Chewers' 100 Scariest Films of the 90's - Page 2

37. FUNNY GAMES (1997) dir. Michael Haneke

The home invasion thriller that renders other home invasion thrillers moot, partly with its meta-ness and partly just by being really good. It's a thesis on violence in movies and an experiment/statement on audience expectations, but the fact that it's punishing you makes it even better; sure it's in a roundabout, intellectual way in this case, but isn't that essentially what horror movies are supposed to do?

38. Schindler's List

dir. Steven Spielberg, 1993

The horror film experience as universal catharsis.

39. Cube (1997)

Dir. Vincenzo Natali

Very low-budget, and very atmospheric Canadian sci-fi/horror movie. The deaths are inventive and still Natali's best movie (haven't seen Splice yet). Followed by two sequels, which I haven't seen either. Word is that they're not that great.

40. Event Horizon (1997)  d. Paul WS Anderson

The Shining in space?  Directed by the bad Paul Anderson?  It shouldn't work, but it does.  From the spooky gothic architecture of the ship to Neill's increasingly bizarre performance, Event Horizon is deeply unsettling and downright scary at times.  Probably one of the most successful sci-fi / horror hybrids this side of the Alien trilogy.  

41.

dir. Michael Tolkin, 1991

Who forgives God?

Something of a "sister-film" to Jacob's Ladder, The Rapture is about a religiously cynical, hedonistic woman (Mimi Rogers) who becomes a born-again Christian & comes to believe that the end of the world is imminent. Written & directed by the screenwriter of The Player & the 2004 Dawn Of The Dead remake, the first 3/4 of the movie plays like a psychological thriller until finally...well...you'll just have to see for yourself.

In the 20 years since it's release, there hasn't been a day that goes by where the ending of The Rapture hasn't crossed my mind. The final image is so deafeningly powerful that the credits roll, literally, without a sound. If you've never seen or heard of this film before, drop everything & seek it out. It's a masterwork & one of the best films of the 1990s.

The Rapture is a very very silly movie but it's totally redeemed by one of the most depressing endings ever.   Up next....

42. Arachnaphobia (1990)

Just a whole lot of fun and scary in places.   Plus you have a shot of a spider crawling across someone's open eye.   Great horror for the whole family!

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

The Rapture is a very very silly movie but it's totally redeemed by one of the most depressing endings ever.   Up next....

Silly? Maybe but it's totally subjective. I'm stickin' by my opinion & still think that the entirety of the film is masterful.

We're off by one again somehow.  Anyway.....

1. Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven

2. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme

3. In the Mouth of Madness (1994) dir. John Carpenter

4. Ringu (1998) dir. Hideo Nakata

5. Ghostwatch (1992) dir. Lesley Manning

6. Jacob's Ladder (1990) dir. Adrian Lyne

7. Audition (1999) dir. Takashi Miike

8. Nightbreed (1990) dir. Clive Barker

9. The Blair Witch Project (1999) dir. Eduardo Sanchez & Daniel Myrick

10. Candyman (1992) dir. Bernard Rose

11. The Frighteners (1996) dir. Peter Jackson

12. Lord of Illusions (1995) dir. Clive Barker

13. Tremors (1990) dir. Ron Underwood

14. From Dusk 'Till Dawn (1996) dir. Robert Rodriguez

15. Misery (1990) dir. Rob Reiner

16. The Sixth Sense (1999) dir. M. Night Shyamalan

17. The Exorcist III (1990) dir. William Peter Blatty

18. Lost Highway (1996) dir. David Lynch

19. Seven (1995) dir. David Fincher

20. “The X-Files” (1993-2002) dir. Various

21. It (1990) dir. Tommy Lee Wallace

22. “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003) dir. Various

23. Mimic (1997) dir. Guillermo Del Toro

24. The Night Flier (1997) dir. Mark Pavia

25. Ravenous (1999) dir. Antonia Bird

26. Mister Frost (1990) dir. Phillippe Setbon

27. Mute Witness (1994) dir. Anthony Waller

28. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990) dir. Jeff Burr

29. Cape Fear (1991) dir. Martin Scorsese

30. Tesis (1996) dir. Alejandro Amenabar

31. Army of Darkness (1992) dir. Sam Raimi

32. Cure (1997) dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa

33. Anaconda (1997) dir. Luis Llosa

34. Safe (1995) dir. Todd Haynes

35. The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) dir. Volker Schlondorff

36. Pacific Heights (1990) dir. John Schlesinger

37. Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) dir. Ernest Dickerson

38. Funny Games (1997) dir. Michael Haneke

39. Schindler’s List (1993) dir. Steven Spielberg

40. Cube (1997) dir. Vincenzo Natali

41. Event Horizon (1997) dir. Paul W.S. Anderson

42. The Rapture (1991) dir. Michael Tolkin

43. Arachnophobia (1992) dir. Frank Marshall

44. Deep Rising (1998) dir. Stephen Sommers

45. Waxwork II: Lost In Time (1992) dir. Anthony Hickox

46. Dead Alive (aka Braindead) (1992) dir. Peter Jackson

I was hoping someone else would put this up, but it is starting to get shameful in terms of how low on the list this is.

