And don’t forget those weird muppets in Labyrinth that pulled their heads off while singing.

The 80s were a great time to be a kid but, yeah, no one cared if we got terrified to the point of not being able to sleep on a regular basis. :)

The threat of nuclear war wasn’t awesome either but we had punk rock, D&D, and it still made sense to buy comic books.

and not every good guy somehow had to survive. that blonde guy (Eric?) died pretty brutally, and even though off-screen the babies mum and the nanny clearly died brutal deaths (and it was heavily implied), I think you even hear the nanny being torn apart by wolves

Oh yes… I still remember the first time seeing that scene where everyone (almost) got turned into pigs in Willow. It really freaked me out at the time.
*shudders*

I think the heavy reliance on physical props, models and scenery. Combined with a certain darker style of story telling really made those movies stand out.