The 45 Best Horror Movies of the ‘90s to Scare You All Night Long

Regarding the legitimacy of the horror film genre as high-class cinema and not just fun ways to scare people, 1991’s Since of the Lambs is the most essential horror film of all time. Before Anthony Hopkins cerebrally burrowed into our collective psyches as cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter, no horror role had won the Oscar for Best Actor since Fredric March pulled double duty as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the titular 1931 film. Even for a movie centered around a cannibal profiling another serial killer who removes the skin of the young women he kills, the horror of Silence of the Lambs resides in Lecter’s sinister smirks when finding the fun in discussing murder and the steely gaze he shoots through the screen and into your deepest nightmares. Directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally, Silence of the Lambs is the benchmark of horror films; so terrifying, generations of frightened humans have never looked at lotion or fava beans the same since.

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While I’m critical of Candyman and consider it outside the Black Horror tradition, the film’s influence is certainly undeniable. How to imagine a Black monster when Black folks have been misrepresented in cinema as long as the medium has existed is, perhaps, the question Nia DaCosta’s highly anticipated forthcoming adaptation hopes to answer. Fingers crossed we’ll soon get to see for ourselves!

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This sprawling adaptation by Francis Ford Coppola reimagines the story behind Stoker’s 19th century masterpiece. Its cinematography, costume design and use of color makes this film an extra-Gothic opulent delight.

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Released as a prequel to its television series predecessor, Twin Peaks, Fire Walk with Me indeed walks audiences back through the last week of tragic heroine, Laura Palmer’s (Sheryl Lee) life, right up to point where the events of the show begin. An oft-lodged critique of Twin Peaks is its romanticizing of beautiful dead white girls (though this impulse is precisely what director, David Lynch aimed to satirize). Fire Walk with Me rectifies this misstep, offering Laura voice, depth, and context for the horror surrounding the circumstances of her murder.

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Sometimes the mark of a truly great horror film is the realism of the scenarios that ensare the actors in terrifying predicaments. I Know What You Did Last Summer has a group of teenagers reunited by a dark secret they hoped they could bury in their past, giving it a main story almost any person who’s been a regretful teenager can relate to. The specter of a seemingly omnipresent serial killer taking their lives as retribution works well as a metaphor for the inescapability of one’s past, a lesson we all grow up learning in not so dramatic fashion. Besides the core relatability, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scream reinvigorated the teenage horror genre that has spawned decades of imitators.

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I went into Tammy and the T-Rex with precisely zero context and maintain the belief that this is the best strategy for peak enjoyment (its absurdity is completely irresistible). Here’s all you need to know: Denise Richards stars as the titular Tammy whose boyfriend (Paul Walker) has an unfortunate encounter with a mad scientist who implants his brain into a robotic T-Rex with T-Rex needs. Tammy’s Black (queer!) best friend, Byron (Theo Forsett) ,also steals the show ,and though it’s not necessarily great representation, it was super rare for the time to see a Black queer person- let alone one treated positively- anywhere onscreen. Also, Walker sports a crop top. Nuff said.

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Two additions were made to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise through the ‘90’s but Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is the only one that matters. Acting completely outside the franchise’s chronology, it employs the same self-referential meta-narration that would make Scream so successful. Craven, Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, John Saxon, as well as industry figures (like Robert Shaye, founder of New Line Cinema) all show up as themselves in this postmodern take on what it means to create, star in, and be haunted by one of the most iconic horror franchises (and villains) of all time.

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The first of an intended trilogy of Tales from the Crypt feature films, Demon Knight was directed by Ernest Dickerson and accounts for the first and most successful representation of a Black Final Girl in horror history. Jeryline (Jada Pinkett-Smith) goes against all the typical rules regarding The One Who Survives, which is part of what makes her so compelling as a character. Pinkett’s performance is inspired and only made better with the support of Billy Zane and CCH Pounder.

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It’s a true cinematic achievement to strike fear in grown adults using a doll most know they break in half without trying the way Child’s Play 2 does. Voiced by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’s Brad Dourif, and acted by Ed Gale, demented doll Chucky terrorizes poor eight-year-old Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) and his foster family. Possessed by a serial killer, the toy store gift from hell has a failed attempt at transferring his soul into Andy’s body after trying to do the same years earlier in the original Child’s Play. Nothing could kill Chucky, and those ocean blue eyes forever haunt parts of my mind I care not to admit.

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Structured as a four-part anthology film, Rusty Cundieff’s Tales from the Hood uses elements of the supernatural to explore the banal horrors of Black life in white supremacist America. Cundieff directly addresses systemic issues like police brutality and political corruption, domestic violence, and cycles of abuse, using elements of horror to shed light on the disturbing realities located in daily life (while still maintaining a darkly comedic edge). A canonical film within the Black Horror tradition.

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Wes Craven’s postmodern masterpiece might be among the most influential films on this list, often credited with revitalizing the horror genre and bringing new life to the slasher. Folks continue to love this movie hard—some for its self-referential qualities and others for its subversion of tired genre tropes as Craven makes horror history in allowing his Final Girl (Sidney Prescott, as played by Neve Campbell) to have sex (with the killer, no less) and still survive to see the sunrise.

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The Craft is one of those films whose protagonist is literally the least interesting character onscreen. The most memorable performances of this film go to Fairuza Balk, Rachel True, and Neve Campbell who are all absolutely magnetic with their beautiful, messy complexity. Also, “we are the weirdos, mister”—iconic.

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The first time anyone saw America’s future sweetheart and hair inspiration Jennifer Aniston in a movie was when she played Tory Redding and ran away from a miniature green menace on a hunt to get back his gold coins and clean dirty shoes. The makeup department’s work to turn Return of the Jedi’s Warwick Davis into Lubdan The Leprechaun should be commended and punished for how lifelike they made this agent of chaos.

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A lifelong favorite, Mars Attacks! is somewhat genre-less as an action-horror-sci-fi-comedy satirizing American culture through the alien invasion subgenre. Directed by Tim Burton, this perpetually-devalued film features the ensemble cast of the decade, including the likes of Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Jessica Parker, Danny DeVito, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, and the inimitable, Pam Grier, amongst so many others. Genre camp to the max!

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While critics are notably tough on sequels, the fact remains that this one—released less than a year out from the original—certainly could have used some more time to simmer. Nevertheless, it still retains many of the elements which made the first film so successful. The trademark self-reflexivity around the nature of sequels lays a foundation for the franchise’s ongoing exploration of long-term trauma (also elemental in Scream 3 & 4) while further expanding the original’s critique of capitalist media in commodifying tragedy, this time implicating the audience as a whole in the very act of horror spectatorship itself.