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Best Mystery Movies of the 1980s, Ranked by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDB
51 mystery films from the 1980s are in our catalog; the 50 best are ranked below. Top of the list is The Thing (1982), at 8.2 on IMDb. The average IMDb score across this list is 6.7. Biggest split between audiences and critics: Clue, 7.3 on IMDb against 41 on Metacritic.
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| # | Movie | Genre | IMDb | Tomato | Meta | TMDB | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Thing '1982 | Horror / Mystery / Sci-Fi | 8.2 | 85% | 57 | 8.1 | John Carpenter |
| 2 | Fanny and Alexander '1982 | Fantasy / Drama / Mystery | 8.1 | 100% | 100 | 7.8 | Ingmar Bergman |
| 3 | Mississippi Burning '1988 | Drama / Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.8 | 79% | 65 | 7.7 | Alan Parker |
| 4 | Blue Velvet '1986 | Mystery / Thriller / Crime | 7.7 | 87% | 75 | 7.6 | David Lynch |
| 5 | The Name of the Rose '1986 | Drama / Thriller / Mystery | 7.7 | 74% | 54 | 7.5 | Jean-Jacques Annaud |
| 6 | The Vanishing '1988 | Thriller / Mystery | 7.6 | 96% | - | 7.4 | George Sluizer |
| 7 | Blow Out '1981 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 7.4 | 88% | 86 | 7.3 | Brian De Palma |
| 8 | The Secret of NIMH '1982 | Animation / Fantasy / Mystery / Sci-Fi | 7.5 | 93% | 76 | 7.4 | Don Bluth |
| 9 | Missing '1982 | Drama / Mystery / Thriller | 7.7 | 94% | 78 | 7.2 | Costa-Gavras |
| 10 | Clue '1985 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 7.3 | 73% | 41 | 7.2 | Jonathan Lynn |
| 11 | Videodrome '1983 | Horror / Sci-Fi / Mystery | 7.2 | 83% | 58 | 7.2 | David Cronenberg |
| 12 | Angel Heart '1987 | Horror / Mystery | 7.2 | 82% | 61 | 7.1 | Alan Parker |
| 13 | The Great Muppet Caper '1981 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery / Romance | 7.1 | 78% | 70 | 6.9 | Jim Henson |
| 14 | The Great Mouse Detective '1986 | Animation / Mystery / Crime | 7.1 | 79% | 73 | 7.0 | Ron Clements |
| 15 | Day of the Dead '1985 | Horror / Drama / Mystery | 7.1 | 62% | 60 | 7.0 | George A. Romero |
| 16 | Evil Under the Sun '1982 | Thriller / Crime / Mystery / Drama | 7.1 | 86% | 61 | 6.9 | Guy Hamilton |
| 17 | Dressed to Kill '1980 | Thriller / Mystery / Horror | 7.0 | 84% | 74 | 6.9 | Brian De Palma |
| 18 | Tenebre '1982 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 7.0 | 83% | 83 | 6.8 | Dario Argento |
| 19 | Deathtrap '1982 | Mystery / Thriller / Comedy | 7.0 | 75% | 54 | 6.7 | Sidney Lumet |
| 20 | Angel's Egg '1985 | Animation / Fantasy / Mystery / Sci-Fi | 7.7 | - | - | 7.7 | Mamoru Oshii |
| 21 | Bianca '1984 | Drama / Comedy / Mystery | 7.3 | - | - | 7.5 | Nanni Moretti |
| 22 | Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid '1982 | Comedy / Mystery / Crime | 6.8 | 71% | 67 | 6.6 | Carl Reiner |
| 23 | Fletch '1985 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 6.9 | 79% | 68 | 6.7 | Michael Ritchie |
| 24 | Dead & Buried '1981 | Horror / Mystery | 6.5 | 71% | 71 | 6.4 | Gary Sherman |
| 25 | Opera '1987 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 6.9 | 90% | 68 | 6.7 | Dario Argento |
| 26 | Body Double '1984 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 6.8 | 79% | 69 | 6.7 | Brian De Palma |
| 27 | Gorky Park '1983 | Thriller / Crime / Drama / Mystery | 6.7 | 78% | 60 | 6.3 | Michael Apted |
