Editorials
Best Horror Movies of All Time – 1990s
Best Horror Movies of All Time – 1970s / 1980s / 1990s / 2000s / 2010s
For many, this decade often gets the bad rap of being a weak period for the genre, or at the very least, a transitional period. The golden era of slashers had finally fizzled out, and the glut of fantastical gore driven films seemed to tire out as well. It didn’t help that advancements in computer-generated imagery shifted special effects away from practical and headfirst into digital, a move that heavily dates many of the films from this period. Many of the beloved franchises that began in the decades prior were announcing their final bow in the early ‘90s, too, with entries like Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday and Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (nothing stays dead in horror, though).
Along with the extreme advances in technology, horror entered a new sort of renaissance. The ‘90s ushered in a wave of horror grounded in realism, with a focus on serial killers. It’s also an age of self-parody and ironic humor. It brought forth new waves of found footage and Asian horror. It’s easy to dismiss the ‘90s, but the reality is that the decade had a lot of great horror to offer. Here are the best horror films of the decade:
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
This underrated gem is a creepy psychological horror that feels more like a descent into madness. Director Adrian Lyne explores the traumatic effects of PTSD through a haunted Vietnam veteran’s eyes, letting the audience experience it firsthand. Tim Robbins’ Jacob is tragic, and the film’s tone somber and gloomy. The psychedelic hallucinations? Terrifying. So much so that this one is currently getting the remake treatment.
Misery (1990)
A cautionary tale on the debauched power of fandom, this Stephen King adaptation was helmed by Rob Reiner, a director known for comedy, not horror. The result is a perfect blend of pitch-black humor and horror, with an Oscar-winning performance by Kathy Bates as psychopathic Annie Wilkes. Annie is terrifying enough in her care for James Caan’s bedridden Paul Sheldon, but the most iconic and cringe-worthy scene is the one that made “hobbling” common terminology: Annie smashing Paul’s ankles with a sledgehammer.
Tremors (1990)
Rob Underwood’s giant monster movie spawned a franchise of at least 5 sequels, a 2003 television series, and a reboot series for Syfy starring Valentine McKee himself, Kevin Bacon. As far as horror comedies go, Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are among the best duos, and the small fictional town of Perfection, Nevada, population of 14, will charm you. There’s a fun fish out of water story to this quirky town finding clever ways to survive the attacks of underground giant worm-like graboids, like maybe they were supposed to be in a romantic western instead. There’s not a lot of American made giant monster movies, luckily this is a strong showing. The practical effects are top notch, and so is the cast. Tremors is just too gosh darn likable to not make this list.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Academy-Award winner of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, the inevitable question became, “Does this count as horror?” Granted, a lot of early ‘90s horror towed the blurry line between thriller and horror, and the crime procedural aspect of the narrative certainly muddies the water. Yet, this is a film about a young FBI agent seeking assistance in capturing a serial killer building a woman suit from his victims from a cannibal. Sounds pretty horror to me. As is the sequence that sees Hannibal Lecter’s brutal escape from custody. There’s also heavy use of gothic imagery in the cinematography. Whether you’re team thriller or team horror, there’s no denying this is one of the best.
Braindead (1992)
Also known as Dead Alive in North America, this bonkers zombie romantic comedy played a major influence to the following decade’s Shaun of the Dead. Before director Peter Jackson was filming grand fantasy epics like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he began his career with highly entertaining splatter comedies. At its core, the film is about poor virginal Lionel Cosgrove who must learn to stand up to his overbearing mother for the sake of love. His mother just so happens to have been bitten by the Sumatran Rat-Monkey, a violent animal with a penchant of unleashing zombie outbreaks. From zombie babies, zombie organs, to gigantic zombie moms, this blood-drenched gore fest has it all. As fun as it is gross, this movie will leave you yelling, “I kick ass for the Lord!”
