Horror

often stretches the limits of filmmaking more than any other genre. Horror films explore people’s fears and can commonly feature metaphorical stand-ins for political and social circumstances in the form of monsters and spirits. The requirements of bringing harrowing realities and fantastic visceral moments to life and making them believable have historically pushed for new and improved visual effects techniques. For instance, the creative team for Hollow Man, one of Kevin Bacon’s horror movies, created new technology to properly portray the protagonist’s invisibility.

Horror movies also often approach storylines from unprecedented angles or reinterpret legends about monsters to address real-life social issues. For instance, Jennifer’s Body, a great horror comedy movie, juxtaposes cheesy 2000s postfeminism with supernatural horror in the form of a vengeful teenage girl to create a feminist classic. However, Jennifer’s Body didn’t get the recognition it deserved until recent reᴀssessments reclaimed it. It isn’t rare for horror movies to be unlike anything else made before and there are plenty of examples from the 1990s.

10

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Directed By Wes Craven

Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street changed horror cinema forever by introducing one of the most iconic villains in the genre’s history: Freddy Krueger. His appearance has become immortalized by Halloween costumes every year and because he presents a unique kind of danger — he can get you into your dreams, when sleep may be considered a safe time. Craven didn’t return to the franchise that he started for a decade, by which time, there had been six movies.

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare will always be the lowest-grossing entry in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Unfortunately, it was too ahead of its time, and Craven would have to wait a couple of years to find success with meta-horror with Scream. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare breaks the fourth wall by featuring real-life people playing themselves on a movie set. Its witty writing and the homages it pays to the original movie earned it critical acclaim, and it is considered one of the best in the franchise today.

9

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Directed By Daniel Myrick & Eduardo Sánchez

The Blair Witch Project changed millennials’ lives as kids with scenes that belong in the horror movie Hall of Fame. It revitalized the found footage niche of horror and created one of the biggest movie-based conspiracy theories ever. Due to the marketing, which involved the making of a website trying to present the film’s story as real-life occurrences, horror film buffs were trying to prove the events did really happen.

The Blair Witch Project was a revolutionary horror film that popularized a subgenre and inspired many independent filmmakers. Young people with an interest in horror who don’t have studio sets, budgets, or actors, are known to make their own found-footage horror films with whatever limited resources they can gather. The film was ahead of its time and continues to enthrall directors who pick apart details to learn what choices work for a horror movie and what don’t.

8

In The Mouth of Madness (1994)

Directed By John Carpenter

John Carpenter has had one of, if not the most, illustrious careers as a horror filmmaker. His Halloween spawned one of the longest-running horror franchises in Hollywood history and its villain, Michael Myers, lives on as a horror icon today. However, he wasn’t always appreciated for his films when they were released, The Thing being the biggest example of a Carpenter film that only found admiration years after its release as a celebrated cult classic.

Among his underrated horror movies is In the Mouth of Madness, a film that was too inventive to find an audience when it was released. It follows an insurance agent who discovers that the person he’s investigating has made his morbid imagination manifest. In the Mouth of Madness follows the main character’s descent into chaos as he loses his grip on reality. Carpenter pays tribute to H.P. Lovecraft with the monsters in the movie, but the real horror comes from realizing a man imagined the monsters attacking the town.

7

Scream (1996)

Directed By Wes Craven

After a series of flops, including Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, the director was looking for a film to establish himself on the scene again. The opportunity presented itself in the form of a Kevin Williamson screenplay, which played on the elements of the slasher genre with a meta sense of humor. Scream revolutionized slashers by introducing Ghostface, a character who helped reshape genre expectations, and injecting an element of self-awareness into the writing.

It became a surprise hit in 1996 despite being released around Christmas, as everyone immediately loved the sense of humor and the actors’ performances. Scream revived both Wes Craven and Drew Barrymore’s careers and helped Neve Campbell break through. However, despite Ghostface creating a sense of mystery, the critics were disappointed by the use of humor to undercut the suspense, and the world was definitely not prepared for the violence on display. That garage door murder has become iconic today but wasn’t appreciated back then.

6

Mirror, Mirror (1990)

Directed By Marina Sargenti

Dark horror movies that inspire viewers’ inner goths are in demand today like never before. The recent remake of The Crow failed to live up to the original movie, but interest in the film proves that there is an audience for it. Unfortunately, this was not the case in 1990, as Maria Sargenti’s Mirror, Mirror only found a cult following upon release and a lukewarm reception from critics.

