Nofilmschool iconNofilmschoolJul 15, 2026 ~1 min source read

6 Essential Movies of 1982: The Greatest Summer for Sci-Fi & Genre Films

A few years before I was born, there was a summer of science fiction movies where it seemed like every film released was unforgettable. I don't have access to a time machine, but if I did, I'd grab $20 and spend the summer of 1982 at the theater.

6 Essential Movies of 1982: The Greatest Summer for Sci-Fi & Genre Films

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A few years before I was born, there was a summer of science fiction movies where it seemed like every film released was unforgettable.

I don't have access to a time machine, but if I did, I'd grab $20 and spend the summer of 1982 at the theater.

Seriously, when I was researching this article, I found that some of the most important science fiction movies of all time came out within a few weeks of each other, and some debuted on the same day.

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A few years before I was born, there was a summer of science fiction movies where it seemed like every film released was unforgettable. I don't have access to a time machine, but if I did, I'd grab $20 and spend the summer of 1982 at the theater. Seriously, when I was researching this article, I found that some of the most important science fiction movies of all time came out within a few weeks of each other, and some debuted on the same day.

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  • Today, I want to talk about the six major movies that dominated that summer and that changed the world after they were released.
  • Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Dee Wallace, Peter Coyote, Robert MacNaughton Why It's Essential:
  • as a horror movie, but the deeper he got into the story with the writer Melissa Mathison, the more he began to understand this was a movie about a family that needed healing after a messy divorce.
  • Cinematographer Allen Daviau kept the camera locked at a low, child-level perspective for...

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