There have been a few golden age decades when it comes to the horror genre. The ’30s had Universal Monsters classics like Dracula and Frankenstein. The ’50s had iconic creature features like The Blob, Godzilla, and It Came from Beneath the Sea. The ’80s had slashers like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and these days we’re in the age of high-concept horror like Get Out and Midsommar. But what about the ’90s? It, too, had a ton of classics, some well-established like The Silence of the Lambs and Scream while others have gone a bit under the radar.
What follows are films that don’t necessarily fall under either umbrella. Sure, some of these movies deserve to have their fanbase increased, but they’re not exactly the deepest cuts on the planet. However, to be included, they needed to be straightforward horror movies, or at least have the primary emphasis be on the horror genre, so nothing like Flatliners or Ghost, which have horror elements certainly but are not horror films.
We also left out franchise movies. Apologies to Child’s Play 2, Alien 3, The Exorcist III, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, the aforementioned Scream, etc. Which of these scary movies are you going to choose for tonight?
1) Arachnophobia
It’s surprising that the planned reboot of Arachnophobia didn’t pan out, because it’s not the type of ’90s movie that only really works in the ’90s. Like with flying and snakes, plenty of people are frightened (or at least creeped out) by spiders.
Executive produced by Steven Spielberg, produced by Kathleen Kennedy, and directed by Frank Marshall, Arachnophobia has the family focus one might expect from a movie that falls under the banner of the company those three created, Amblin Entertainment. Meaning it literally focuses on a family, but it also has an accessibility to all members of a viewing family, regardless of age. In other words, Arachnophobia is a terrific starter horror film for younger audience members, with a quick pace for a 110-minute movie and a few solid comedic beats (most of them courtesy of John Goodman).
2) Misery
There’s an argument to be made that Kathy Bates delivered the strongest performance in Stephen King adaptation history as Annie Wilkes in Rob Reiner’s Misery. But she’s not the only reason the movie works as well as it does.
For one, Reiner proved twice that he was a fantastic adapter of King material, with the first example being the breezy and heartfelt Stand by Me four years earlier. Furthermore, Misery is one of King’s stronger novels, with a nail-biting plot and genuine sense of building dread throughout. What works in the novel is successfully carried through to the movie.
3) Nightbreed
No one was better at adapting Clive Barker source material than the man himself. His directorial debut, Hellraiser, was one of the best horror films of the ’80s and remains a highly inventive classic to this day.
Then there’s Nightbreed, a film that was poorly marketed and edited to shreds. But even in that truncated cut, one could see hints of the brilliance within the full narrative. Fortunately, a director’s cut was released in 2014 (sometimes called Cabal, which was the title of the book), and it is well worth seeking out. Admittedly, Nightbreed will turn some viewers off with its bloody visuals and grim tone, but for those who can hop on the film’s loving-the-ostracized wavelength, it’s a treasure.
Stream Nightbreed on Prime Video.
4) Tales from the Darkside: The Movie
While the same year’s Two Evil Eyes is solid enough, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is 1990’s best anthology horror film. It might even be the best anthology movie of the ’90s as a whole, which is quite impressive considering it came from a show that wasn’t so great, even if it was created by George A. Romero after Creepshow took off (it was basically Tales from the Crypt if that HBO show had seven dollars and a handful of acorns for a budget).
Including the wraparound story, there are four total sections in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie. And, while most wraparound stories are just kind of there, this one’s is great. It stars Blondie’s Deborah Harry as a witch living in a suburb who is preparing her next meal: Timmy (Matthew Lawrence from Mrs. Doubtfire). The three main segments, the first of which involves a mummy, Steve Buscemi, Julianne Moore, and Christian Slater. The second main segment is “Cat from Hell,” based on a Stephen King short story, and the final segment (which is also its best), involves the devastating result of a broken promise.
5) The People Under the Stairs
If there’s an undersung masterpiece of the late Wes Craven’s filmography, it is undoubtedly The People Under the Stairs. While it comes packing scares, it’s more an analysis of gentrification, racism, class warfare, greed, and incest. It covers a tone of bases, none of them pleasant.
We follow Brandon Adams’ (delivering terrific work for such a young actor) Poindexter “Fool” Williams, who tags along on a burglary and ends up being the sole survivor of the group, trapped in a super-fortified house owned by a deranged couple who just so happen to be brother and sister. They’re also homicidal, bigots, and have a bunch of emaciated people (barely) living behind their walls.
6) Popcorn
Thanks to The Stepfather and Cutting Class, Jill Schoelen was one of the late ’80s better scream queens, and she kept that going through the early ’90s with Popcorn and When a Stranger Calls Back. That latter film is skippable, but Popcorn is an enjoyable and bizarre scarer.
The plot follows a group of college kids putting on a film festival, right up until they and their teacher become targeted by a serial killer. Popcorn is worth watching thanks to its smart script and energetic pacing, but mostly for its truly creepy looking villain.
7) Vampires
The best years of John Carpenter’s directorial career were from the late ’70s to the late ’80s. He helmed Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live within that period, all of which are either cult favorites or flat-out masterpieces of horror or action cinema.
Unfortunately, his ’90s saw a major slip in quality. Memoirs of an Invisible Man, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, and Escape from L.A. all fell far short of the quality seen throughout the previous decade. Vampires, however, is a ton of fun. It has action elements, sure, but the primary focus is still horror, and those who tuned out of Carpenter’s work (or vampire movies in general, really) because of those other ’90s movies are missing out on one of his most purely enjoyable works, even if it’s not the most frightening project he’s ever released.
Stream Vampires on Netflix.
8) Deep Rising
Featuring one of the best giant movie monsters, Deep Rising is often lumped into the action genre as much as it is the horror genre. And somewhat fair enough to that. For one, it was the film Stephen Sommers made before The Mummy, another horror-action genre blender, but if anything, Deep Rising skews horror while The Mummy skews action.
For one, there are some super gory moments in Deep Rising. Two, the giant toothed squid causing all the film’s damage is an even more intimidating beasty than Imhotep. The next time you watch The Mummy, put in Deep Rising next instead of The Mummy Returns, it’s far better than that bloated mess.
9) Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow did well at the box office and even netted positive reviews, but the 25 years of inferior Tim Burton movies that followed its 1999 release seem to have made people forget it a bit. Or, at the very least, not give it the credit it deserves.
Has the whole Burton and Johnny Depp dynamic been done to death by this point? Sure, but it works very well here, as does Depp’s chemistry with Christina Ricci. Toss in an amazing supporting cast, some impressive special effects, gorgeous production design, a solid twist, and a haunting cameo by Christopher Walken, and Sleepy Hollow deserves to be seen as one of the very best films Burton has ever helmed.
10) Stir of Echoes
Since it was released just one month after M. Night Shyamalan’s massive hit The Sixth Sense, fellow ghost movie Stir of Echoes kind of came and went. Admittedly, it’s gone on to gain a strong following over the years, but it’s still not held in the same regard as Shyamalan’s film.
But it should be, because quality wise Stir of Echoes and The Sixth Sense are fairly close. Kevin Bacon is great as Tom Witzky, a telephone technician who, after a hypnosis session, begins experiencing vivid illusions. But are they illusions, or hints at a horrible occurrence from the past?
Stream Stir of Echoes on fuboTV.
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