Mirror, Mirror follows a bullied teenager’s journey as a powerful black magician after she finds a haunted mirror that grants her special abilities. It explores the protagonist’s Sєxual awakening and symbolically addresses the dark side of temptation through the character’s gradual transformation into a homicidal person. It is somewhat similar to The Craft, and one can only wonder if it would have found more success if it came out a few years later.

5

Flatliners (1990)

Directed By Joel Schumacher

Joel Schumacher, most infamous for his Batman movies that flopped, also made memorable thriller movies over the span of his career. However, his earlier works were often in the horror genre. After making waves with his movie The Lost Boys, which has become a cult classic today, he directed Flatliners, starring Kevin Bacon in the leading role. It follows a group of medical students who try to simulate death.

Their experiences are invigorating, and they start making observations to figure out the nature of the afterlife, but it soon dooms them as they start facing permanent consequences. Despite having such a brilliant premise, the repeтιтive form of storytelling earned the film lukewarm reviews. The pattern was necessary to establish how dangerous the experiments were, but that wasn’t appreciated upon release. There was a remake in 2017, albeit much worse, which proves that current audiences are more attuned to the sort of story Flatliners tells.

4

Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Directed By Adrian Lyne

Adrian Lyne is most famous for his sleazy romance movies like Fatal Attraction, Flashdance, and Indecent Proposal. So, it’s praiseworthy that he pivoted hard to make a psychological horror movie in 1990 and delivered such fantastic direction. Jacob’s Ladder follows the тιтular Jacob, played by Tim Robbins, who was a soldier in the Vietnam War and is currently mourning the death of his child.

Openly challenging the U.S. government’s handling of the war, the film delves into Jacob’s experience of being drugged while serving. His PTSD and his grief intersect to create a haunting and claustrophobic atmosphere in which the movie is set, being told from his perspective. Unfortunately, Jacob’s Ladder barely made any profits at the box office and didn’t find much in the way of appreciation until its release on VHS. The audiences were likely not prepared for the visceral editing of the film that blends the Vietnamese battlefield with the urban setting of NYC.

3

Event Horizon (1997)

Directed By Paul W. S. Anderson

Alien V Predator is one of those horror movies that gets a lot of flack but has enough likable elements in it, including the energetic action sequences involving the two iconic creatures from both franchises. Paul W. S. Anderson has unfortunately struggled to win over critics throughout his career. Be it Mortal Kombat or the Resident Evil movies, even working on famous properties didn’t earn him much of a fandom.

However, one of his movies that was panned when released has been reᴀssessed in recent years as a must-watch classic for fans of sci-fi horror. The film in question is, of course, Event Horizon, which follows a motley crew’s misadventures while trying to salvage the тιтular Event Horizon starship that seemingly disappeared years ago. The sinister buildup of suspense as viewers encounter clues of a possible being residing on the ship, waiting to pounce, and the film’s special effects too, earn it the recognition today that it always deserved.

2

Mimic (1997)

Directed By Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro’s vision as a director is almost second to none, especially when it comes to designing fantastic worlds and beings. His Pan’s Labyrinth features the Pale Man, a horror movie monster who is actually nightmare fuel, with his eyes in his hands, held open over his face. Long before he found fame, del Toro made an attempt at horror filmmaking that feels today like it should have made him a bigger name in the industry when it came out.

Mimic tells the story of creatures invented by a scientist to kill off roaches that were causing children to fall ill, often fatally. These creatures outlived their purpose and turned into terrifying monsters who can change their shape to imitate anyone. The film’s treatment of evolution as a premise, and del Toro’s vision with practical effects, brings to life a horrifying world that is no less imaginative than the ones found in his more famous works, like The Shape of Water and Hellboy.

1

Tremors (1990)

Directed By Ron Underwood

Kevin Bacon had already made his horror cinema debut in Friday the 13th, where his character is murdered by the killer through his bed in a scene that’s attained iconic status today. However, it wasn’t until the 1990 film Tremors that Bacon got the chance to star in a horror movie as the lead. He and Fred Ward play friends in the movie, who rise to the occasion when their town is attacked by creatures burrowing from the underground.

Viewers didn’t like the comedic writing of the film, even though it is now considered to be a classic horror comedy. The creatures are terrifying too, and in today’s world where kaiju movies have become some of the highest-grossing films of the year, Tremors would have been highly successful. The sense of humor that defines the characters’ survival tactics has found more appreciation today, and the film is considered to be one of the most classic 1990s horror movies.