Candyman (1992)
Based on Clive Barker short story The Forbidden, this Bernard Rose directed tale of urban legend terror introduced one of the best boogeymen in horror history. Tony Todd’s masterful performance as the terrifying and tragic Candyman is timeless. He oozes charisma and terror in equal measure. The rough urban setting of Cabrini-Green gives a unique, refreshing update to the slasher aesthetic. Phillip Glass’ score is hauntingly beautiful and a highlight of the influential musician’s career. While all of this is an amalgam of great horror, it takes it a step further by delivering one of the most satisfying endings ever.
Cronos (1993)
Not only did this unique spin on vampire lore mark Guillermo del Toro’s debut feature, but it also marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship between the director and actor Ron Perlman, who played thug antagonist Angel de la Guardia. A dramatic tale on aging and life, the vampire at the center of this film is old antique dealer Jesus Gris, played by the amiable Federico Luppi. Gris doesn’t become a vampire by typical means, though, but through alchemy. A scarab-shaped automaton hidden within Gris’ shop injects him with a substance that revitalizes him in every way, including a thirst for blood. Equal parts charming and gruesome, Cronos is one hell of a debut and contribution to the vampire sub-genre.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
John Carpenter, no slouch in the ‘90s by any stretch, created a Lovecraftian nightmare of insanity with a noir-like mystery that kept audiences guessing. Sam Neill, once again nailing a genre performance, plays insurance investigator John Trent, investigating the disappearance of horror writer Sutter Cane. His search leads him to the small town of Hobb’s End, a town seemingly straight out of Cane’s works. Considered the final entry in his Apocalypse trilogy, this psychological terror feels different from Carpenter’s work, at least in terms of unsettling, nightmarish imagery. It may have been written by Michael De Luca, not Carpenter, but no one can handle a complex narrative like Carpenter. There are subtle scenes of horror that crescendo into full-blown madness, like the old man on a bicycle in the dark, and minute details hidden throughout that makes this worth revisiting. Do you read Sutter Cane?
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Upon release, the reviewers skewered this one. Variety wrote that the film was “neither funny enough nor scary enough to be fully satisfying as either a shocker or a spoof.” I vehemently disagree. May I present exhibit A: Billy Zane as The Collector. So wickedly delightful in his role, I daresay that the movie would’ve hurt without his presence. Exhibit B: Jada Pinkett Smith and the always classy William Sadler as the protagonists willing to send those gnarly demons back to hell. Exhibit C: the amazing practical effects. Exhibit D: the stellar supporting cast. Really, I could go on all day when it comes to just how fun this movie is. Sure, its loose tie-in to the popular anthology series is tentative at best, but with such a fun, badass movie that still holds up decades later, I think that’s a rather minor flaw.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
This collaboration between Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino blended action with horror and reminded us that vampire movies could be so much fun. Starring George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino as the criminal Gecko brothers, they take the Fuller family as hostages and hole up in a Mexican strip club with a twist: this bar served as a buffet for its reptilian vampire inhabitants. A stellar cast, gory action, witty dialogue, and a multitude of genre cameos from the likes of John Saxon, Tom Savini, and Fred Williamson makes you want to revisit the Titty Twister again and again.
Scream (1996)
I think a case could be made at this point that no other horror master had his finger on the pulse of the genre quite like Wes Craven. From gritty exploitation horror in the ‘70s, to surreal slasher in the ‘80s, to tongue-in-cheek dissection of slasher tropes and formulas in the ‘90s, Craven’s ability to intelligently introspect on horror with class and humor is something to cherish forever. Upcoming screenwriter Kevin Williamson made a bold debut with his clever script, and Craven’s direction spearheaded Scream into instant classic. The bold cold opening that saw the brutal, unexpected dispatching of a major star gripped audiences and never let go. Even now, Wes Craven, we’ll never let go.
