1990: Transitioning To A More High Art Horror
The first year of the decade starts with a perfect creature movie, a star-studded stylish flick, and unforgivable performances for the adaptation of a story by Stephen King.
1991: Academy Award-Worthy Performances
If the 80s ended with a lot of cheesy and poorly-acted horror flicks; the 90s started with some movies with incredible casts delivering outstanding performances; so much so than some of the best gruesome movies got Oscars nominations.
1992: Timeless Classics
Too often the 90s horror movies are being criticized for their lack of memorable characters able to single-handedly carry a franchise but really Candyman, Hannibal Lecter, Sydney Prescott, and Jack Skellington are as emblematic as the Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and other Jason Voorhees.
1993: Authors With A Singular Vision
The same way many fantastic directors had their start in horror in the 80s, some of the most revered cinematic authors have delivered incredible and unique horror movies in the 90s.
1994: An Eclectic Mix Of Underrated Movies
In the middle of the 90s, horror wasn’t as prevalent as it was in the previous decade a lot of great movies didn’t meet the success they deserve but that doesn’t mean they are not worth watching.
1995: A Blend Of Horror And Something Else
As horror became less profitable in movie theaters, filmmakers started blending horror elements with other genres and ended up creating some very interesting movies that might not fit the definition of horror movies but cannot be denied their use of horror elements.
1996: Redefining The Slasher Genre
Arguably 1996 is the best year of the decade when it comes to horror movies; the legendary Wes Craven redefining the slasher movie cannot be understated; following Scream’s success led to many more slasher movies being produced; and what to say about the Peter Jackson movie responsible for Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy to be greenlit; if this wasn’t enough, Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn which is the Grindhouse blueprint.
1997: Experimenting With Horror
Following 96 isn’t easy but a few movies didn’t try to copy what was done the previous and went the other way trying to do something original mixing sci-fi with supernatural horror or bringing a mundane vibe to horror.
1998: The Birth Of The Japanese Horror New Wave
The penultimate year of the 90s was marred by a whisper where everyone into horror was asking their friends if they have watched the horror tape about people dying after watching a horror tape. Ringu broke the rules of Japanese horror and became the start of a wave of wildly fascinating horror movies; where Western horror movies still had a lot of humor the Japanese ones had a very serious and thoughtful tone.
1999: The Found Footage Movie Goes Mainstream
Yes, there were found footage movies before the Blair Witch Project but which one of them had the success or lasting impact of the latter? This movie was a cultural phenomenon partly due to the rise of the internet and even if you hate it as I do; you cannot deny how it’s the one responsible for all these 2000s found footage movies.
