My Top 10 Favorite Horror Novels of the 80s

The following column originally appeared in Justin Marriott's PAPERBACK FANATIC #50 (sadly the final edition of this fine publication), which was published in August of 2025. You can buy a copy of it HERE. That article has been slightly expanded upon for this blog.

The Horror! The Horror!

I grew up in a household with a mother who regularly read true crime murder magazines. She got stacks of them from her own mother and I was absolutely terrified of them as an elementary-age child. Maybe that macabre sense of normalcy in middle American suburban life is what led Mom to be a very early adopter of reading horror novels. That became much easier in the 70s as horror found a willing playground in mainstream publishing that further blossomed in the 80s. As Mom would read what seemed a particularly good scary book, she invariably allowed me to follow suit. In retrospect, I’m not sure that was wise parenting, but I am who I am as a result of her leniency.

By the time the 80s rolled around I was looking for a regular fix of adrenaline-boosting literary scares during what would become a very formative era in my own burgeoning interest in writing. In short, the horror of the 80s forged me into the guy who writes this column. So, here is my list of my favorite horror novels published in the 1980s. There may have been many others that are equally good or better, but these are the ones that most impacted me, presented in reverse order.

10) Blackwater Series by Michael McDowell (1983)

Michael McDowell first came to my attention through his horror novel Cold Moon Over Babylon, which I read while in high school. Raised in the Southern US in the state of Georgia, I immediately recognized an author who understood the deep South and knew how to avoid the tropes and over-simplified clichés that often litter the efforts of writers who are not native to the region. 

A few years later McDowell released the first in a series of six Gothic Southern horror novels collectively known as the Blackwater Saga (The Flood, The Levee, The House, The War, The Fortune, and Rain). Each volume was published only months apart in 1983 as standalones, though they combined as a single story spanning the course of 50 years and 3 generations of the Caskey family and the very strange goings on in Perdido, Alabama. 

Our story starts in 1919 and continues through to 1970. Rich Southern characters mix with horror throughout the series as the town deals with floods, family drama, casual racism, and the ongoing presence of a certain shape-shifting river monster, all within a very gothic and uniquely Southern vernacular and atmosphere. Rewarding for those who are looking for something different yet undeniably memorable.

9) The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)

Though it is technically classified as a psychological crime thriller, I’m not sure anyone who reads Thomas Harris’ bestseller would consider it anything less than a masterpiece of suspenseful horror. Technically a sequel to Harris’ Red Dragon, Silence of the Lambs was a bona fide smash, selling over 10 million copies, in spite of the fact that it centers on a serial killer who is kidnaping, starving, and ultimately skinning women. 

At its heart, the book is a character-driven police procedural, but Harris gets deep under the skin, especially during ongoing investigative interviews between Clarice, a young FBI agent, and Hannibal Lecter, an incarcerated serial killer who is also a genius, first introduced in Red Dragon. Lecter is an addictive presence in the action in spite of being under lock and key, haunting the mind of Clarice just as he had done to Will Graham, an FBI profiler in the previous book. The book is a masterclass in suspense and one of the finest examples of non-supernatural human-based horror ever written.

8) Sunglasses After Dark by Nancy A. Collins (1989)

The thrilling first book in a series, Sunglasses After Dark heralded a vibrant new voice on the 80s horror scene. Blending elements of gothic punk, horror, and urban fantasy, Nancy A. Collins does an amazing job of world-building here while still keeping the primary focus very much on her main character, living vampire, Sonja Blue. 

This first book establishes the rules of a world where vampires and other demonic creatures exist just outside of normal human perception. However, these urban fantasy elements all take a backseat to the horror as Sonja pursues the book’s villainess, a psychic religious hypocrite and televangelist who is using her powers to influence her followers in decidedly devilish and deadly ways. There is a surprising amount of humor in the mix and Sonja is a true badass with a mean streak that is never fully at rest. As the series continues the urban fantasy elements become a bit more pronounced, but in this first appearance, Sonja’s fangs are definitely locked into horror mode.

7) Dark Advent by Brian Hodge (1988)

Sometimes referred to as The Stand-lite or Swan Song-lite, Dark Advent covers some similar ground as a germ-warfare based contagion is released, resulting in a majority of human life being wiped out. What follows is a post-apocalyptic tale with a nasty streak a mile wide running through its core. However, unlike those other giants mentioned earlier, there is nothing supernatural going on here. Instead we get the wicked evil that humans under extreme conditions are capable of inflicting on one another. 

It is this core of humanity that drives the plot as the reader genuinely cares for its protagonists. It also helps that our villain is easily deserving of hatred; there are some scenes of mass depravity that have stayed with me for decades. This is a book that deserves far more recognition and respect than it received upon release, hampered I believe by a cover that, while wonderfully rendered by Bob Larkin, doesn’t even remotely begin to match anything to be found on the pages within.

6) Phantoms by Dean R. Koontz (1983)

I went through an extended Dean Koontz phase in my early 20s while attempting to branch out beyond a steady diet of mainstream horror with Stephen King, Thomas Tryon, and Robert McCammon. For some reason, no matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t fully click with his prolific output, which struck me as almost being overly sanitized YA fiction. Over the years I’ve learned this is not the case with all of his books and a few really rise to the top in my estimation. 

