The Truth About ‘90s Horror: Was It Really That Bad?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ต.ค. 2022
- A trip through horror on film in the 1990s, looking at the decline of horror master directors, the importance of Scream during the decade, the rise of the prestige thriller, the best of 90s horror, and the lasting legacy of the 1990s in film.
PATREON - / mattdraper
TWITTER - / mattdraperyt
#horror
#scream
#1990s
Music:
"Helen's Theme"
"Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
"Glass Palms" by Hello Meteor
"End Credits"
"Hold" by Home
"Resident Evil 7" by Mono Memory
"America Online" and "Monsters" by The Midnight
Sources:
www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-...
www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1991/
www.vox.com/culture/22281548/...
www.cnbc.com/2021/02/14/silen....
collider.com/best-psychologic...
horrorobsessive.com/2020/06/1...
screenrant.com/best-1990s-thr...
gamerant.com/90s-worst-decade... - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
What are your favorite 90s horror movies?
Cube for sure.
Scream hands down. Scariest opening scene in a horror movie
Se7en or Gremlins 2 : the new batch
So many movies here that I grew up watching in the 90s. Final destination, Pumpkinhead, scream, Halloween H2O, Blade, Idol Hands. But the one that stands above them all in my mind HAS to be Candyman. This mythological figure turned killer blurs a line in my mind between reality and superstition to the point that I can't say the name without thinking that I make myself the next target. The film has other things to say about class and privilege and that just makes it feel closer to the real world. The theme song is unforgettable too. That movie lives rent free in my mind along with Tony Todd. That man is a legend and his performance is so theatrical yet chilling , plus the mouth full of bees is burned into my mind forever.
Loved the video MD
Exorcist III is the best of the entire decade, closely followed by In the Mouth of Madness; also Child's Play 2, New Nightmare.
In TV, Millennium, from X-Files creator Chris Carter, a fantastic apocalyptic horror series.
Hit the nail on the head. It’s a decade that couldn’t quite figure out what it wanted to be but don’t mean there wasn’t some great stuff.
That sounds like the 90s in general haha
The early part of the decade was a confused lower energy version of the 80's, the later part of the decade was unpretentious and fun.
I remember when the Nightmare of Elm Street movies became less scary and just more mesmerizing. The Dreamchild was basically an action movie, not horror at all. And they all began to copy Blade, a superhero/horror franchise. Jump scares and bad cgi blood explosions became the norm. I truly believed the genre was dead for good until The Conjuring brought me back.
Tremors
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Army of Darkness
Candyman
Wes Craven's New Nightmare
The Blair Witch Project
@@Viking_Luchador tremors ,dracula are good but the others not so much
90s horror movies started off very strong with Jacob's Ladder and Candyman and had hits like Scream, but where horror excelled in the 90s was horror made for kids: Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Courage the Cowardly Dog, etc.
I remember when the Nightmare of Elm Street movies became less scary and just more mesmerizing. The Dreamchild was basically an action movie, not horror at all. And they all began to copy Blade, a superhero/horror franchise. Jump scares and bad cgi blood explosions became the norm. I truly believed the genre was dead for good until The Conjuring brought me back.
It was also when Scooby-Doo finally got "real" with Zombie Island (not counting the standalone Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy movies)
IT, Jumanji, The Witches, Ernest Scared Stupid, A Nightmare Before Christmas
How is Jumanji a horror movie?
@@Viking_Luchador I've always considered it a children's horror movie: it's a morality tale, the British guy hunting down Robin Williams, the giant bugs, the kid turning into a monkey, ALAN GETTING SUCKED INTO THE GAME 😳
Not knowing where the game came from, how it was made -- imaging what awaited Alan in the jungle TERRIFIED me as a kid.
Scream was a defining movie moment in my life. I'll never forget the experience of seeing it at the cinema. Terrified but couldn't look away and left the cinema changed... Elated. I was hooked after that and did so many art projects with Ghostface in them that I'm sure my teachers were a little concerned about me lol
My mom rented it and we watched it home alone together on a dark stormy night. Definitely made the scares worse.
