From the self-aware scares of An American Werewolf in London comes along to tear down the tropes of horror cinema, it makes it harder for straightforward horror films to terrify audiences.
From Gremlins 2: The New Batch to Wes Craven’s game-changing original Scream movie, the 1990s were a great decade for hybrid movies blending horror and comedy.
Child’s Play 2 (1990)
Set two years after the first movie, Child’s Play 2 sees Chucky continuing his pursuit of young Andy Barclay, who’s now living with foster parents after his mother was itted to a psychiatric hospital for backing up her son’s claims about a killer doll possessed by the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray.
The sequel leans more heavily into the goofiness of the premise. Its early scenes aren’t burdened with hiding Chucky’s true intentions, so it fully embraces the absurdity of a killer doll from the get-go.
The Frighteners (1996)
Before Peter Jackson brought Middle-earth to the big screen, he directed Michael J. Fox in the supernatural comedy The Frighteners. Fox plays a paranormal con artist who recruits his ghostly friends to haunt people’s houses, then charges a fee to “exorcize” them.
Thanks to Fox’s typically compelling performance, Jackson’s offbeat sense of humor, and mind-blowing visual effects by Weta Digital, The Frighteners has become a beloved cult classic.
Arachnophobia (1990)
After producing some of Steven Spielberg’s most acclaimed films, Frank Marshall made his directorial debut with Arachnophobia, about a small town in California that gets invaded by a deadly species of spider after a nature photographer is bitten and killed by a venomous spider in Venezuela before bringing it home in his coffin.
Since the marketing team didn’t know whether to Arachnophobia as a thriller or a comedy, the trailers ended up describing it as a “thrill-omedy,” deftly blending terror with absurdity.
The Addams Family (1991)
Former cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld made his directorial debut with The Addams Family, a movie version of Charles Addams’ cartoon and its 1960s TV adaptation. The film brought this spooky family to life in spectacular style.
The movie is full of memorable one-liners and every role is perfectly cast, from Anjelica Huston as Morticia to Christina Ricci as Wednesday to Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester (and the con artist who imitates him).
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Joe Dante’s anarchic sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch is so wild and out there that Key & Peele made a whole sketch out of Hollywood screenwriters brainstorming ridiculous ideas to put in the movie. And what’s more, Dante told The A.V. Club that this sketch was “completely accurate.”
The sequel doesn’t bother with a traditional plot – or anything traditional, for that matter. Instead, it’s a string of gremlin-related gags intended to satirize the very notion of sequels.
The People Under The Stairs (1991)
In Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs, a desperate L.A. resident who’s about to be evicted from his apartment breaks into his landlords’ house to steal their rare coin collection and ends up uncovering a group of children locked in the basement.
On the surface, The People Under the Stairs seems to be a standard home invasion thriller with a macabre twist. But it has a satirical undercurrent lampooning capitalism and gentrification.
Tremors (1990)
Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward star in the cult classic creature feature Tremors as a pair of handymen who investigate mysterious deaths in a dusty Nevada town and discover a race of prehistoric worm-like monsters that are rising from the earth and devouring human flesh.
As an affectionate homage to old-school B-movies with a silly sense of humor, Tremors doesn’t try to be anything more than goofy popcorn entertainment.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
In its first half, Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn is a straightforward crime movie about a pair of liquor store-robbing brothers who take a family hostage on their road trip across the border. But at the midpoint, they’re all trapped in a Mexican strip club with bloodsucking vampires.
The characters are well-drawn if archetypal, the violence is wonderfully over-the-top, and the movie as a whole is a loving throwback to classic B-movies with more than a few winks to the audience.
Army Of Darkness (1992)
Following on from the cliffhanger ending of Sam Raimi’s trilogy-closing Army of Darkness opens with Ash Williams stranded in the Middle Ages, boomstick in hand, desperate to find a way to get back to his own time.
The Evil Dead threequel might be the weakest entry in the trilogy, but it exhibits the same blend of gonzo genre thrills and shameless slapstick comedy that made its predecessor such a groundbreaking delight.
Scream (1996)
Another Craven effort, Scream satirizes the conventions of the slasher genre with a killer and a group of teenage victims who are aware of the classics of horror cinema. Not only is Scream a meta take on the familiar formula; it also adds a whodunit angle as the killer is lurking among the high schoolers they target.
Whether Ghostface is asking Drew Barrymore for her favorite scary movie or Jamie Kennedy is explaining the rules for surviving a slasher, Scream never misses an opportunity for sly self-awareness.