Phantoms was one that legitimately blew me away, perhaps because my expectations were low going in. Conceived as a fictionalized explanation of the mysterious disappearance of an entire Inuit village at Lake Angikuni in 1930 (later debunked and similar to the lost village of Roanoke), the book veers quite effectively into full-blown Lovecraftian cosmic horror with a few knowing Easter eggs added for the observant reader. The ending is particularly strong with the full manifestation and appearance of the 'Ancient Enemy' who is revealed to be an older god straight out of the Cthulhu Mythos. Definitely a cut above the average Koontz and a fun ride, especially for anyone familiar with the source of its literary homage.

5) Pet Sematary by Stephen King (1983)

After his massive success throughout the 70s, Stephen King had some rough patches in the 80s with books that still sold well, but were not critical successes. He also began to experiment with bringing other influences and genres to the fore which had not previously been evident in his work. 

Pet Sematary seemed to be King’s love letter to those who yearned for another pure and unadulterated horror novel from him again. And King gave us all a doozy! In fact, it is reported that King himself deemed the first draft too gruesome and disturbing to be published. Its central theme of an Indian burial ground that possesses the ability to regenerate dead things to a semblance of life is intriguing. When our main character’s young son is killed in a tragic accident, the temptation to use the dark magic to bring the boy back proves too much to bear with undeniably horrifying results. 

King seems to be relishing breaking several taboos here, from the death of a child to the using of that child as the personification of evil terrorizing his own family. This is truly dark stuff that stays with the reader well after the final page is turned.

4) The Damnation Game by Clive Barker (1985)

Clive Barker's first real novel after a string of short story compilations is a modern masterpiece of edgy high concept horror. Elegantly written and orchestrated, this is high quality stuff deserving of its status as a classic. 

Marty Strauss is a gambling addict recently released from prison who is hired to serve as the personal bodyguard of one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world. Marty soon finds himself caught up in a series of escalating supernatural events involving his employer, and the mysterious demonic Mamoulian, who is coming to receive payment for a debt incurred during World War II, a payment of the employer’s soul. An engrossing tale with a mounting sense of tangible dread, this book has some real nightmarish imagery that elevates it well above most of what passes for horror fiction in the 21st Century.

3) The Ceremonies by T.E.D. Klein (1984)

T.E.D. Klein’s The Ceremonies (1984) is a neglected classic of both folk and cosmic horror. The main character here is an arrogant and self-absorbed PhD student named Jeremy Feirs. In a bit of meta foreshadowing, Feirs specializes in horror and gothic literature, which creates an excuse to include many references to Arthur Machen in the text. He rents a room on a farm in upstate New Jersey in order to focus on his thesis without distraction. 

During his time on the farm Feirs becomes increasingly fascinated with his landlords, a young couple belonging to the fundamentalist religious sect which dominates the local farming community. This relationship between a naive city dweller and religious farm folk does not end well. Extra points are awarded for Klein slowly incorporating a creepily effective but potent supernatural element into the plot. The Ceremonies is a master class in slow dread and mounting tension that becomes nearly unbearable before an explosive ending that veers into cosmic horror akin to H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

2) Swan Song by Robert McCammon (1987)

Swan Song is unjustly referred to as McCammon's version of Stephen King’s The Stand, but it overshadows King's seminal post-apocalyptic tale by a mile in my opinion. It's simply a far more engrossing and satisfying book with far richer characters and an edge of your seat excitement that propels the reader to keep going. There is almost a Canterbury Tales quality to the large cast of characters pursuing their individual quests among the ruins of a world scorched by nuclear Armageddon, until their stories slowly begin to crash into each other with tragic results. 

The horror is pointed and memorable, but the heart and emotional truths presented imbue the characters with a palpable reality that makes empathy impossible to avoid; the reader cares about these people and their pain and suffering. And the adventure, which spans years, is the very definition of epic. This one receives my highest recommendation. I've read it cover to cover three times now, something I've not done with most books a third of its length (it runs nearly 1,000 pages).

1) Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (1989)

To boil its concept down to the barest foundation, Carrion Comfort deals with a small fraction of humanity that manifests a psychic ability, dubbed “The Ability,” which enables them to overtake and control the actions of others against their will to carry out heinous acts. Though their bodies are no longer under their own control, these victims are perfectly aware of the horrifically shocking and murderous actions they are perpetrating. This creates a paralyzing terror deep within them that can then be fed upon by those with “The Ability,” enabling them to remain young and vibrantly alive at their victim’s expense. In this regard they are similar to vampires. 

Those with this psychic gift play an escalating game among themselves in which they influence world events for their own perverse pleasure. However, over time they have left human debris in their wake, collateral victims who nurse a need for vengeance and justice that must be satisfied. Although it takes a while to get going, once it does this is a runaway freight train of brutal action and unbearable suspense that contains perhaps the single best ending to a novel that I have personally ever read with multiple plot threads smashing together in its final 100 pages. 

As great as anything written by Stephen King or Robert McCammon, this is darkly grand entertainment of the highest magnitude and unreservedly earns my highest recommendation!

Reviews by Steve Carroll