20 Best Horror Movies Of the 1990’s
The 70’s is a great time for horror movies but for some reason the 90’s get over looked severely. Perhaps its because the 90’s is when I was a kid but I for one think that 90’s horror movies are some of the best.
I took a minute and pulled together a list of what I deem to be some of the best horror movies of the 1990’s. This was not an easy list to make and it could very easily have been a top 40 but for the sake of time I wanted to keep it at 20. So in no particular order here are twenty 90’s horror films that I think everyone should see.
Army of Darkness
Army of Darkness has a soft spot in my heart and is one of the few films I shelled out to buy in a few different formats. Bruce Campbell is a legend and for me Army of Darkness is his best film with its mix of campy humor and supernatural elements.
An S-Mart employee thrown back to the middle age with a shotgun, a car, chainsaw and loaded witty banter? Whats not to like?
IT
Stephen Kings IT is one of the scariest movies I saw in the 90’s. I have never liked Clowns and after seeing IT I my knee jerk reaction to clowns now is to double down and start throwing punches. Can never be to safe.
IT is the story of a group of kids who reunite as adults to reflect on the evil presence from their childhood, ala the Clown!
Night of the Living Dead
George Romero’s black and white master piece is one of the greatest horror movies of all time. That said the remake directed by Tom Savini and produced by George Romero is an equally fantastic film.
Tom Savini took what Romero did in the first one and polished it while paying perfect tribute to the original. If you are new to horror and cant bring yourself to watch a black and white movie checkout Savini’s remake. It should be enough to get you to watch George Romero’s
Misery
MISERY is the story of an uber fan who kidnaps her favorite author and does unspeakable things to him all because she loves him so much and wants to keep him to herself.
Thank the gods I do not have problems like this! The movie stars James Caan and Cathy Bates. Cathy won an Academy Award for her role.
Event Horizon
Hollywood has always made space travel oh so glamorous with splashy guitar rifts, guns in space and an overall tone of man going to space to do our duty of saving the Universe. Event Horizon is anything but a tribute to mankind’s superiority.
It is the story of a group of space travelers who go to find a missing space craft and in doing so discover that space is not the only thing that this ship has traversed. Brutal, violent and a complete trip Event Horizon is the Rosemary’s Baby of outer space.
Cape Fear
Admittedly Cape Fear is more thriller then true blue horror but it is a fantastic film about a family that is terrorized by a criminal. As fans we love to crap all over remakes but this 1991 film by Martin Scorcese is a remake of the 1962 film of the same name. It stars Nick Nolte back in his better days, Robert Deniro and Jessica Lange.
CAPE FEAR is a great example of the worst horror which is not a monster or supernatural being but a man hell bent on revenge.
Silence of the Lambs
Silence of the Lambs is Cape Fear on steroids. It stars Anthony Hopkins as a deranged killer who is an intellectual cannibal who is capable of matching wits with anyone including the FBI agent ( played by Jodie Foster) sent to get his help on catching a serial killer he is connected to.
Anthony Hopkins won a best actor award for his work in Silence of the Lambs and it is very deserving! It spawned multiple followup films which were not as good as this one but certainly far from horrible.
The Faculty
When we were in school we all thought our teachers were aliens from outter space and in the case of The Faculty they really are. Written by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson and directed by Robert Rodriguez The Faculty is an outstanding teen horror film that evolves around a group of students who must unite to not just take back their school but also save the world.
The film stars Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett as well as the stunning Selma Hayek who plays a ‘school nurse’… if only she really was.
SEVEN
Silence of the Lambs is easily the best serial killer movie of all time but a close second would go to SEVEN which is the story of a serial killer who is killing people with the Seven Deadly Sins as the premise for the victims demise.
Co-starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey and Gwyneth Paltrow it is a polished film with a great story, a dark visual style and one of the best twist endings on film. This is just one of many of director David Fincher’s great films
Tremors
TREMORS is the ultimate b-movie from the 90’s. The film which stars Kevin Bacon is the story of two handy men in a dusty small village who encounter giant ‘earth worms’ that are eating up everyone in sight and must take a stand or become dinner.