Event Horizon (1997)
Unsurprisingly, this Paul W.S. Anderson directed sci-fi horror caught a lot of flak from critics upon release, as does most of his work. They were dead wrong, though. An uncredited re-write by screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker elevated this haunted house in space flick into something truly special. For both the unsuspecting crew of the Lewis and Clark and audience members, the discovery of just where reappeared ship Event Horizon went 7 years prior was pure nightmare fuel. Event Horizon boasts some of the most frightening glimpses of Hell in cinematic history, and Sam Neill’s Dr. William Weir makes for one fearsome tour guide.
Ringu (1998)
Released shortly after the introduction to DVD, when VHS was still common on shelves and in homes, many would discover this Japanese horror the same way the victims in the film would; by tape. Stateside, this was the mainstream introduction to Japanese horror that would usher in a popular wave of Asian horror, and the long-haired vengeful ghost. Sadako’s inhuman crawl from her well toward the TV screen was the stuff of nightmares. That most audiences experienced her terror in the same form she attached herself to victims added a new level of thrill. Hideo Nakata’s smash hit not only launched a franchise from the creepy curse of Sadako, but launched modern J-horror as we know it.
Audition (1999)
You’d be forgiven for being bored of the first, well, two-thirds or so of what plays out like a quaint love story. Sweet widower Shigeru may have found the one in fragile ex-ballerina Asami, after forming a timid connection that soon blossoms into romance. Then Asami’s façade begins to crack. The scene with the mysterious moving sack in the background signals something is very, very wrong here. Nothing prepares you for the completely sadistic, shocking finale. Needles in eyes and slow-moving wire amputations create the most unnerving introduction to the twisted work of Japanese auteur Takashi Miike.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
This seminal found footage horror isn’t the first found footage film, but it is the one responsible for the wave of found footage horror that followed. The micro-budget film raked in millions worldwide, luring in those hoping to catch similar success. Posed as a documentary on three student filmmakers studying the local legend of the Blair Witch, they soon get lost and find themselves prey to that very legend. The documentary style, combined with clever marketing and a cast and crew of unknowns, had many believing this wasn’t a fictional story. Innovative filmmaking and a new twist on wooded terror makes this a classic.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The line “I see dead people,” and the doozy of a twist has long since become mainstays in pop culture, but M. Night Shyamalan’s breakthrough hit offered so much more than that. A gut-wrenching performance from then child actor Haley Joel Osment, and an against-type turn from Bruce Willis is what lends the emotional punch. But the scenes where Osment’s Cole is terrorized in his own home by the dead? Well, they make you want to hide under the blankets, too. This set the bar so high in ghost stories that Shyamalan has struggled to keep up with the expectations placed on him after this release.
Ravenous (1999)
Antonia Bird’s idiosyncratic mix of western, black comedy, and cannibal terror is a thing of beauty. A stunningly shot pre-Civil War era horror film with a unique sense of humor and twist on the Wendigo mythology makes Ravenous one of the most unique entries in horror. There’s not a weak link in the cast, led by Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle. As strangely funny as Ravenous is, it’s also dark and disgusting. Just what we want in our cannibal films.
Of the three films that make up the Diabolical Trinity of classic religious horror films—Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976)—The Omen is the most purely entertaining.
While Rosemary’s Baby digs into the societal shifts of the 60s and The Exorcist explores spiritual tensions between faith and doubt in an ever-shifting world, The Omen seems most interested in just telling a thrilling story. It achieves this by blending two major trends of the 1970s, the devil movie and the paranoid thriller, into one crackling adventure yarn. In the process, The Omen has sparked fear and curiosity about what could happen in the “end times” if such events are to occur.
After seeing The Exorcist, producer Harvey Bernhard contacted writer David Seltzer and said something along the lines of, “Hey, write me one of those.” Seltzer, having never read the Bible, thought it would be an interesting challenge, so, according to various interviews, he read the Bible and several commentaries in search of a story. Then he stumbled upon a passage in the book of Revelation, the image of a great Beast rising out of the sea, that sparked his imagination. In the commentaries, he found that the sea represented politics in some interpretations of the text, and he began building his story on that foundation.
