The 1980s didn’t just give us great horror movies. It gave us horror icons. Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Chucky, Pinhead and more became larger than the films themselves, turning slashers, supernatural horror and practical-effects nightmares into full-blown pop culture.

In this Sunset Video retrospective, we rewind the decade that made horror villains into movie stars, look at why these characters connected with audiences, how VHS and the video store era helped build their legends, and why the icons of ’80s horror still dominate the genre today.