while the other is brash and egotistical to the extreme. When the twins start sharing drugs though things take a definite turn, and when they find a woman that isn’t into sharing as they’ve been doing for so long it becomes even more complicated.
1. Blow Out
When a sound technician picks up the sound of what appears to be a tire blowing out he stumbles onto a conspiracy that takes him deeper into the matter than he would have ever wanted. Of course, when he saves an escort that was in the car that suffered the tire damage and subsequently runs into a nearby creek he gets himself in even deeper as the truth eventually comes out that the other person in the car was a politician with presidential hopes. When he learns that someone was trying to blackmail the president things only get worse as he eventually finds out that those behind the conspiracy are willing to do whatever it takes to keep things quiet.
The 80s were good for a mystery thriller now and again.
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