check out Prince of Darkness by John Carptener
http://imdb.com/title/tt0093777/
it came out in 1987 so it sort of fits your timeline and it's about a team of researchers who... ok i forget exactly why they're there but there's some sort of dimensional gate involved and people die one by one. I don't remember a cook having an apple in her mouth as she's pulled into an air duct so this might not be it, but as a top-of-my-head suggestion i'd say look at this and see... If Alice Cooper commanding a group of satanic homeless people and those little interstital bits on DJ Shadow's Endtroducing album talking about "you are recieving this transmission from the year 1-9-9-9" seem eerily familiar to you then this is that movie.