I was a senior in high school and me and my friends went to the movies to see this 😅
I missed the first one in the theater but when I was 11 my dad took me to 2. It's amazing how well done that movie was. Even the stuff over my head it was this perfect storm of concept, writing and directing. It was the most fascinating movie I had seen at that point in my life.
Agreed. To this day one of the best times I had at the movie theater. Game changer.
Same here. I re-watched Scream 1 and 2 so many times I lost count during the VHS days.
1990's Jacob's Ladder is a phenomenal piece of psychological horror.
One of my absolute favorites, surprised Matt didn't cover this
From 1990 alone:
a Chinese Ghost Story II
Night breed
Jacob's Ladder
Misery
Tremors
Gremlins 2
Night of the Living Dead
Stephen King's It
Darkman
The Witches
Yeah weird omission.
Yeah I was way too young to have watched it but my mom rented it when it hit video. She was a horror fan so I saw a lot I was probably too young for lol
So a movie fully produced in the 80s and simply released in the 90s.
'90s horror in many ways was a good satire and deconstruction of a lot of tropes in '80s horror
I'm suddenly feeling grateful for growing up in the late 90's early 2000,s era. So much of what I grew up on, even outside of the genre can't be replicated. The experience of going to a video rental shop and picking out a movie to rent. Discovering a "new" old movie on TV late at night. Hell even just Saturday morning cartoons. TV Censored 90's slashers were my gateway into Horror. Lmao
All this to say, please cover the early 2000's. Lot of good to terrible adaptations in this era.
Event Horizon was one of the best horror/sci-fi moves of the 90’s. I haven’t finished the video yet, hope he mentions it. It you’re right, growing up in the 80’s, 90’s, and 20’s was a great time for horror. It sure changed a lot over the years.
Edit: he does, 6:21 awesome
@@brettbaratheon9776 I like event horizon and its prob in my top 25 def in top 50 horror movies of that decade but it's one of the most over rated horror movies in the horror community. It's fun but does nothing exceptional. Effects are mixed at best. 90's has so many great horror movies just had some truly terrible movies. Not prefect but a lot fun and better then 99.9% of horror released in the early 2000's.
The 90s are among my favorite decades of horror. Scream, Candyman, Silence of the Lambs, It and Child's Play 2 just to name a few!
Tales from The Hood and Candyman are some of my favorite horror movies of all time. Hell, Candyman is one of my favorite movies ever.
Tony Todd has a 10/10 voice. He was so good in Candyman I got scared when I saw him in The Rock .
@@gregoryharlow1347 And Now He's Going to Voice Venom in Next Year's Video Game Sequel to 2018's Marvel's Spider Man.
@@shawnswint1521 eh
I may be alone in this...but I really enjoyed Nightbreed (1990) as a film, especially the director's cut. I thought it was a really underrated 90s flick.
I watched the theatrical and directors cut back to back the other night and while the directors cut had some great scenes that should have been left in the original, and also some pretty cheesy ones that shouldn't have, I think that the pacing of the film felt off and not as fluid. I honestly can't decide which one I like more, but to each their own when it comes to that.
Nightbreed is really INTERESTING but yeah it's kind-of a mess. I think Barker had wildly unrealistic expectations for what he could really do with the budgets and tech of the time, to say nothing of audience tastes, but that's also what makes the movie so lovable-- it's really going for it.
I adore Nightbreed. I was very disappointed when the story wasn't continued, there is so much potential lore there. It was supposed to be a trilogy. It had a very troubled production including studio demanding at one point to cut the movie by almost half the original run time. It left such a bad taste for Barker he didn't even finish the story in print form. There was a TV series announced years ago but I don't think it's going to happen.
@@waymire01 I had no idea it was supposed to be a trilogy! I hope they do a series with Barker soon, now that the new hellraiser did fairly well. Nightbreed needs more attention. Its a little messy but at least its original
@@waymire01 There have been comics for decades and they're mostly shit wtf have you been smoking?
