Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1985 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
Advertisement
We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1985 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1984 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s Oct. 18, 1985, and we’re off to see The Holcroft Covenant, The Quiet Earth, Re-Animator, and Wild Geese II.
The Holcroft Covenant
What if all of the boring side quests of a video game were just loosely tied together into one movie? Oh, and throw in an incest twist for the heck of it!
Noel Holcroft (Michael Caine) learns that his father and two other men were Nazis, but before their deaths they amassed a fortune to be spent by their children to right all of the wrongs they committed. The time has come for the money to be put to good use, but some people have nefarious plans for the billions of dollars.
The vast majority of this movie is just Holcroft running all over the world to meet some random character and learn some snippet of information. It is exactly like all of those side quests in video games where you have to go talk to the blacksmith to learn that you really need to go talk to the farmer, but first you need to see the doctor in the peasant village…
But hold up, people may be getting bored, we best throw in a incest curveball between a brother and sister to make sure everyone is paying attention!
It’s an incredibly boring film and it feels like the cast knew it as they were filming it.
The Quiet Earth
A quirky little film with a can-do attitude.
Set in New Zealand, an experiment in a wireless global power grid goes awry and a man, a member of the team working on the grid, finds himself alone in the world. As madness descends from the isolation, he finally ends up finding two other companions who discover the reason they made it through the event may not be quite why they would have wanted to.
It’s an odd little film, but quite enjoyable. You can see it is sharing some DNA with stories such as I Am Legend, but you can see where its legacy continued on to influence projects such as Z for Zachariah and Last Man on Earth.
There is nothing remarkable here, but it was entertaining and a bit unique.
Re-Animator
I have to admit, this was a hole in my 1980s horror watching. Yes, it’s true.
Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) is a student at the University of Zurich when he comes up with a medicine that can reanimate the dead. His first instance doesn’t go well, but he continues to refine it, and takes his project to Miskatonic University in Arkham, Mass. His efforts get the attention of Dr. Hill (David Gale) who comes up with other plans for the formula.
There seems to have been a real moment in the 80s with a more comical take on horror with the likes of this film and The Return of the Living Dead already this year. While Re-Animator very much is a horror film, it’s never afraid to throw in a few laugh beats as well.
It’s kitsch. It’s fun. You might as well throw it on and have yourself a good time.
Wild Geese II
This is a sequel to the 1978 film Wild Geese… don’t worry, that is literally all you need to know about the first film.
John Haddad (Scott Glenn) is a mercenary and is hired to break Rudolf Hess (Laurence Olivier) out of Spandau Prison so people can exploit the secrets he knows that could destroy some political careers. There are multiple groups after Hess, and Haddad becomes popular with all of them to try to stage the break out.
The film kicks off with a quick montage of the 1978 film and then immediately ignores that and just moves on. Considering the first film didn’t even make a profit, one has to wonder why anyone felt the need to attach this film to the other’s legacy. It was a truly non-sensical choice.
And then there is this film’s own lack of merits. I’m all for a good heist film, and I understand there has to be the preparation for the actual act, but the amount of time this one takes, along with the pacing is just egregious.
As a sequel and as it’s own film, this is simply not entertaining.
1985 Movie Reviews will return on Oct. 11, 2025, with Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and Silver Bullet.