| 28 | The Entity '1982 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 6.7 | 62% | 35 | 6.9 | Sidney J. Furie |
| 29 | Frantic '1988 | Mystery / Thriller | 6.8 | 77% | 66 | 6.7 | Roman Polanski |
| 30 | Young Sherlock Holmes '1985 | Mystery / Thriller | 6.8 | 70% | 65 | 6.8 | Barry Levinson |
| 31 | Psycho II '1983 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 6.6 | 66% | 54 | 6.5 | Richard Franklin |
| 32 | Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School '1988 | Animation / Mystery / Fantasy | 6.8 | - | - | 7.4 | Charles August Nichols |
| 33 | Cocoon '1985 | Comedy / Sci-Fi / Mystery / Drama | 6.7 | 82% | 65 | 6.6 | Ron Howard |
| 34 | Cruising '1980 | Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 6.5 | 50% | 43 | 6.6 | William Friedkin |
| 35 | The New York Ripper '1982 | Horror / Crime / Thriller / Mystery | 6.3 | 25% | - | 6.3 | Lucio Fulci |
| 36 | Tightrope '1984 | Mystery / Thriller / Crime | 6.3 | 86% | 61 | 6.2 | Richard Tuggle |
| 37 | April Fool's Day '1986 | Horror / Mystery | 6.2 | - | 49 | 6.0 | Fred Walton |
| 38 | City of the Living Dead '1980 | Horror / Fantasy / Mystery | 6.2 | 41% | - | 6.5 | Lucio Fulci |
| 39 | American Gigolo '1980 | Crime / Drama / Mystery | 6.3 | 73% | 57 | 6.2 | Paul Schrader |
| 40 | Intruder '1989 | Horror / Mystery | 6.1 | - | - | 6.2 | Scott Spiegel |
| 41 | Fletch Lives '1989 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 6.1 | 38% | 40 | 6.0 | Michael Ritchie |
| 42 | Who's Harry Crumb? '1989 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 5.9 | 33% | 44 | 6.0 | Paul Flaherty |
| 43 | The Presidio '1988 | Action / Crime / Mystery / Thriller | 6.0 | 41% | 31 | 5.8 | Peter Hyams |
| 44 | Psycho III '1986 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 5.5 | 62% | 58 | 5.7 | Anthony Perkins |
| 45 | Maniac Cop '1988 | Action / Horror / Mystery / Crime | 6.0 | 53% | 40 | 6.1 | William Lustig |
| 46 | The Final Conflict '1981 | Horror / Mystery / Thriller | 5.5 | 29% | 34 | 5.8 | Graham Baker |
| 47 | Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold '1986 | Action / Comedy / Mystery | 4.6 | - | - | 4.9 | Gary Nelson |
| 48 | Trail of the Pink Panther '1982 | Comedy / Crime / Mystery | 4.8 | 23% | 43 | 5.1 | Blake Edwards |
| 49 | Cocoon: The Return '1988 | Comedy / Sci-Fi / Mystery | 5.4 | 31% | 45 | 6.5 | Daniel Petrie |
| 50 | Prom Night '1980 | Horror / Mystery | 5.3 | 45% | 45 | 5.7 | Paul Lynch |
Our catalog covers roughly the 8,800 most-rated films on TMDB, so lesser-known titles may be missing. Order uses a confidence-weighted IMDb score so a perfect score from a handful of votes does not beat a well-established classic; the scores shown are the raw ones.
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Other genres in the 1980s
Action of the 1980s Animation of the 1980s Comedy of the 1980s Crime of the 1980s Drama of the 1980s Fantasy of the 1980s Horror of the 1980s Romance of the 1980s Sci-Fi of the 1980s Thriller of the 1980s War of the 1980s
Directors on this list
John Carpenter Ingmar Bergman Alan Parker David Lynch Jean-Jacques Annaud Brian De Palma Don Bluth Costa-Gavras David Cronenberg Ron Clements George A. Romero Guy Hamilton
Actors on this list
Kurt Russell Wilford Brimley Gene Hackman Willem Dafoe Sean Connery Christian Slater John Travolta Nancy Allen Jack Lemmon Sissy Spacek Tim Curry James Woods