80s and 90s horror are my two personal favorite decades of horror
*"Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare"* is the worst. So bad was it that Wes Craven had to do *"New Nightmare"* to erase that mistake. Craven also directed *"The People Under The Stairs"* in 1991, and is one of the best 90s social commentary horror alongside 1992's *"Candyman."*
I feel the 90’s horror movies were way better than the ones in the 00’s. I’m sure that was no coincidence considering the world back then. Maybe that’s a video to come? Thanks again, Matt. 🎃
Not too many will remember but I feel like 9/11 really changed the face of cinema in general. A certain innocence was lost that we never really got back after. We became angrier and more fearful. Films followed suit.. which I think changed the horror genre a lot for the 2000s. That and the fact that CGI was starting to jump off more and more but they weren't quite there yet.. so you end up with a lot of piss poor visuals. Practical effects were cast aside and we were left with shlock like Van Helsing. Good video 👍
A video on 2000s horror would be really interesting. I might make it sometime!
I agree with this. The 90s got a really bad rap but compared to 2000s horror it’s a masterpiece by comparison. The quality of horror films in the 200s was so bad. Plus I think Al it if studio churned out shitty horror films for their bottom line instead artistic integrity.
There is NOTHING more insufferable than early/mid 2000 horror. It has its gems but it is overloaded with crap and some of the worst horror movies ever made.
i think horror in the 2000s were better hands down the new zombie boom was great.
90s Horror is actually in my top 3 horror decades. I think there is a lot of hidden gems such as Demon Knight, memorable cult classics such as Childs Play 2, Event Horizon and Army of Darkness and pretty significant heavy hitters such as Scream 1 and 2. Not to mention it was when horror was brought more significantly to other mediums such as TV with Tales from the Crypt and kids horror of Goosebumps and Are you Afraid of the dark and especially Video Games took a punch at Horror with the Resident Evil and Silent Hill Video games.
The ‘90’s is probably my favorite decade for horror. I’m a huge fan of 90’s Gothic like Coppola’s Dracula, Interview With the Vampire, and Sleepy Hollow, along with horror-adjacent works like the Addams Family movies and The Crow.
90s had some very fly horror movies. Think my favorite is Scream 1. Neve Campbell is a prime babe
This is a fun video, 90’s horror is underrated but most definitely a mixed bag but that’s what made it so fun as you have so many different types of horror to choose from.
I never thought of Prestige Thrillers like that. Very interesting. I never thought of the Mummy as horror, but I guess my definitions are different, with distinctions of "horror" and "scary". But all the same, fantastic point of view that helps place everything into one sort of timeline.
Yeah, I don't think my parents let me watch movies like the Mummy or Van Helsing as a very young kid because they were "scary", which is funny because I was already watching the Lord of the Rings films by the time I was 5. And both of those supposedly scary movies feel more like action-adventure films with horror flavour.
16:42 if I had a nickel for every 1994 horror movie about a writer's work channeling extradimensional beings and causing them to slowly corrupt the real world I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice
Bro, Lost Highway is some boss level horror shit
"We've met before, haven't we?"
Silence of the Lambs was absolutely the the birth of the "prestige thriller". I doubt we would have gotten Se7en or Scream or a bunch of others without it, basically a "whodunit" with gruesome murders.
Scream 1 and 2, Urban Legends, I know what you did last summer, Cherry falls, and Halloween H20. Just the slashers alone were awesome. 90’s was a good decade for horror. Good times. Great video man.
90s horror will always be fascinating, great video as usual!
Okay but this HAS to be a series. I would especially be curious about a video on 2000's horror.
I didn't think Lord Of Illusions was "forgettable". Quite enjoyed the creepy Clive Barker stylings mixed with detective noir.
please make more retrospectives like this for past decades. I learn so much so fast and it makes the search for worthy watches much easier to find. thank you for your time and research
I would love to see more stuff diving into horror in this style
My feeling is for a lot of us, much like sports eras, we look upon fondly and appreciate the era we came of age in due to the impressionable age. I notice a lot of us can enjoy bad films based solely on nostalgia.
However, it is fun to see the different genres through the decades. I see camp really coming back since regular life is soo dark already and coming out of the lockdown years. We need an escape and put a name to our fears/anxieties, even better if it doesn’t take itself too serious or pretends to be something it’s not. Like Chuck tv series, even scream queens though that was before Pandy.
