Welcome to another episode of The Video Store Podcast, where we dive into some classic films you might want to add to your watchlist. This week, I dug deep into my darkest fears and selected four classic movies from the 1980s that, in one way or another, either scared or scarred me for life.

My Bodyguard (1980)

All Clifford Peache had to do was surrender his lunch money to school bully Moody just like everybody else to avoid being constantly tormented. Instead he refused and comes with a plan to hire an even scarier student, Ricky Linderman, to be his bodyguard. This works briefly, until Moody gets a bodyguard of his own. For years after seeing this film I was terrified of moving on to middle school, mostly because I knew I could never afford to hire my own bodyguard.

The Outsiders (1983)

This classic coming of age film takes place during the 1960s in a small Oklahoma town where the Greasers are in a never-ending battle against the well-to-do kids in town, the Soc’s. With performances by C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane, Leif Garrett, it’s a wonder they had enough room for the film’s title on the movie poster. The struggle between classes, along with the senseless violence between the two gangs, bothered me as a kid; maybe even more so as an adult.

Bad Boys (1983)

Not to be confused with the more popular film franchise of the same name, this 1983 film stars Sean Penn as Mick O’Brien, a teenager on the wrong path who accidentally kills a drug dealer’s younger brother while fleeing a crime. Eventually O’Brien and the drug dealer, Paco, end up in a youth detention center with hardened criminals, but not before O’Brien’s girlfriend J.C. (played by Ally Sheedy in her film debut) is savagely attacked by Paco out of revenge. “Bad Boys” is a savagely dark film that features a scene in which O’Brien defends his life by using a pillowcase full of soda cans as a weapon. This movie worked better than any of those “Scared Straight” videos they showed us in school and made me afraid of getting in trouble with the law for life.

Red Dawn (1984)

By the time the opening credits come to an end, Colorado is being invaded by enemy paratroopers that signals the beginning of World War III. A small group of high school students known as the Wolverines are able to escape to the mountains where they use their knowledge of the land combined with their hunting and camping skills to survive. When it becomes obvious they will not be able to hide forever, the group begins attacking the enemy forces using guerilla warfare tactics. As a kid, this film made me painfully aware just how few survival skills I actually possessed. When you’re hiding from enemy soldiers in the Colorado Rockies during the winter, getting second place in a spelling bee seems wildly unhelpful.

I loved growing up int he 1980s, but between cable television, movie channels like HBO and Showtime, and satellite television, an entire generation of latchkey kids ended up seeing adult-themed movies earlier than we should have. Never accuse a Gen Xer of being soft. We’ve seen things.

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