The 1970s was a critical time in filmmaking, with directors worldwide reasserting themselves as the primary creative force in the industry after decades of studio control. Then came the 80s, in which all that hard-won artistic control became commodified through erotic thrillers, action vehicles, and the birth of the summer blockbuster. Many of those blockbusters were of the science fiction variety, including films like Aliens, The Thing, and Blade Runner, but other fantastic sci-fi films were released that decade that slipped through the cracks.

In the 1980s, sci-fi began crossing streams with other popular genres like horror, Western, and action thrillers. It resulted in a series of unique films that, while perhaps not ready for immediate mainstream success, grew into themselves and have since become unheralded classics of the genre.

10 Dune Is One of the Most Underrated Franchise Films of All Time

When Lynch embarked on this journey to film Dune in the early '80s, he sacrificed much of the original novel's story to fit everything into one two-hour film. To this day, Dune's narrative incoherence is unquestionable, but so is the fact that it's a compelling, imaginative, and often beautiful film to watch.

The key to watching David Lynch's Dune is to go into it without any expectations — especially for viewers familiar with the recent blockbuster adaptation of the novel. While Dune might not have been a box office success, Lynch provided a blueprint for future directors to follow when crafting an epic sci-fi franchise film, even if it sometimes involved showing them what not to do.

9 The Quiet Earth Is a Sci-Fi Classic from the Land Down Under

The Quiet Earth is a massively underappreciated post-apocalyptic drama that fits right in with similar films in the genre, such as The World, The Flesh, and the Devil, and Z for Zachariah. Like these other films, The Quiet Earth follows a handful of people who somehow manage to survive a gigantic epoch-ending disaster only to see their lives come to an end due to petty and messy human relationships. In short, The Quiet Earth is about how humans survive extreme loneliness following events they cannot comprehend.

More specifically, The Quiet Earth revolves around activating an experimental global energy grid that immediately transports almost every living person on the planet elsewhere. Where everyone has gone is never found out. Instead, the story concerns itself with two survivors named Zac and Api and a woman named Joanne, who try to stop the experiment themselves, hoping to restore the world to its original working order. Fantastic performances, a creepy atmosphere, and a shocking ending make The Quiet Earth worth watching.

8 The Blob Remake Follows in the Footsteps of the Original

When it comes to movie remakes, quality is always hit or miss, but the 1980s saw a trifecta of sci-fi and horror remakes that bucked that trend in the form of The Thing, The Fly, and the much more underappreciated The Blob. Chuck Russell's reimagining of the classic 1958 B-movie that turned a pile of gelatinous goo into a horrifying and iconic monster deserves a second look.

The 1988 iteration of The Blob tells the same story as the original, but there's a reason for the popular saying: "If it's not broke, don't fix it." The fun in this film comes from watching an entire town full of people get devoured in a considerably more gruesome fashion than the original film ever dared to show. The Blob didn't blow anyone over, including critics or audiences, but it aged nicely over the years and deserves the same recognition as some of its more infamous brethren.

7 Brainstorm Was Overshadowed by Tragedy

Sometimes, a movie gets overshadowed by events that unfold around it in real life, and that's precisely what happened to special effects maestro Douglas Trumbull's Brainstorm. Any discussion about the film largely centers around Natalie Wood, who had already filmed most of her scenes before her death on November 29th, 1981, when she was on a boat trip with her husband, Robert Wagner, and her co-star from Brainstorm, Christopher Walken.

What happened to Natalie Wood on that boat remains a mystery. What's less of a mystery is that Brainstorm is a quality film with big ideas that must be rediscovered. The basic premise is this: a group of scientists stumble upon the ability to transfer human sensory input and emotions from one mind to another. Of course, once the industrial military complex discovers the technology, they want to make it their own. Featuring strong performances and incredibly unique special effects, Brainstorm is unforgettable.

6 Starman Proves That Love Everywhere — Even in Outer Space

Combining sci-fi with a love story is a tricky tightrope to walk, and yet, somehow, John Carpenter pulled it off masterfully with the underappreciated Starman. Jeff Bridges is the titular Starman, an alien who has traveled to Earth to make contact with humans, only to receive about as unwelcoming a reception as possible when the American government begins hunting him down.

Thankfully, Starman isn't alone on his journey. Along the way, he meets a woman named Jenny and disguises himself as her dead husband. From there, a genuinely moving love story develops between one damaged woman and an outsider looking to understand the world around him. Combine that with a road trip across the country and a dramatic ticking clock in Starman's rapidly deteriorating health, and you've got a movie that works on multiple levels.

5 Altered States Is a Film Unlike Any Other

Ken Russell's trippy sci-fi film Altered States is one of the strangest films of the 1980s. This provocative British filmmaker was already well known for movies like The Devils and Tommy when he undertook this project based upon the novel by Paddy Chayefsky, and the two men frequently clashed over the direction of this film. Under Russell's vision, this movie became a gloriously weird story about a professor discovering new ways of journeying through altered states of consciousness.

Actors William Hurt, Blair Brown, and Bob Balaban are all fantastic in Altered States. However, the film's piece-de-resistance is its unrelenting willingness to explore a series of mind-bending ideas through jaw-dropping special effects sequences that find Hurt devolving through the stages of human consciousness into a primitive ape-man and beyond. Very few films made in the '80s will leave their audience as breathless and emotionally exhausted by the end as this one. It was such an integral film of the decade that when it came time for the Duffer Brothers to recreate the '80s for Stranger Things, they included an Easter Egg referencing Altered States​​​.

4 Scanners Elevated Sci-F to Explosive New Heights

It might have taken him almost ten movies to leave a mark on the box office, but Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg finally made a lasting impression with Scanners. The film explores the story of a shadowy security and weaponry company that employs a group of dangerous telepaths known as scanners and puts them to dastardly means. Little does this security company know that the scanners have some explosive plans of their own.

Even though it was David Cronenberg's most significant production when it was released, Scanners was not well regarded by critics. Since then, thoughts and opinions have changed, largely thanks to the film's incredible visuals, which have remained seared into the consciousness of anyone who's ever watched it. From exploding heads to gruesome telepathic duels, Scanners has seen its eye-popping special effects and prescient themes reevaluated in recent years and earned its rightful place among the best films David Cronenberg has ever made.

3 They Live Injected a Helping of Conspiracy Theory into Sci-Fi

John Carpenter's They Live revolves around aliens living in plain sight, which are only detectable through special X-ray glasses and have taken over our modern-day society. Today, the film is primarily regarded as one of Carpenter's most ambitious and thematically relevant films. However, critics had difficulty deciphering the film's artistic merits when it was first released.

That might have been related to John Carpenter's casting of professional wrestler Roddy Piper in the starring role. Even long-time They Live and Piper fans will admit that the grappler's acting is stilted at best and amateurish at worst. Regardless, there's no denying that Carpenter had his finger on the pulse of consumer society, and the film's satirical undercurrent remains deeply unsettling to this day.