Man Bites Dog was one of those things I probably shouldn't have watched growing up, but I think that was 1992. I saw it like 1998, it was one of those somewhere between crime drama and meta narrative about voyeurism. It's insane how "Last House on the Left" meets a mockumentary became a timeless metanarrative horror film (Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, etc.)
This timeline though helps better articulate how some mechanisms of delivery for horror will always stay stable.
Loved this video. You broke down a lot of the key points. I’ve always argued with friends that 90s Horror is every underrated in retrospect. I think the 90s got a bad rap because there were very high highs and extreme lows and no real in between. My favorite horror movie of the 90s is Candyman. I really think film is a masterpiece with one of the greatest scores ever!
Lol bruh wut
I remember when the Nightmare of Elm Street movies became less scary and just more mesmerizing. The Dreamchild was basically an action movie, not horror at all. And they all began to copy Blade, a superhero/horror franchise. Jump scares and bad cgi blood explosions became the norm. I truly believed the genre was dead for good until The Conjuring brought me back.
Tales From The Crypt was massive in the 90s for a while.
The only movie you forgot is Demon Knight, that is a classic 90s horror.
Is anyone going to tell him "Hocus Pocus" (the original) wasn't a TV movie, just a movie that found its audience after under preforming at the box office.
I noticed that too. I was like um Hocus Pocus was released i theaters.
Loved this. You should do more of these for other decades.
Great video, got me excited to watch some of the movies you listed for the first time!
Ernest Dickerson's Tales from the Crypt : Demon Knight is very underrated
I LOVE 90's horror! Scream 2 was the film the pulled me into the fold and i never looked back. Now if you said 00's horror...
I am so happy you mentioned you are doing a Gamera retrospective!!! I cannot wait for that. The Showa and Hesei collections are really cheap on Arrow Video and Amazon Prime right now, I just picked them up last week
Dude the 90's were fucking great. Totatlly understand why some people don't think it is, also groovy video!
-In The Mouth Of Madness
-Ravenous
-Scream 1 & 2
-Se7en
-New Nightmare
-Army of Darkness
-Event Horizon
-The People Under The Stairs
-Gremlins 2
-Nightbreed
-Stir of Echoes
-Necronomicon
-Predator 2
-Vampires
-Cube
-Bride of Chucky
-Castle Freak
Those are just some off the top of my head
I'm really glad about the recent In the Mouth of Madness support I've been seeing in general, it's not Carpenter's best but it's (imo) some of the best cosmic horror in film
@@Mitcheck315 Same here the film changes number one and two place on my ranking of his depending on the day. The man just knew how to end a film.
Jhon carpenters vampires in my eyes the best vampire movie wicked film and people under the stairs I use to love that as a kid aswell another wicked film!!
All good to great films, especially Ravenous, Nightbreed and Cube
You forgot my top 2 favorite horror movies from the 90s:
The Haunting and Halloween H20. I saw both on theaters as a kid around 10-12 and loved them.
Not your usual video, but awesome as usual!!! Thanx, Matt!!!
Do you happen to know about the 1990 film “The Witches” at all? That was probably a film that felt like a horror film, even though that was based on a children’s novel of the same name (and to add to that, it was also directed by Nicolas Roeg, who directed the iconic film ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’). The film also has effects done by the Jim Henson Company, and apparently, the film had some extremely scary scenes cut as well
Ahh as guy who graduated high school in '99 there were plenty of hidden gems.
Amazing video. Some undeniable classics were released in the 90s, and the origins of the Thriller genre was really interesting. I never thought about that.
TV horror in the 90s tho >>>>>
My favorite era of horror is probably the 2010s and 2020s
This was absolutely awesome 👌 👏 👍 please do more of thise type of video! Narration on point!
House on haunted hill was scary and entertaining as hell. It totally revolutionized ghost horror movies, particularly with the way the ghosts would scare/kill people. We still see that influence in ghost horror movies today.
