Below is a short guide (17 films to be exact) to some horror films from the 90s. While looking at the films you’ll notice that H.P. Lovecraft was a inspiration to many and horror anthologies were popular. So here are some horror flicks from the 90s that are either terrifyingly good or just really terrifyingly bad but still delightful to watch.
“Frankenstein Unbound” (1990)
Director: Roger Corman
Dr. Buchanan and his car from the future appear in Switzerland in 1817. In the village he meets Victor Frankenstein, Lord Bryon, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and The Monster. It’s a horror story that takes both placed in the future and the past.
“Popcorn” (1991)
Director: Mark Herrier
A group of films students plan an all-night horror film festival in order to raise funds for their cinema. Unknown to the group, a homicidal maniac is stalking the theater.
“The People Under the Stairs” (1991)
Director: Wes Craven
A bookish and poverty-stricken boy becomes involved in a scheme in order to pay for his mother’s operations. But the scheme goes bad and he finds out about the horrors that his landlords been hiding.
“The Dark Half” (1993)
Director: George A. Romero
Based on Stephen King’s book, “Dark Half,” is about Thad Beaumont who is trying attempt to kill off his pseudonym George Stark. His pseudonym has been a physical entity that is terrorizing the town!
“The Ninth Gate” (1999)
Director: Roman Polanski
About a rare book business where a book dealer Dean Corso is hired by Boris Balkan to validate a 17th Century copy of the Ninth Gate of the Kingdom of Shadows by Aristrade Torchia. There are two copies and the one copy if correctly interrupted and the legends properly spoken the Devil will be summon.
“Campfire Tales” (1997)
Director: William Cooke and Paul Talbot
The film is an anthology about a group of teenagers telling horror stories around a campfire. One story involves an insane asylum escapee killing with a hook.
“Nightwatch” (1994)
Director: Ole Bornedal
“Nightwatch” is a Danish horror thriller about a law student who works in a morgue as a night watchman and becomes implicated in a series of murders.
“Dr. Giggles” (1992)
Director: Mammy Coto
This slasher film is about a crazed man who escapes from a mental hospital who starts killing people. He acts like a dentist and is very weird. “Dr. Giggles” is a cult classic.
“Tales from the Darkside: The Movie” (1990)
Director: John Harrison
A child tells three stories of horror to keep from being eaten by a witch. Personally my favorite story is the last one called the “Lover’s Vow.” The stories are about a mummy killing off students, a cat from hell, and a guy who sees a murder from an otherworldly creature vows to never talk about it.
“Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare” (1991)
Director: Rachael Talay
This fun freaky film has Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, Roseanne, and Tom Arnold as cameos. The film is about Freddy is back and is killing off teenagers once again but there is a twist in the story, you get to see who Freddy’s child is.
“Bleeders” (1997)
Director: Peter Svatek
Based on H.P. Lovecraft’s story “Lurking Fear.” The Strauss couple is attempting to uncover the secret to John’s blood disease. They find out that an Island where they go to is home to the Van Dam family, who are bloodthirsty deformed creatures.
“Castle Freak” (1995)
Director: Stuart Gordon
John Reilly and his family inherit a 12th Century castle but it isn’t as perfect as they thought. The duchess’s son breaks free from the dungeon and wreaks havoc. It’s slightly based on a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, “The Outsider.”
“Haunted” (1995)
Director: Lewis Gilbert
A professor who doesn’t believe in ghosts goes to a house where he meets the three grown Marinell children and the nanny. He then believes that the nanny might be right about odd things that are happening. On a personal note I thought this was a really good ghost film.
“H.P. Lovecraft’s: Necronomicon” (1993)
Director: Brian Yunza, Christopher Gans, and Shusuke Kaneko.
A horror anthology film that is about three of Lovecraft’s stories, Rats in the Walls, Cool Air, and The Whisperer in Darkness.
“Hideaway” (1995)
Director: Brett Leonard
Hatch Harrison almost dies from a car accident but the doctors bring him back. Hatch starts to have these weird sensations and finds out he is connected with a mad killer who entered his mind during his death. This is based on Dean Koontz’s book.
“Tale of the Mummy” (1998)
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Half a century later after a woman’s grandfather was killed in Egypt, she returns with a detective to find out what happen after another murder is committed. Not favorite by many but still worth a watch once.
“Nightowl” (1993)
Director: Jeffrey Aresenault
A man named Angel is trying to find his sister who was murdered. He figures out it was Jake, a brooding vampire who kills woman at nightclubs with slashing their necks with a knife.
Hope this list satisfies some of you horror fans out there. Of course this isn’t every movie ever made from the 90s but it’s an interesting look at some horror films from that decade.
Sources:
www.90shorrormovies.com
www.imdb.com
What other horror movies from the 90s that come to mind? Which ones were your favorite?
