The Decade in Horror: The 1990s

"We have a lot of reason to be fearful in the world," Frank Farley, Temple University

One of the common theories used to explain the horror paradox is that people watch horror movies as a way of coping with actual fears or violence. Since one source of our fears in undoubtedly the world in which we live, I thought it would be interesting to look at the popular horror movies of different decades to see how they reflect the general fears and uncertainties of the times.

The 1990s

As a result of 1980s excess, horror was in a dreadful state at the begining of the 1990s.  With one exception, there was not a really good horror movie the entire first half of the decade.  Instead, it was filled with remakes and Stephen King adaptations.  Audiences had grown accustomed to gore; it lost its power to do anything other than shock or amuse.

But we still had plenty to fear in the real world in the 90s.  At the begining of the decade, the 24-hour news cycle became popular with non-stop coverage of the Gulf War.  During the middle of the decade, the O.J. Simpson murder trial was a media sensation and the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people.  And at the end of the decade,  Gianni Versace was shot dead on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, Matthew Shepherd was murdered in Wyoming and two students at Columbine High School initiated the deadliest high school shooting in United States history.

It seems to me that the horrors of the real world were getting closer to home.  Perhaps that's one reason that the monsters of the 90s became the most realistic creations yet: serial killers.  In fact, the horror movies of much of the decade could more accurately be classified as "thriller" rather than "horror".  Beginning with The Silence of the Lambs, big-name directors (and actors) used the conventions of horror movies to make movies they insisted were not horror.  These serial killer thrillers included: Man Bites Dog, Trauma, Kalifornia, Natural Born Killers, Seven, Copycat, American Psycho and The Bone Collector.

Serial killer thrillers of the 90s:  American Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, Natural Born Killers and Seven.

The only innovation in horror to come out of the 90s was the approach Wes Craven took with two movies.  In both New Nightmare and Scream, he explored the traditional horror narrative from the inside out.  Since audiences knew what to expect in horror movies, Craven assumed that his characters did also.  This provided a fresh, funny take on horror that was also self-referential and breathed new life into the genre.

As a further sign that the genre was running out of ideas, the 90s gave us big-budget, big-director, big-actor remakes of classic monster movies.  We had Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh), Wolf (Mike Nichols) and the complete bastardization of a classic monster, Godzilla (Roland Emmerich).  These movies may have looked great, but they were so bloated that the last thing they were was scary.

Big-budget remakes of the 90s: Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf and Godzilla.

As dismal as much of the 90s was, the final year of the decade produced two landmark movies that would have long-lasting effects, even today.  The first came from Japan and was our first introduction into a subgenre that would be called "torture porn": Audition.  The other came from closer to home and was our first introduction into a subgenre that would be called "found footage": The Blair Witch Project.  The significance of these movies would not be known in the 90s, but thank goodness a new decade was right around the corner.  Check back tomorrow to read about that one...

Other 1990s milestones:

1992.  Bill Clinton elected President of the United States.
1993.  Pentel introduced the Pentium processor.
1996.  California voters passed Prop 25 to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.
1998.  Apple introduced the iMac.
1999.  Fear of Y2K spread across the world.
Sources:

Horror Film History: Horror Films in the 1990s