~ The 21 Best Horror Movies of the 1990s ~

[MysteRy]

The 21 Best Horror Movies of the 1990s



Horror is a brilliant genre of film. Horror films are fantastic fun to watch if you like being scared, and it is extra fun knowing that you can hide behind your hands at scary scenes.

Because there are so many wonderful horror films in existence the best lists of horror films tend to need to be broken down in to categories. The 1990s may possibly not be pictured as the best decade for horror films, however the 90s could be credited with the beginning of a new sub-genre of horror; the self-aware slasher film.

The 90s saw the release of Scream (1996) which was a welcome addition to the slasher sub-genre which was becoming rather tired after many slasher films were released in the 80s and early 90s.

Scream revived this genre by being a horror film in its own right, whilst constantly acknowledging the fact that it was a horror film and thus becoming self-aware. Scream led to countless other new slasher films which on the whole were not as good; however there were a few other horror films from the 90s which were generally scary and fun to watch.

Some on the list may not be the most serious of films, for example they may include the antagonist of a giant underground worm or serial killer spiders. The 90s certainly had some intriguing horror film premises produced and as such a lot of the films listed are a lot of fun to watch. Some are based on books, but a lot were completely original ideas.

There are a mixture of all types of sub-genre of horror, the slasher, the serial killer film, the psychological horror, the vampire film, the monster film and the ghost story for example. Horror is such a fantastic genre as it has so many sub-genres and the genre is constantly growing and changing.

[MysteRy]

21. Copycat (1995)



Copycat is a serial killer horror film which was released in 1995. It stars the fabulous Sigourney Weaver as serial killer expert and psychologist, Helen Hudson. Helen has been an agoraphobic since the murderer, Daryll Lee Cullum, (Harry Connick Junior) viciously tried to murder her.

When a serial killer who is copycatting other serial killers starts killing in San Francisco, Detectives Monahan (Holly Hunter) and Goetz (Dermot Mulroney) end up seeking Helen’s advice. The serial killer starts targeting Helen and it all gets very frightening for her.

Copycat is an enjoyable horror thriller film; mainly due to the great acting and chemistry between the three main leads. The copycatting of famous serial killers narrative is very interesting. Copycat is a horror with a bit of a difference, and whilst it may be a bit silly and predictable in places it really is a great horror film to watch. Weaver and Hunter are a great double act too.

[MysteRy]

20. Tremors (1990)



Tremors chief antagonist is a giant worm / snake creature that lives under the ground. Its chief protagonist is played by Kevin Bacon as Val McKee who works as a handyman with his friend Earl. Strange things start happening nearby such as finding a man dead on top of a tower, apparently unable to leave the tower and thus dying of dehydration.

When a shepherd and his flock of sheep are also killed, Val and Earl travel to a nearby town to warn the inhabitants. They soon find out who the murderer is and it turns out to be a giant snake like creatures living under the ground which occasionally emerges to kill people and animals.

Although Tremors is a monster film, it is also quite amusing and not particularly scary, but it is great fun and definitely a re-watcher. It is such a great film generally down to its great cast and humour, and it is great entertainment.

[MysteRy]

19. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)



The tale of Dracula has of course been shown on the big screen in different ways for years. This version is one of the best in cinema. The film stars the wonderful Gary Oldman as Dracula and also features Keanu Reeves, Anthony Hopkins and Winona Ryder. Keanu Reeves’ performance may not have been the best but the film is still very good. The direction and acting pulls together to make a brilliant, technically amazing film.

In this version of Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, it is quite closely based on Bram Stoker’s novel. A young lawyer, Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) is sent to an Eastern European village where he is imprisoned by Dracula (Gary Oldman). Dracula then travels to London after seeing a picture of Jonathan’s other half, Mina Murray (Winona Ryder).

Whilst in London Dracula seduces and terrifies the country, and sorrys the life from Mina’s best friend, Lucy (Sadie Frost). After this Lucy’s friends try their best to rid them of this awful force. Gary Oldman is of course an absolutely amazing actor and he almost embodies the role of Dracula. Through Coppola’s visionary magic and the entrancing acting by Oldman this film pulls all elements together to be one of the best Dracula films ever.