47. The Dentist (1996)

If you feel the least bit uncomfortable about going in for your six month cleaning, this movie will not be for you. Corbin Bernsen plays a successful dentist who learns his wife is cheating on him. This discovery and his OCD need for cleanliness causes him to snap, and it leads to a series of gruesome scenes involving dental tools that are quite eye popping. Directed by Brian Yunza and with a script by Dennis Paoli, all that is missing is Stuart Gordon to complete the Re-Animator trinity. Look out for a young Mark Ruffalo in a small supporting role.

48. Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Perhaps not scary, per say, this fantastic follow-up lets Dante loose to riff on his love of the horror genre, with clever shout-outs to those who hold the genre near and dear. The casts energy is simply sublime (standouts being John Glover and Christopher Lee in a bit role), as Dante maintains a wonderfully bubbly tone, with some fun scares, and some excellent writing. Contains one of the best meta cutaway gags ever when the Gremlins themselves get their grubby mitts on the print of the film you're watching! A horror/comedy that's fun for the whole family.

I love Gremlins 2: The New Batch more than Christmas & sex on Tuesdays. It's like a live action Simpsons movie!

49. Twin Peaks (dir. David Lynch, 1990)

Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see. One chance out between two worlds. Fire, walk with me.

With all respect to X-Files, the scariest thing on television in the 1990s was named Bob.

I don't want to jinx things, but looking at the list for htis decade, there is some really good stuff here.

50. Flatliners (1990) dir. Joel Schumacher

A fairly top shelf cast.   "Somehow we brought our sins back physically... and they're pissed."  A nice little watch.

Medical students flirt with the unknown by experiencing clinical death for 1 minute before being brought back.

I'll chuck in one more.

51. Vampires (1998) dir. John Carpenter

I think this movie kicks all kinds of ass.

James Woods plays Jack Crow, the leader of a band of Vampire slayers actually sanctioned by the Vatican.  If that line doesn't make you want to watch this, nothing else I can type will.

Daniel Baldwin is also great as Crow's partner Montoya.  Crow's back story of father turned into a vampire who killed Jack's mother and Jack killing him lays a nice foundation.

Some of the weaponry used to drag the vamps out of their hideouts is pretty ingenious.  Check it out!

51. Kalifornia (1993) d. Dominic Sena

Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances (IMO) as Early Grayce, a psychotic southern white-trash serial killer. What makes this movie frightening is that you never know when he is going to lash out with the horrifying violence he is capable of. 

If Gremlins 2 & Buffy made the list, this damn well better too:

52.

dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1991

More beautiful, romantic, & cool than it is "scary", Coppola's gothic masterpiece stands high & above as the Dracula adaptation to beat.

53. DARK WATERS (1993) dir. Mariano Baino

Not to be confused with the J-horror film and its J-Connelly remake (which are singular WATER), this is an uber-atmospheric Italian film that's Lovecraft by way of (a classy take on) the evil nuns/convent subgenre. Like IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, it's one of the few films to get Lovecraftian horror right even though it's not actually an adaptation of any of old Howard Phillips' weird tales. It has the mood of dread, foreboding, and madness, and that feeling that unbeknownst to most of us there is and always has been supernatural evil lurking in the shadows and remote corners of this world, waiting to emerge. Watching this you'd think that Baino, along with Michele Soavi, was primed to grab the Italian horror torch from Argento and the Bavas and run with it, but sadly it didn't pan out that way. In fact, the guy seems to have all but completely vanished from the film industry. But the obscurity of DARK WATERS almost lends it that forbidden, secret air typically associated with a certain archaic tome penned by a mad Arab...

By the way, we're now past the halfway point and I have about a dozen more titles I'm thinking of including. 100 is not going to be a problem.

54. Body Snatchers (1993) d. Abel Ferrara

Not as good as the paranoia inducing original or Phillip Kaufman's mind-fuck version from '78 but it still manages to be an eerie and chilling little sci-fi thriller. A teenage girl moves with her father and step-family to a military base in Alabama. She soon realizes something is not quite right. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mister Falcon 

54. Body Snatchers (1993) d. Abel Ferrara

 

Not as good as the paranoia inducing original or Phillip Kaufman's mind-fuck version from '78 but it still manages to be an eerie and chilling little sci-fi thriller. A teenage girl moves with her father and step-family to a military base in Alabama. She soon realizes something is not quite right. 