Seltzer has told this story often, and I am inclined to believe him. However, from there, much of the theological-sounding lore of The Omen was created purely by Seltzer. Many of the ideas surrounding The Antichrist in the film appear to be drawn much more from the pop-eschatology sensation of the 1970s, The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay, than any Biblical source.
Lindsay’s book was the bestselling nonfiction book of the 1970s and re-popularized views of the “last days” that had been dying along with fundamentalism for decades, namely Dispensationalism, Millennialism, and the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. In dispensationalism, history is broken into several epochs of time (or dispensations) that culminate in the return of Christ and his thousand-year (millennial) reign.
Before this return, a seven-year Tribulation will occur in which the Antichrist comes to power and persecutes all who oppose him, culminating in a battle between the forces of good and evil at the valley of Megiddo, usually called Armageddon. Of course, in this worldview, the true believers in Jesus will be lifted out, or raptured, before all this takes place. Since the publication and popularity of The Late Great Planet Earth, this has been the prominent belief in Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian circles, though Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and mainline Protestant denominations largely reject it.
Lindsay also did something unique that had not been the case even in dispensationalist circles before him—he posited that the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948 started the countdown to Armageddon. Fans of the film will immediately realize where Seltzer ran with this idea in the first line of the poem created for the movie: “When the Jews return to Zion…”
Damien Thorn and the Creation of Horror’s “Innocent Villain”
Seltzer’s next inspiration focused on the idea of the Antichrist as a child, what he would call the film’s “innocent villain.” In watching The Omen, it is readily apparent that Damien Thorn (Harvey Stephens) does not really do anything evil beyond a bit of normal kid mischief. Even the moment in which Damien knocks Kathy Thorn (Lee Remick) over a second-floor railing can be read as an accident orchestrated by Damien’s diabolically connected nanny, Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw). The film takes this idea of the innocent villain a step further by casting Gregory Peck, best known for playing arguably the greatest father in film history, Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), as Damien’s earthly father, an element that greatly satisfied Seltzer.
The New Testament itself says very little about the Antichrist and certainly nothing about his childhood. In fact, the word antichrist is used twice (1 John 2:18 and 2 John 7 for the curious) and refers to groups of people, not a particular person. There is also a passage in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 in which the writer (usually attributed to Paul) discusses “The Man of Lawlessness” who will “exalt himself over everything that is called God” and “proclaim himself to be God.”
Then there is the Beast of Revelation chapter 13 with “seven heads and ten horns” that Seltzer latched onto, which has been interpreted in a multitude of ways over the centuries. Powerful people throughout history, from Charlemagne, various Popes during the Protestant Reformation era, Napoleon and Hitler, to modern politicians, including Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, have all had the label placed on them by various circles. Even religious leaders like Billy Graham have not escaped being called the Antichrist.
Lindsay and modern dispensationalists are certain the Antichrist will be a 21st-century individual as they are equally certain that the Rapture, Tribulation, and return of Christ are imminent, likely within their lifetime. Many scholars and theologians, however, interpret these passages as symbolic representations of the Roman Empire and the first-century Caesars who persecuted, tortured, and murdered Christians and Jews who refused to submit to Imperial rule and worship them as gods. For example, that the Beast from the sea in Revelation has seven heads is symbolic of the famous seven mountains of Rome, with the 10 horns referring to rulers and magistrates of the Empire.
But this is all really of no matter to Seltzer and the story of The Omen. Instead of being concerned with any historical or theological accuracy, he instead built his own lore, which sends Robert Thorn and photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) on a globetrotting investigation into the nature of the Antichrist and how to stop him. Some of this lore includes the child being born of a jackal, the reaction of animals, the protective cult that arises around Damien, the daggers of Megiddo, and maybe most interesting of all, the peculiar flaws in Jennings’s photographs that presage the ways certain individuals will die.