[MysteRy]

18. Arachnophobia (1990)



If you are an arachnophobe it would be wise to advise you to avoid this film altogether. However, as an arachnophobe myself I couldn’t resist watching this, and of course it terrified me and I still to this day am unable to put my hand in a box of cereal or a bowl of popcorn.

When Dr. Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) and his family move to a small Californian town they are unaware that the town is soon to be infested by a giant swarm of killer spiders. And these killer spiders are ferocious; they will kill anyone in their way. If you are scared of spiders this film is absolutely terrifying and the whole film may be a watch through your fingers spectacle.

The cast make this film great fun with Jeff Daniels, John Goodman, and Julian Sands playing their parts to perfection. It is a must see for horror fans who also like an element of black comedy, and for those who can stomach watching all those spiders. You will be itching for a while after it though.

[MysteRy]

17. Cure (1997)



Cure is a Japanese horror film which stars Koji Yakusho as Kenichi, a detective with emotional problems, who is married to a mentally unstable woman. He is in the process of investigating a spate of murders; all murders committed the same way, but by different perpetrators each time. Kenichi works with a psychologist, Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) to find out what and who links these murders together.

Cure is a great horror film and a great scary murder mystery. It is a highly intelligent and brilliant thriller and horror film made brilliant by the built up atmosphere created in the film. The dialogue and performances are fantastic and Cure is just haunting and unsettling to watch.

[MysteRy]

16. Army of Darkness (1992)



Army of Darkness is the third film in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise. It again stars the iconic Bruce Campbell in his role as Ash Williams, but this time he is trapped in the Middle Ages and must defeat the army of the dead to return to the present. Although it is not as good as the first two Evil Dead films, it is still funny and great for a third film in a trilogy.

Army of Darkness is action packed and full of fun. The special effects are brilliant; they make the undead come to life, as do all the severed limbs. Bruce Campbell is brilliant as ever as Ash, the supermarket worker turned Zombie wrestler. Army of Darkness is a real treat.

[MysteRy]

14. Cronos (1993)



Cronos is a horror film of the vampire sub-genre, one of many fantastic horror films directed by horror brilliance, Guillermo Del Toro. Cronos was in fact Del Toro’s first feature film. The premise features a mysterious device which is designed to give the owner of the device eternal life. This device has been missing for 400 years but then re-emerges when it is found by an antiques dealer inside a statue, causing destruction after it lays its grip.

Cronos is an instantaneous horror classic. For Del Toro’s first feature film it is brilliant. Del Toro has a way with horror films, and it is always a real treat watching one of his. Vampire films are over-made and it is always interesting to have a different approach on a tired sub-genre, which Cronos does indeed have. It is gory, scary, brilliantly constructed, absorbing and stylish.

[MysteRy]

13. Dead Alive (Braindead) (1992)



Braindead has to be the best Zombie comedy gore film out there. Directed by Peter Jackson, it has become a cult film since its release. It stars Vera Cosgrove as Elizabeth Moody who is an overprotective and overbearing mother to Lionel (Timothy Balme). Elizabeth is bitten by a rather peculiar rat-monkey creature.

This bite turns Elizabeth into a zombie and thereafter Lionel keeps her locked in the basement. However, she keeps escaping and turns the neighbours and anything else nearby into zombies too. Lionel must try to stop her rampage before it is too late.

Dead Alive is possibly the best horror splatter comedy film ever made, be it amazingly disgusting but exceedingly good fun. Mum and Son are played perfectly, and the technical effects are just brilliant. It is no surprise that it has become such an iconic film.

[MysteRy]

12. Candyman (1992)



Candyman stars Virginia Madsen as Helen Lyle, a postgraduate student writing a thesis on the urban legend of ‘Candyman’ with her colleague and friend, Bernadette (Kasi Lemmons). The legend states that if a person says the word ‘Candyman’ five times into a mirror the hooked Candyman will emerge and kill you.

Helen is fearless and thinks nothing of going out to the scary gang ridden projects where Candyman has been spotted on numerous occasions and where he has allegedly committed all sorts of grisly murders. When she is brutally attacked by a copycat Candyman and he is arrested and charged she thinks that is the end of that, however she quickly discovers that Candyman may not be a legend after all.

The film is excellently creepy in its build up and Madsen is great as the lead, feisty and watchable. Xander Berkeley plays her untrustworthy husband and he is also great at playing this role. Tony Todd steals the film with his performance as the extremely frightening Candyman, embodying the character perfectly. I can understand why people who watch the film are too frightened to say Candyman five times in front of a mirror themselves, I know I certainly wouldn’t.