 

 

I second this one.  Very underrated.  Meg Tilly is seriously creepy in this.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ratty 

 Meg Tilly is seriously creepy in this.  

And she disappeared from acting soon after. I guess she's an author now, but I'd like to see her make a comeback someday.

55. Nightwish (1990)

A team of grad students join their professor in studying paranormal happenings at a remote lodging. What ensues is sometimes convoluted, sometimes a tad bit campy, sometimes surprisingly creepy, and always unwilling to settle into the autopilot one might expect it to. KNB supply some rather repellent effects along the way. Genre faves Robert Tessier and Brian Thompson both threaten to literally eat the screen away before the end credits can roll.   

Interesting. I believe that's on Netflix Instant right now, might have to check it out.

56. THE REFLECTING SKIN (1990) dir. Philip Ridley

It's like David Lynch and Terrance Malick had a baby - in fact, its creepy, dessicated little corpse even appears in the film. The dark and sometimes painful side of growing up, the hardships of rural life, and evils of a grounded, almost mundane variety take on heightened, horrifying dimensions when viewed through the subjective perspective of a child. It takes a lot to imbue the film's gorgeous DAYS OF HEAVEN-esque setting with such menace and sadness but Ridley has no trouble finding the undercurrent of desolation, isolation, and decay. Esoteric, but a real gem.

57. The Prophecy

One of the few hidden gems of the early 90s, and one of the few films on this list with some brains, ...and Viggo maybe the coolest Son of the Morningstar in movie history...

58. Stir of Echoes (dir. David Koepp, 1999)

Overshadowed by The Sixth Sense which opened weeks before, It's a ghost/Am I going crazy/second sight story based on a story by Richard Matheson that still packed a punch.

59. Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Yes, this isn't a horror movie. However, the scene between Mr. Blonde and Officer Nash has to be one of the most tense moments of this decade.

"Stuck in the Middle with You" never sounded the same way again.

61.  Bob Roberts (1992)  dir. Tim Robbins

Satire, my ass!   We've been living this movie for the last dozen years or so.  

[We have a redundant #51]

63.

dir. Steven Soderbergh, 1991

Propulsively paranoid, crazy entertaining, & strangely unavailable on anything other than fuckin' VHS, Kafka is Soderbergh's brilliantly frightening and...uh...Kafka-esque follow-up to Sex, Lies, & Videotape. Perpetually pursued by a flailing, shrieking madman & suspicious of everyone around him, we follow the author Kafka (Irons) as he rushes to uncover a dark & disturbing plot that only he appears to see. A great, creepy, & fun as hell thriller.

KAFKA scared the hell out of me when I saw it (granted I was pretty young, but still). Really wish it was widely available so I could revisit.

64. Dellamorte Dellamore (AKA Cemetery Man) - d. Michele Soavi - 1994

Probably my favorite horror flick of the nineties, Dellamorte is a really fun, cerebral, and often scary movie.

Mimic's in the list but

66. Cronos (1993) dir. Guillermo Del Toro

isn't? That needs sorting out!

Del Toro's obsession with insects and mechanisms is perfectly blended with Vampirism creating a unique movie,  and there's something extremely creepy about the marbled skin effect on the old vampires. Highly recommend the DVD commentary track too, those things don't usualy pack an emotional punch but Del Toro found a way!

67. The Resurected (1992)

Dir. Dan O'Bannon

A really fun and effectively creepy Lovecraft tale that I never hear anyone talk about anymore. Saw this on cable back in the mid 90s and really dug it. Apparently the title was changed to Shatterbrain (!) At least that's how it's listed in IMDB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvilTwin 

49. Twin Peaks (dir. David Lynch, 1990)

 

Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see. One chance out between two worlds. Fire, walk with me.

 

With all respect to X-Files, the scariest thing on television in the 1990s was named Bob.

We could replace this one with "Fire Walk With Me" if we want to do films only....or let it take up another space.

68. Storm of the Century (1999)

Made for TV flick from Stephen King. I think it's pretty enjoyable and has some chills early on and gets all depressing later on. The villain works for the most part.

I think the Twin Peaks series definitely deserves a spot on here.   Some of the scariest stuff from the 90's aired on ABC (especially the ep where Bob kills again and the finale).  Fire Walk With Me is a great choice too.

69. DARK CITY (1998) dir. Alex Proyas

A Kafkaesque dark sci-fi fantasy German Expressionisti film noir Twilight Zone mindfuck? Of course it belongs on the list. The Strangers are creepy motherfuckers.