All these aspects are where the paranoid thrillers come in, as films like Blow Up (1966), Z (1969), The Conversation (1974), The Parallax View (1974), 3 Days of the Condor (1975), and All the President’s Men (1976) were all the rage at the time. Especially in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the idea of journalists (like Jennings) as ordinary heroes who could bring down the powerful, nefarious forces in the world was exactly what audiences craved. And what greater hidden evil force was there than the Devil? This is also why the device of the daggers of Megiddo is so important to a movie like this. If Damien is indeed the Antichrist, there must be a way to stop him, though in the Biblical text, the only power capable of destroying the Devil is God Himself.
The Mark of the Beast, 666, and the Film’s Most Famous Religious Symbolism
The piece of lore created for the movie with the most solid Biblical grounding is the Mark of the Beast. Revelation describes a mark on the forehead or hand of those who worship the Beast and his image. Again, this is symbolic language differentiating those who belong to the power of the Roman Empire and those who belong to Christ, who have the Mark of the Lamb. In Seltzer’s hands, the mark is very literal, a birthmark that is borne by not only the Antichrist but all his followers, meaning they are marked from before birth as belonging to Satan, and there is no escaping it. This is all rather distressing to the priest Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), who betrays his mark by warning Thorn about Damien and pays the price by memorably being impaled by a spire that falls from a church steeple after being struck by lightning.
Why is the mark three sixes? Again, this is drawn from a passage in Revelation that states that the Beast can be identified by calculating his number. In Biblical scholarship, this is believed to be the sum of the name of a man transferred into Hebrew numerology, a practice in which each Hebrew letter also represents a number. Using this method, the number of the name Caesar Nero, which many believe to be the most logical choice, is six hundred sixty-six. In the film and elsewhere, this number is changed to three individual sixes. According to the film, this represents the Diabolical Trinity (a designation also unique to the film) made up of Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet. That Damien carries this unique birthmark under his hair convinces Robert that the child is the Antichrist, and it’s up to him to destroy him.
Part of what makes The Omen great is its ambiguity. Damien could be the Antichrist, or he could be at the center of a series of coincidences. Director Richard Donner stated in interviews that he believed Robert Thorn had gone insane by the end of the film, which, to Donner, is the only explanation for why Thorn would attempt to kill an innocent child. However, that enigmatic smile in the final shot suggests that Damien does embody a spirit of great evil. The sequels, however, all but erase this ambiguity.
In audiences, The Omen sparked a renewed interest in the concept of the Antichrist and the dispensationalist interpretation of the end times that continues to echo throughout the last five decades. Around the time of the film’s release, even Elvis Presley was photographed brandishing a paperback copy of Seltzer’s novelization. Dispensationalist authors like Hal Lindsay, Tim LaHaye, and John Hagee have made millions publishing books and giving lectures about the Antichrist and the end of the world.
The Legacy of The Omen, 50 Years Later
Though A Thief in the Night (1972) preceded The Omen in initial release, it gained quite a resurgence (along with the ability to create three sequels) in the wake of the popularity of The Omen and went on to scar the psyches of Evangelical children for decades. Hal Lindsay was also able to release a film version of The Late Great Planet Earth in 1978, complete with narration and a brief onscreen appearance from Orson Welles.
In the 1990s, the Left Behind series became a cultural phenomenon, spawning twelve books in the core series, a YA spinoff series, video games, and a movie series (2000-2005) starring Kirk Cameron. A bigger studio adaptation of the first book was released in 2014, starring Nicolas Cage. 20th Century Fox and The Omen got in on the renewed “end-of-the-world” vigor by releasing a remake of the original film on June 6, 2006. The franchise was revived once again in 2024 with The First Omen, which explores ideas of the Antichrist and the motivations of those in power in our current religious, social, and political context.
But despite all the sequels, spinoffs, rip-offs, remakes, and “end times” money grabs of the last 50 years, the original version of The Omen remains untouchable. Its greatest strength is that it seeks, first and foremost, to entertain. And it does so admirably.
After half a century, its influence can be felt in horror, the culture at large, and even in various faith circles. It is a testament to the power of story and film that, consciously or unconsciously, fans of The Omen and those who have never seen it alike are, to this very day, marked by the Beast.
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