The Blue Iguana is a personal favourite of mine. No connection to the later film Dancing at the Blue Iguana.
Hell yes, Buckaroo Banzai counts. And sorry about missing post 10… you know we love you! 
There’s Videodrome, which I believe was a fairly mainstream release but I think it jumped to cult status rather quickly. It’s funny to think back on it, the idea of a quaint 80s bulgy video monitor seems decidedly unmenacing these days. Ooooooh, my TV is sinister! But it did have Debbie Harry, who embodied “edgy” in the early 80s.
My favorite underappreciated movie from the 80s was Dogs In Space, which I would argue had a cult following, if you consider teenage INXS fangirls to be a cult.
Sweet, thanks, BrainGlutton. Not sure if I’m going to shell out twenty big ones for a used copy, but maybe if I can get a bunch of people together, Mystery Science Theatre style…
Was it Scanners or BrainStorm that had Natalie Woods and exploding heads? Maybe I am mixing up all three films. I always paired it with Videodrome for some reason.
Some Cult or small movies that reflected small portions of the 80s culture in America included Valley Girl, Purple Rain and Body Double that included the one hit wonder Frankie Goes to Hollywood performing Relax.
RoboCop was a bit of a cult movie. Especially the too often heard quote “I’d buy that for a dollar!”
Jim
Anything pre-The Fly with David Cronenberg’s name on it automatically qualifies as a cult film.
To What Exit- BrainStorm had Natalie Wood, I don’t know about exploding heads- though Scanners had that a-plenty, but no Natalie Wood.
From the late '80s, there’s Cherry 2000 with Melanie Griffith and Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death with Bill Maher.
Lethal Weapon! I watched it SO many times in the lobby of various guesthouses on Khao San Road here in Bangkok, big bottle or three of Singha beer in front of me. Guesthouses still show movies today to attract customers, and about 1988, for some reason every one of them was showing Lethal Weapon. Some good memories.
Edit: The wife has come to love it, too, and we watch it every year in December as one of our Christmas movies. (You forgot the Christmas theme in it, I’ll bet.)
Scanners had exploding heads. Brainstorm had Natalie Wood. Videodrome had neither but there were . . . other things.
Inspired, I’m sure, by the cliche-line “Would you buy that for a quarter?!” from the 1951 dysgenic-pressure SF short story “The Marching Morons,” by Cyril Kornbluth.
Almost all of my favorites have been mentioned already, so I’ll just add:
and
and
in the category of Sci-Fi/Horror, and
in the category of quirky character movie.
Some that haven’t been mentioned:
Akira (1988)
Better Off Dead (1985)
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
Blade Runner (1982)
Blood Simple (1985)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Brazil (1985)
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Excalibur (1981)
Gates of Heaven (1980)
Hairspray (1988)
Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
House of Games (1987)
The Killer (1989)
The King of Comedy (1983)
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains (1981)
Local Hero (1983)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Manhunter (1986)
Meet the Feebles (1989)
Mommie Dearest (1981)
Ms. 45 (1981)
My Best Friend’s Birthday (1987)
Near Dark (1987)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Real Genius (1985)
Re-Animator (1985)
Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)
Scarface (1983)
Sid and Nancy (1986)
Stardust Memories (1980)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
The Toxic Avenger (1985)
UHF (1989)
Weird Science (1985)
Withnail and I (1987)
I think I opened a thread on this a while back which was D.O.A., but has ANYONE but me seen Dead Beat (made in 1994, granted)?
Damn you! I was almost to the end of this thread and was happy to be the one to post this movie. Why did you have to ruin my fun?
Ha! I have a link! Anyway, I watched this movie every time it was on USA’s Night Flight. Every time I see Diane Lane in any other movie, I still associate her with this one.
I’ve got another one that I still feel compelled to watch when it’s on. Night of the Comet
As a teenage girl, my favorite part was when they were at the mall and had it all to themselves. Was that movie ever MST3K’d? It would seem to be a good candidate.
Lethal Weapon was a huge mainstream hit in the US. Not a cult film at all here. As far as the Christmas theme, my brother and I have joked for years, that it is the second best Christmas film after Die Hard. I even saw a national comic strip run the same basic joke 5 or 6 years back.
Jim
Damn you, I was going to rail on Little Nemo for ruining my fun, and you ruined it!
Why is L&G, TFS not out on DVD? WHY?!
Yes, good God, I watch that movie every month. In fact…
As several others have replied–Of Course! Remember those 80’s fashions? (Isn’t it about time for skinny ties to come back in style?)
A personal favorite: Starstruck–an Australian film made in 1982 & just now available here on DVD. Silly (but not bad) New Wave styles, music & dancing. Will the young folks win that talent prize & save the family pub?
Naked Lunch, should count, though made in 1991. Perhaps the last of the '80s cult movies (in this case, adapted from a '50s cult novel).
Why don’t they make movies like these any more?!
If you go to (1) an adult-video store or (2) a cult-video store, you might be able to rent it.
Not as artistically successful, but much more pornographically successful and just as '80s-cultish: New Wave Hookers. (Finding an unexpurgated original cut might be problematic; it had the underage Traci Lords in it.)