Thanks for the amazing video Matt ❤️
The answer is yes Matt
@@justindenney-hall5875 thank you Justin 🤝
@Telegram@mattdraper1 unalive yourself bot
Really great stuff man I hope your future stuff has more of this general topic over specific creator or stories your workflow really works great for both.
Thanks! Sometimes the really broad topics don't too so well, but I like making them.
That delivery when he said “River of shit” was so good 😂
As someone who grew up in the 80s, I loved Halloween 5, the Dream child, Ghostbusters 2 and Sleepaway Camp 3. No Apologies for any of those!
This was so fun to watch! 90’s horror shaped me
Now that is a perfect video essay, great information about horror in 90’s
God your music picks are the best. I knew you’d go into using the Midnight again.
I loved this video! Great job!
A great docu-commentary on one of the great decades of cinema in all genres.
This was great. You’ve got to do this format with other decades
Excellent essay! Very thorough and concluding thoughts are fair.
Yes i was paying attention, nice seeing Community in a video about horror
Awesome! Possibly doing a retrospective of other decades of horror?
Enjoyed the video man!
One 90s horror I really liked that I never hear about is The Guardian. That one freaked me out. Those babies in the tree. I also loved Tales from the Crypt Demon Knight. The 90s is when I really got into horror. When I was able to rent the classics. I would go to the discount movie theater every week and see all the movies. Many in the video I first saw there.
Yes. That movie creeped me out. Especially the scene where the villain was chasing after that guy at night. Very underrated horror flick.
Awesome breakdown and video
Very well done! Happy Halloween!
3:54 In the 90s, Stuart Gordon did "Robot Jox" (1990), "Daughter of Darkness" (1990), "The Pit and The Pendulum" (1991), "Fortress" (1992), "Castle Freak" (1995), "Space Truckers" (1996) and "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit" (1998) - the latter is a fantasy comedy, but, still, the man did way more than just "Castle Freak" in that decade. He also co-wrote "The Dentist" and "Progeny" as well as producing "Honey, I blew up the kid" (he was the originator of "Honey, I shrunk the kids").
14:57 What about "Hardware" (1990), "Jacob's Ladder" (1990), "Predator 2" (1990), "Night of the Living Dead" (1990), "La setta\The Sect\Devil's Daughter" (1991), "Braindead\Dead Alive" (1992), "Dust Devil" (1992), "Necronomicon" (1993), "Dellamorte Dellamore\Cemetery Man" (1994), "Demon Knight" (1995), "Night of the Scarecrow" (1995), "The Prophecy" (1995), "The Night Flier" (1997), "Wishmaster" (1997), "Deep Rising" (1998), "The Faculty (1998), "Stir of Echoes" (1999), and"Ravenous" (1999)? The 90s were a dark decade for horror, but a lot of good movies simply went under the radar or have been forgotten.
I was 20 right when Scream came out just the right moment for the late 90's teen horror Renaissance, I wasn't driving yet so I'd take the public bus to see the latest horror movies.
Awesome video! ive always wondered why the 90s didn't have that iconic franchise. Or that definite thing that popped out. But as your analysis pointed out, there WERE GREAT horror movies. I think many self-proclaimed horror fans tend to be protective of their childhood and say "man the 80s/70s were awesome but today's films suck." They tend to ignore that most of the horror films in any decade STUNK or at least don't look as good as time goes on. I think we as a culture have embraced that nostalgic obsession-its why the 90s prob didn't get as much love-the newer films weren't the classics of old so horror fans and big studios didnt really appreciate the new changes until much later. Eventually the 90s franchises that made it big turned into exactly what older horror fans wanted-scream, silence of the lambs, candyman all turned out into never ending franchises that in my opinion took away what made them unique. what Japanese horror films would you and any one reading this recommend? Also, why did many of the horror masters of old start to decline?
Great vid!
You had me at "Gamera Retrospective."
Great video by the way and did you say a Gamera retrospective is on the way can't wait
I like the variety the 90s and 2000s gave us in horror. The 80s seem to only focus on slashers .
Very untrue. The 80s was great for sci-fi horror and body horror, as well as zombie movies to name a few.
