Just how ‘Awesome’ were ‘80s films?

As “Totally Awesome 2,” a retrospective of films from the 1980s at the AFI Silver, comes to a close, it might be worth pondering just what that decade looked like when viewed through the filmmakers’ lens.

One would be forgiven for thinking that it was an era overly concerned with entertaining angst-filled young people when films by director John Hughes, John Hughes-knockoffs and movies starring John Cusack dominated the first half of the retrospective.

Among “The Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” “Better Off Dead …” and “One Crazy Summer,” the edgy teen comedy was at the height of its popularity.

The Hughes flicks, undeniably, were the best of the genre. Consider “The Breakfast Club,” for instance, when we learn that ’80s students were stratified into strictly defined social categories and united in their hatred of pompous principals.

Only after sharing a Saturday detention and a joint could they break down the walls dividing them. (We might also look to the ’80s Teen Wave for a breakthrough in the Middle Eastern peace process.)

When they weren’t busy wreaking havoc in a school library, ’80s teens were obsessed with their love lives — or, more accurately, the lack thereof. Molly Ringwald spent 93 minutes whining about being ignored by the dreamiest guy in the school, Sarah Jessica Parker pined after her dreamboat of a drama partner, and John Cusack starred in two separate movies as a too-witty-for-his-own-good teenager trying to get laid.

What was in the water back then?

In the ’40s, we got Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman; legitimate tough guys and feisty dames. In the ’80s we got Miss Ringwald and Mr. Cusack. Whiny brats.

All that whining must have driven a few directors off the deep end, considering the string of films in the retrospective that are crafted to give children bad dreams for decades to come. An obvious entry in that camp is “Poltergeist,” the Tobe Hooper-directed, Steven Spielberg-produced haunted house flick. What could be scarier than losing one’s home — that last, sacred sanctuary — to vengeful spirits?

Anything involving Jim Henson, apparently.

Have you watched “The Dark Crystal” or “Labyrinth” recently? Those movies are high octane nightmare fuel.

Co-directed by Mr. Henson and Frank Oz, “The Dark Crystal” took the pair’s puppet designs to new heights — and new depravities. It’s hard to describe just how terrifying it is to watch people-sized vulture-like creatures strip one of their brethren naked and exile him from their castle. Or how scary the crab army employed by said vultures is. You just have to see it for yourself.

“Labyrinth” took things to another level, combining puppeteered monstrosities with real-life stars. As cool as hanging out with David Bowie might have been, I wouldn’t have traded places with Jennifer Connelly for anything in the world if it meant going to that set every day.

Our nation’s youth weren’t the only ones being terrified.

For the (apparently very few) adults in the audience during the ’80s, there were the horrific stylings of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg.

Mr. Carpenter’s two films in the retrospective, “The Thing” and “They Live,” use radically different means to make the same basic point: The ’80s were a terrible, soulless era. “The Thing” is set in a barren wasteland, a place where, due to a shape-shifting alien menace, no one trusts anyone else.

“They Live,” meanwhile, was set in a bustling urban metropolis, a place where, due to a shape-shifting alien menace, professional wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper can’t trust anyone else.

You see? Radically different.

Mr. Cronenberg’s “Videodrome,” is about the horrors of television and its controlling influence on the masses… or something. With him, it’s always hard to tell. A church is prominently featured in the film, as is a sleazeball cable exec played by James Woods, and Blondie lead singer Debbie Harry partaking in some S&M action. The TV set, however, appears to be Mr. Cronenberg’s focal point.

People in the ’80s seem to have been really worried about television. At least Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Cronenberg were. And really, if those two aren’t representative of the masses, then who would be?