TREMORS is hilarious and highly entertaining and spawned a franchise of mediocre sequels.
SCREAM
Say what you might about the SCREAM franchise as a whole there is no denying that the original film by Wes Craven is a classic and is the only reason I even know who Neve Campbell is.
It co-starred Courtney Cox and the always corny David Arquette and is one of the best teen scream movies of the last decade as well as one of the best horror films to come out of the 90’s
From Dusk Till Dawn
Robert Rodriguez is already on the list with his teen horror The Faculty but that movie paled in comparison to his Vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn.
Starring Danny Trejo, Quentin Tarantino, George Clooney and the smoking hot Salma Hayek its the story of two killers on the run who meet a fence in a Mexican bar but quickly discover this bar has more on the menu then stale chips and beer. Its feeding time!
Bram Stokers Dracula
I am not a huge fan of Keeanu Reeves and people love to bag on him but there is one film he did that really stands out and its Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The premise is not new to any of us but the cast which included Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Anthony Hopkins is part of the reason why this take on Dracula is so fantastic.
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola in my opinion its the best modern telling of Dracula I have seen.
Blair Witch
Blair Witch was made on a shoe string budget and until Paranormal Activity came along it was the most profitable horror movie of all time. I have never seen Paranormal Activity because the marketing annoyed me, I don’t need a studio to tell me how scary a movie is every 30 seconds.
Blair Witch on the other hand I did see and it relied on word of mouth to terrorize fans and I for one found it damn creepy. Blair Witch is a testament to great indie horror film making and is one of the best movies from the 90’s hands down.
Dead Alive
Back before Peter Jackson became famous for doing Tolkien films he was cranking out horror comedies like Dead Alive and The Frighteners. Dead Alive is one of the goriest and best horror movies ever made.
It is the story of a group of explorers who capture a Sumatran Rat Monkey which is the result of Plague Rats raping monkeys ( yeah that is really the premise ). After being brought back to civilization mayhem and bloodshed ensues.
Hardware
I only saw HARDWARE in the last few years and I must say it is truly one of the best Sci-Fi horror films ever made. Directed by Richard Stanley and starring Dylan McDermott and Stacey Travis its the story of an apocalyptic future where a scavenger brings back some robot debris for his girlfriend to make into ‘art’.
Unfortunately this debris is a killer cyborg which quickly turns things into a bloody mess. HARDWARE makes the Terminator look like a wussy!
Graveyard Shift
I think I might be alone on this one but Stephen Kings Graveyard Shift for me is a blast. Its the story of a drifter who takes work in a mill and soon encounters a major rat problem which has an even bigger problem. Emphasis on bigger.
If you have a fear of rodents Graveyard Shift will not make it better.
Vampires
In John Carpenters Vampires James Wood’s stars as a vampire hunter who works for the Catholic church. They traverse the United States staking the undead on a mandate set forward by the Holy Sea.
Things get a bit sticky and they face a serious threat when they discover their is a Master Vampire on the loose and he is now hunting the hunted. Not John Carpenters best film but far from his worst I have a real soft spot for VAMPIRES.
CUBE
The canadians strike gold with CUBE which was the first feature film of the Canadian Film Center. It is the story of a group of strangers who wake up in a cube with no memory and must figure out their bearings and how to escape.
Far before Jigsaw put people in traps the CUBE was turning them into mince meat
Ravenous
Antonia Bird’s 1999 horror film of an 18th century expedition led by the Donner Party is loosely based in reality. The film stars Guy Pearce and David Arquette and is the story of the Donner Partys demise in the harsh winter and the later realization something much more evil took place.
David Arquette gets very little respect as a serious actor but his work in Ravenous was nothing short of genius and show she truly is a talented man.
So there you have it 20 horror movies from the 90’s that I feel are some of the best. Now clearly making a Top 20 based off hundreds of horror films is no easy feat and I am sure I missed some note able ones. Now is your turn to hit the comments and share your favorites.
If I did miss some tell me but lets try to refrain from the trolling, you don’t have to like my list or even agree with it entirely but hopefully you can respect its my list and appreciate some of the choices while sharing some that I missed!