70. Shallow Grave (1994) dir. Danny Boyle

Greed makes Christopher Eccleston smash someone's teeth out with a hammer and turn into an attic Gollum, skulking around drilling holes for perving purposes.

Dan B and Art D killing it with the interesting/left field choices.

71.

Explores similar themes as Henry (which went in the 80s thread), and Funny Games (which already went in this 90s thread). What happens onscreen here is extremely disturbing, but the same could be said for those other two films. What separates this one is the use of the verite style, which makes it a much more voyeuristic experience overall. It's impossible to get any distance. Man Bites Dog puts viewers right there in the middle of it, and turns the complicity dial all the way up to 11. A comedy of the sickest, blackest kind.

72. The Faculty (1998) dir Robert Rodriguez

It's a better piece of creepy popcorn entertainment than anyone will ever give it due credit for. Pretty much the only way to have remade either The Thing or Invasion of the Body Snatchers in this day and age, and definitely the last thing Kevin Williamson should ever have had his name on.

This next pick isn't necessarily "scary" & it could've easily gone in the "90s Action" thread but, because of it's genre, here is:

73.

dir. Mike Nichols, 1994

The demon wolf is not evil, unless the man he has bitten is evil. And it feels good to be a wolf, doesn't it?

After the success of Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1991, Sony tried a "3 for 3" classic monster movie update. First, with the utterly disastrous Mary Shelley's Frankenstein & then again with this brilliant, under-the-radar neo-gothic update of The Wolfman. Coupled with the theme of a middle aged man's war with his own disappearing virility & relevance, the film is a masterful blend of tones, dipping & weaving between comedy, comic book action, & noir-horror. One of my Top 10 "desert island" movies.

74. The Broken Movie (1993)

A Nine Inch Nails torture porn video companion. Like Moonwalker, for very frightening people. The snuff film portions are terrifying, and infinitely more effective than any Saw movie could hope to be. The videos are Lynchian, and yet unforgettably disturbing. Great stuff, if you can find it.

75. THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (1997) dir. Taylor Hackford

This is a bit of a nostalgic pick for me. The week it was released in theaters a friend and I were looking for something to do, decided to go to the movies, and picked this because there was nothing else that remotely interested us. We thought it was a straightforward courtroom drama, so we were totally unprepared for (and pleasantly surprised, albeit disturbed by) the sex and violence filled Satanic parable we experienced. I slept over at my buddy's house that night (this was middle school) and I distinctly remember getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, walking through his big creepy old house and being terrified, expecting to see one of those freaky CGI demon faces peering in a window at me. Fond kindertrauma memories aside, I do think this is a pretty good, fun, and yes, at times creepy flick. It sometimes gets lumped in with latter day bad over the top phoning it in Pacino, but I disagree. He definitely chews some scenery here, but in a good way, and it feels appropriate to the movie when he goes big. It's a great cinematic Satan. I even think Keanu works as the lead, despite his awful southern accent. Like I said, an all around entertaining movie.

76. The Puppet Masters (1994)

Superior to the 90's Body Snatchers remake, and a genuinely scary alien invasion movie to boot, another one of the hidden gems of the decade...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Benenson 

75. THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (1997) dir. Taylor Hackford

 

This is a bit of a nostalgic pick for me. The week it was released in theaters a friend and I were looking for something to do, decided to go to the movies, and picked this because there was nothing else that remotely interested us. We thought it was a straightforward courtroom drama, so we were totally unprepared for (and pleasantly surprised, albeit disturbed by) the sex and violence filled Satanic parable we experienced. I slept over at my buddy's house that night (this was middle school) and I distinctly remember getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, walking through his big creepy old house and being terrified, expecting to see one of those freaky CGI demon faces peering in a window at me. Fond kindertrauma memories aside, I do think this is a pretty good, fun, and yes, at times creepy flick. It sometimes gets lumped in with latter day bad over the top phoning it in Pacino, but I disagree. He definitely chews some scenery here, but in a good way, and it feels appropriate to the movie when he goes big. It's a great cinematic Satan. I even think Keanu works as the lead, despite his awful southern accent. Like I said, an all around entertaining movie.

I really dig this movie but I had my own strange experience with it. I didn't see it til video but I was really pleasantly surprised. So much so I suggested it as a movie to watch with the girl I was seeing at the time. With her family. Her ultra-relifious family. It was a terrible night for me and I was almost blatantly asked to leave after we sat through the whole thing, but looking back on it it's kinda funny. Said girl actually gasped in shock and horror when Charlize Theron opened up her throat with that shard of glass. And just thinking of all of us sitting in a dark living room while Keanu is almost forced to have sex with his sister in front of a writhing sex mural is hilarious.