Some people say the ’90s were a bad time for horror movies.
Those people are wrong.
In those movies place, the 90s introduced way more postmodern teen horrors (following on fromScream).
Meanwhile, the well-respected director ofThe Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola took a stab atDracula.
We have thus picked out the best 90s horror to feast your eyes on.
No sooner do they leave than the the town falls under the attack of giant subterranean worms dubbed graboids.
The grisly crime scenes have all the hallmarks of a Zodiac-like serial killer they call the Gemini Killer.
The only problem is the Gemini Killer is deadKindermen put him in the electric chair decades ago.
If that doesnt spook you, one of the all-time great jump scares sure as hell will.
Luckily for him, Annie saves his life when his car crashes on a snowy road near her house.
Not so luckily, Annie is enraged when she learns that Paul has killed off Misery.
So she decides to keep him captive until he writes the character back to life.
But in the case of the Yorgos Lanthimos hitPoor Thingsand 1990sFrankenhooker, the comparison is apt.
Like the Oscar winner,Frankenhookeris an aggressive feminist tale about a woman created by an overbearing man.
Even so, Jonathan Demmes psychological horror remains a classic that hasnt aged a day.
Yes, this is the movie that made Hannibal the Cannibal a pop culture icon.
Leroy (Ving Rhames) finds a solution in somebody who deserves to be robbed.
The simple breaking and entering job turns into a twisted thriller that psychologically messes with the viewer.
But once the young, Black, and reluctant criminal meets Alice (A.J.
Langer), he goes through the looking glass.
The people under the stairs are all too-real.
The kids are now imprisoned in the walls.
But it is also street legal horror that creeps you out and can keep you up at night.
Oldmans Dracula is one of the most human of the vampires because he is haunted.
And the woman that same specter now torments is white.
Shes everything youd want from a nanny and more.
Its the more that becomes a problem.
Look out for great supporting turns from Julianne Moore and a greenhouse.
We encourage you to drink every time theres a canted camera angle or one-liner.Hail to the King, Baby!
It comes from the Cronos machine, an intricately-carved, golden mechanical scarab with a living core.
The marvelously cinematic 400-year-old invention was designed and constructed by an alchemist as a key to eternal life.
Moreover, it pays homage to Stephen King andH.P.
Lovecraftwith a metatextual twist.
In the hands of any other directorIn the Mouth of Madnesswould feel winky and self-satisfied.
In the hands of Carpenter, it becomes pure mind-bending terror.
But dont worry, when the claws finally do come out, Freddy has never been meaner.
Just ask the smartass teenagers in this 90s touchstone.
Yeah, its a song we all heard before.
And the refrain is always the same: cash-in schlock.
Somehow it works, especially in an opening that shows what should happen if you talk in the theater.
DC
Ringu (1998)
This is where it all started.
There is so much more here than the bait and switch.
A breakout for child star Haley Joel Osment, the young actor plays Cole here.
Still, the child winds up trying to help them.
Its a terrible gift for this thoughtful boy who didnt ask for his power and doesnt want it.
Its a wonderful film, and if you dont tear up at the Do I make her proud?
moment, do you even have a heart?
From a certain vantage, which we imagine includes Burtons, it even looks like an exceedingly dry comedy.
This just happens to be one dripping in foreboding Halloween atmosphere.
DC
Ravenous (1999)
Westerns had a bit of a renaissance in the 1990s.
It was theAvatarof its day.
This is an amusingly mean-spirited dark comedy that never bites off more than it can chew.
And it chews up a lot.
Since childhood theyd all heard the stories about how an entity has haunted these lands since the 1600s.
Yet what they find is the slow realization that theyre lost and theres something in the woods with them.
Eventually, it even dawns on them that theyre recording their own demise.
When he meets the sweet and shy Asami (Eihi Shiina ), Aoyama thinks hes hit the jackpot.
