8 Forgotten ’80s Movies Preserved Through Online Archives

There’s a wonderful thrill in finding an ‘80s movie you’ve never seen before — that tiny electric jolt, like discovering a loose tape on the shelf of a long-gone video store. Not the movies packaged into high dollar Blu-ray releases or algorithmically blessed on streaming services. No online archives are home to the lost, the overlooked, the movies that slipped between the couch cushions of the decade and stayed there.

Without the intrepid work of Archivists, the obsessive caretakers and digital librarians, many of these films would be gone — whispered about, maybe, but inaccessible. Instead, they’re right there, waiting.

So here are eight hard-to-find relics, a curiosity watches, or a late-night rabbit holes, rescued and cared for by online archives.

1. The Island (1980)

Starring: Michael Caine, David Warner

Directed by: Michael Ritchie

Before he got paid to fight a shark for a house (yes, that quote), Michael Caine tried his hand at pirate horror — a Bermuda Triangle fever dream adapted from Peter Benchley, who apparently had more ocean-based trauma to share. The Island cost a fortune and sank like a stone, grossing less than it cost to build the boat.

Caine has said he signed on because the Jaws team was involved. Bless him. He really thought it would work out. It didn’t. But time has turned it into a cult curiosity, and since it’s not exactly lighting up Netflix, the Archive is where this seawater-logged oddity survives.

2. Hell Night (1981)

Starring: Linda Blair

Directed by: Tom DeSimone

A fraternity dare, a haunted mansion, and Linda Blair trying to outrun both a killer and the shadow of The Exorcist. Hell Night is a slasher with a surprising sense of style — the kind of film that VHS collectors speak of with hushed, nostalgic reverence.

Blair took the role to show the world she wasn’t just the possessed kid anymore. Hollywood didn’t exactly listen, but the movie carved out a loyal fanbase anyway. On the Archive, it sleeps lightly, waiting for new viewers to stumble in after dark.

3. Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)

Starring: Susan Tyrrell, Bill Paxton

Directed by: William Asher

A title so chaotic it practically yells at you — fitting, because Susan Tyrrell gives one of the decade’s loudest, strangest, most unhinged performances. The film blends psychological horror, sexuality, and pure melodramatic madness.

Tyrrell’s real life was larger than the movies: Warhol circles, wild romances, art-world chaos. But this film remains her thunderous big-screen highlight. With Bill Paxton popping in early, it’s a slice of grindhouse madness worth preserving — and of course, it’s the Archive that keeps it breathing.

4. Legend (1985)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry

Directed by: Ridley Scott

A fairy tale dipped in fog machines, glitter, and an almost surreal level of production design. Tim Curry’s Darkness is one of cinema’s great devils — a performance so committed it deserves its own shrine.

You’d think a Tom Cruise fantasy epic from Ridley Scott would be easy to stream. Ha. According to Cruise himself, he isn’t exactly proud of this one and prefers it remain politely forgotten. But the Archive remembers what Hollywood would rather bury: a visual feast with unicorns, demons, and a very baby-faced Cruise acting his heart out in a world made of smoke and eyeliner.

5. Bad Taste (1987)

Starring: Peter Jackson, Terry Potter

Directed by: Peter Jackson

Before Middle-earth, before Oscars, before decades-long post-production cycles, Peter Jackson gathered some friends in New Zealand, grabbed a camera, and made an alien-invasion splatter movie that looks like it was filmed over the course of several weekends — because it basically was.

Jackson has long expressed his desire to restore Bad Taste, which means one day the version preserved in online archives might vanish in favor of a shiny Criterion restoration.

6. The Spider Labyrinth (1988)

Starring: Roland Wybenga, Paola Rinaldi

Directed by: Gianfranco Giagni

Italian horror fans speak of this one like a secret handshake. Part Lovecraft, part Giallo fever dream, the film was nearly lost entirely — released only on Japanese VHS, shared through bootlegs, whispered about in horror circles.

Now it’s finally resurfacing in small Blu-ray runs, but online Archives helped keep it alive long before physical media collectors swooped in. A surreal, sticky, dreamlike experience that rewards viewers who like their horror slow, strange, and crawling under the skin.

7. Felix the Cat: The Movie (1988)

Directed by: Tibor Hernádi

Yes, it exists. Yes, it’s weird. No, not in a good way — although it circles back around into fascinatingly bad territory. Felix the Cat, a legend of silent animation, stars in this neon-flavored fever dream that audiences in the U.S. never even got to see because the distributor ran out of money.

The film disappeared for two decades before cult animation fans dragged it back into the light. Now, the Internet Archive gives you a chance to watch it and wonder, “Who was this for?” (The answer is unclear. Possibly no one.)

8. The Peanut Butter Solution (1985)

Starring: Matthew Mackay, Siluck Saysanasy

Directed by: Michael Rubbo

If you grew up in Canada (or anywhere with a well-stocked tape rental section), you may have traumatic flashbacks to this one. A kid loses his hair in fright and regrows it using ghost peanut butter. Yes. Ghost peanut butter.

Recently restored on Blu-ray and featured on Red Letter Media, the movie has surged in popularity again. But online archives remains one of the easiest ways to revisit — or introduce yourself to — this utterly bizarre slice of childhood nightmare fuel.

Online archives for lost movies are a gift to movie lovers everywhere. It's important to support their work in saving movies that might otherwise disappear into the streaming ether.

Subscribe to Movies of the 80s on Vocal and YouTube for more nostalgia, more deep cuts, and more movies that absolutely deserved better. Seen any of the films on this list? Tell me in the comments — especially if you survived The Peanut Butter Solution with your psyche intact.