Note: When Brandon’s Horror launched it was titled 90’s Horror Review and focused on reviewing strictly horror films from the 1990’s. As the blog grew, I began branching out into other decades of horror entertainment and eventually rebranded the blog in March of 2020. – Brandon
My introduction into horror movies came via Halloween back in the mid 1990’s as recapped here. A fascination with the macabre grew out of that first viewing and so did my love for horror films. I spent the 90’s surfing horror movie newsgroups, HorrorSpeak, and the AOL Horror Chatroom, where I absorbed all sorts of horror movie knowledge. Back then, was not too unlike now in the horror community, where all of the 70’s and 80’s horror being held in the highest regard alongside Italian horror. The only real difference is that people are more accepting of some of the horror released in the 90’s, whereas back then even Scream was viewed as a disgrace to the genre.
Getting into horror can be difficult. A lot of the best horror isn’t something you’ll find on your local shelf at Best Buy or even on Netflix. That was what made video stores so great. Each trip to a different video store meant you were exploring uncharted territory where a new surprising film may pop up on your radar. These smaller releases were not something every Blockbuster carried, so it wasn’t like everyone in town had seen this movie. It created a sort of unofficial club of a freaks and weirdos who loved movies that weren’t always the most professionally produced, but still provided a lot of fun for the viewer.
I am thankful I was able to experience and learn so much from those early internet horror fanboys. I was introduced to so many different franchises that I didn’t even know existed. Thanks to them I was able to keep a running list of movies to look out for, and that helped guide me from wasting my time (and money) on movies that looked like they were shot with a home camcorder.
Not everything was all peachy with these horror fans. They liked what they liked, and because of this they existed in this bubble where nothing else was deemed good horror unless it adhered to the communities standards. I witness the thrashing of lots of horror films that I enjoyed in the 90’s, and that tradition carries on today.
Horror in the 1990s is widely considered as some of the worst horror and people love to take jabs at it. In some cases it’s rightfully so. Not a lot of tent pole franchises were established in the 90’s, and instead we suffered through sequels of once great franchises that were reduced to straight to video. But was it all really that bad? I don’t think so. In fact, I loved a lot of what I saw in the 90’s, and because I was born in the early 80’s, these were the movies that I grew up with. I guess you could call me a 90’s horror apologist.
I’ve decided to take my love and appreciation of 90’s horror to a whole new level. I want to feature review and discuss various films and franchises that occurred between 1990 and 2002. Why 2002? Well, in my eyes the 90’s didn’t really die off till 9/11 and several movies filmed pre-9/11 came out in 2002.
I’ll be paying special attention to the post Scream films (1996-2003). I was in middle school and high school through these years and to be honest, I missed a lot of them. I was so preoccupied with 80’s horror that I despised anything new that was coming out (thanks internet horror community!). It was only years later that I realized how much nostalgia these films held with their settings, soundtracks, and cast. These were my generations horror films whether we liked it or not, and while we didn’t get Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers we did get Ghostface, Death itself in Final Destination, and The Blair Witch Project.
So, welcome to The 90’s Horror Review, where I attempt to keep the decade highly regarded as the worst in horror still alive.