The thing and the fly
There's 2 80s non slasher movies. I can keep going
The 80's was king of all horror, Fatal Attraction gave us the stalker thriller, The Thing gave us science fiction horror, we got horror comedy with Night of the Creeps, we even got a comeback with the vampire genre like The Lost Boys, Near Dark, Fright Night and horror drama like The Changeling.
@@justindenney-hall5875 My man, I never said the 80's started any of these subgenres, I was just pointing out to the OP that there were plenty of 80's horror outside of slashers.
I know it's not a movie, but the X-Files TV series defines 90s horror for me beyond anything else. Crime-focused [even if paranormal], wide-ranging tones between episodes, and often commenting on the fears of a new decade no longer defined by Cold War paranoia or Satanic Panic. In some ways it's kinda reminiscent of 90s horror as a whole (imo)
Man I really tried to get into the X-Files. It’s so boring, but that’s just me.
My first memorable experiences with horror growing up in the 90s was Tales from the Crypt, Goosebumps (the show), and Are You Afraid of the Dark?.
He covered a lot on here. Thought he’d bring up tales from the crypt tv series or even the movie tales from the crypt: demon knight. That movie scared the hell outta me
Goosebumps (the show) and Are You Afraid of the Dark are both great Canadian horror series
About the 90S thriller vs horror debate it's funny how Scream is now praised as one of the greatest slshers ever made, but it was marketed as "the highly acclaimed new thriller from wes craven" :)
You take that back Leprechaun 3 is the Shi*. Way more watchable then the Jason and Freddy sequels of the time.
Happy to see some love for In the Mouth of Madness, Event Horizon, Alien³ and The Exorcist 3. They surely don't get enough. I guess my favorites are pretty close (althought I do love Carpenter's Vampires...), the only ones I missed are J-Horrors gems like Cure and Angel Dust or the highly underrated Jacob's Ladder.
Great video!
You have a new sub! You make fantastic videos man.
Wes Craven is the man #rip
I'd also bring up Jurassic Park. Like you said about Gamera, it's more horror flavored then full horror (though the raptor scenes get close) but it's massive success helped influence HUNDREDS of more horror monster movies in its wake.
Great video
6:38 Batman Returns is clearly a Christmas movie, tho.
This was a fun and well-done analysis.
Another gorgeous, insightful essay. Have you thought about looking at American Werewolf & The Howling?
Waiting warmly for that Gamera retrospective!
I see it as a decade where everything is random, some things you love some things you hate.
If you could make a video just on Wes Craven, maybe like a retrospective and ranking on all his movies, that'd be awesome! I love hearing your opinions and I myself have recently been going through all his movies. He was taken from us too soon.
On-topic with the video, I recently watched Event Horizon for the first time and absolutely loved it. It's 100% a 40k prequel and no one can change my mind.
I loathe the term "Elevated Horror". Not only is it pretentious, but it acts like the genre was garbage for idiots until A24 came around.
Well, the Thumbnail has *Scream*
and I can only say for that one, lol
one of my favs alongside - *Halloween,* *The Shining,* *& The Thing*
thanks for this video! I love horror movies and I think every decade has it's gems, you just have to look for them....
I think it some ways it was a natural change in the cycle of genre films. Comedy, especially teen comedy, was everywhere, it was the golden age of Gen X.
If you're born in 1980
great vid
I miss the 90s my childhood.
This video was a great source of movies I haven't seen (like Cape Fear) and need to rewatch (like The People Under The Stairs)!
Disturbing Behavior is awesome!!! I saw it opening weekend in '98 back then and loved it ever since!!!
I grew up to these movies and saw them through rose tinted glasses. I love 90s horror anyway. They hit deep nostalgia for many.
Opening the video with the candyman theme? You've got a like and I'm staying for the whole 22 minutes
You forgot "Funny Games" of the best and smartest horror movies ever made - and it came out in the 90s (1997)
Matt: zombies were completely passé in the 90s
Resident evil: Am i a joke to you?
The candy man original song that played when the girl almost gets burned alive is playing in the background at the beginning was triggering to me lol
I love your channel 🤟👌