[MysteRy]

11. The Blair Witch Project (1999)



Since The Blair Witch Project the handheld camera / found footage film has really taken off, but The Blair Witch Project was the first of its kind which was such a success. The film tells the story of three student film-makers who disappear in Maryland whilst filming a documentary about a legend of the Blair Witch.

On its release it received critical acclaim. Its realistic approach with the handheld camera really made the film effective and it was very frightening. The acting by the three main cast members is very believable and it has some spooky and frightening moments.

It has a claustrophobic feel to it which is enhanced when they can not get out of the forest; the audience also feel trapped watching it. It taps into people’s deepest fears and nightmares. The Blair Witch Project is also so chilling, considering it doesn’t rely on effects for the scares, just sheer frightening moments.

[MysteRy]

10. Scream (1996)



Scream arrived on the big screen with a bang in 1996, highly anticipated by horror fans as it was the new film from Wes Craven. Scream grabbed the audience’s attention from the offset with a brilliant stalk and slash opener killing off its main star, Drew Barrymore, right away.

The remainder of the film stars Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, the typical ‘girl next door’ and Final Girl character, as she fights to survive against the psychotic masked killer who is killing her friends. The rest of the cast play their roles sublimely including, Liev Schrieber, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Rose McGowan and Matthew Lillard. Their characters are all typical clichés found in a horror film and they play them perfectly.

Scream shocked the audience at the ending (spoiler alert) when it was revealed that there were actually two killers all along. This had never happened before, and led the way to a few sequels in which a pairing was the case. Scream was brilliant at the time as it was so self-aware of its genre and it was a welcome addition to the horror genre.

[MysteRy]

9. Misery (1990)



Misery is of course based on the book by Stephen King and is a great adaptation, largely in thanks to Kathy Bates playing Nurse Annie Wilkes. When famous author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) crashes his car in the snowy mountains he is pulled to safety by Annie and taken to her home.

When Paul wakes up he is immensely grateful to Annie, but soon realises that she may not have told anyone else where he is. She constantly tells him she is his biggest fan, and he soon realises that she is going to keep him locked up in that bedroom forever. As he gets better, her moods get increasingly stranger and she does her best to keep him from leaving. Kathy Bates plays the part amazingly; she is very scary.

The pacing of Misery is just right, it is a brilliantly scary horror film and the audience don’t know what is coming next (unless they’ve read the book of course). Stephen King wrote a terrific novel in Misery, and luckily the screen adaptation lived up to it.

[MysteRy]

8. Stir of Echoes (1999)



The lovely Kevin Bacon plays Tom Witzjy in Stir of Echoes, a husband and father living in a rented house with his family trying to make ends meet. When his hippy sister in law hypnotises him at a party, he blacks out and suddenly finds himself hallucinating and seeing things he did not see before. His behaviour gets increasingly erratic and he behaves in increasingly strange ways as he hears and sees things from a vision of a young girl.

Stir of Echoes is brilliantly eerie, and it is one of those horror films that has an actual story and moral tale to it. It is very scary in its build up, and when the conclusion of the mystery is revealed it is very scary, but also very sad. Kevin Bacon is great playing his role along with Kathryn Erbe as his wife, Maggie.

[MysteRy]

7. Ringu (1998)



Ringu is another Japanese horror and mystery film of the 1990s. Ringu was a massive hit when it came out across the border, and was of course subsequently remade by America in 2002. The story of Ringu has a simple premise. Do not watch the videotape, if you watch the videotape you will die in seven days. But yet, people still watch the videotape.

Reporter Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) starts investigating the mysterious curse of the video tape after her niece and some friends are found dead after supposedly watching the tape. She watches the tape with her husband and immediately afterwards receives a telephone call telling her that she will die in seven days. After this her and her husband attempt to discover the tapes origins and try to break the curse on them.

Ringu is such a great horror film because it combines an old folk tale and appeals to all generations of movie goers. The films pace is perfect, it builds up the tension perfectly and it is constantly ticking closer to the end of the seven days. The film leaves a lot of the horror to the audience’s imagination and this proves such a success. It is also very very scary and creepy which is always a must for a brilliant horror film.