The 1990s saw the horror genre transform with some of the best scares and captivating, terrifying cinematography. We saw some of the best slasher movies being remade and franchises being created, taking horror to a whole new level, with movies such as Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III for example.
International horror movies, however, have their own spooktacular style and approach, and in the 1990s, global horror cinema roared and scared its way into our lives in a big way, with international horror becoming arguably more popular than it had ever been before. Whilst Europe continued to experiment with gore and scientific murderous robots, we saw Asian countries like South Korea and Japan take a huge leap forward into producing some of their own terrifying psychological thriller masterpieces. Let’s take a look at some of the best international horror movies of the 1990s.
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Hardware
Millimeter Films
Hardware is a 1990 British science fiction horror film starring Dylan McDermott and Stacey Travis, and was the debut film from the mysterious, legendary director Richard Stanley. We follow the journey of ex-soldier Moses Baxter who, in a post-apocalyptic desert, discovers a robotic head and spare android parts. He gifts the parts to his girlfriend Jill, who uses them to build one of her artistic sculptures. However, what they don’t realize is that the android is capable of reassembling itself, and we watch as the android unexpectedly goes on a violent rampage. Has Moses just gifted Jill something that will be responsible for her extermination? Find out in this grungy, cyberpunk sci-fi thriller.
Delicatessen (1991)
UGC Distribution
In the French post-apocalyptic black comedy film from Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet Delicatessen, we follow the life of Louison, a former circus clown who is desperate for work and a place to live. As a result, he accepts a job as a handyman of an apartment building that is in constant need of repair. The landlord of the building, Clapet, is a butcher who owns a delicatessen on the first floor.
Unbeknown to Louison, the previous handymen who mysteriously disappeared were butchered by Clapet and sold as food, and he himself is the latest in the long line of disposable workers. However, this time, Clapet’s plans are soon to be ruined when his daughter falls madly in love with Louison and plans their escape to the undergrounds.
Cronos (1993)
October Films
Cronos, the debut from iconic director Guillermo del Toro, is a 1993 Mexican independent horror drama that follows the life of antique dealer Jesus Gris, who is granted youth and eternal life when he stumbles across a 400-year-old scarab named Cronos. However, in this haunting but weirdly heartwarming movie, we watch as he has to fight for his immortality when he is hunted down by Angel (one of the first Ron Perlman performances) who is sent to retrieve the scarab using any means necessary, so he can take it to his nefarious uncle De La Guardia, who is old, dying, and desperate for it’s healing powers.
Cemetery Man (1994)
DARC
Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore) is a 1994 Italian comedy horror film directed by Michele Soavi and starring Rupert Everett. In this ’90s cult classic, Francesco is the caretaker of a cemetery like no other as the dead rise from their graves as flesh-eating zombies. After growing tired of having to repeatedly kill them in order to stop the town from being overrun, he seeks help from the town politicians, but when his pleas for an investigation are ignored, Francesco is on his own.
At a funeral, he falls in love with Anna, the widow of a rich man, and they begin a romantic love affair. However, tragedy strikes when Anna’s dead husband arises and bites her, and Francesco believes she too will turn into a flesh eating zombie. In a spin from our traditional blood and guts zombie movie, heartbroken, Francesco loses his grip on reality and heads into a tailspin of madness and misery. It’s a funny but surprisingly sad classic.
Thesis (1996)
Universal Pictures
A 1996 Spanish crime horror thriller film, Thesis is the story of Angela, a student at a film school in Madrid. In this spine-chilling horror, Angela is writing her university thesis about violence in movies and together with a fellow student Chema, they discover a snuff movie in which a young girl is tortured and killed. Discovering that the girl in the movie was a former student, together they begin to study the making of the film, from the type of camera used to the location of the murder. Delving deeper just digs them into a deeper hole, becoming embroiled in the mystery and horror of the film and fearing for their lives.
Cure (1997)
Daiei Film
Cure is a Japanese psychological thriller from master filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, which follows Detective Takabe as he investigates a string of gruesome murders. Each victim is left with the same grisly hallmark, an X carved into their neck. The latest murder has the audience trying to piece together the puzzle, as it leads to an arrest of a young man whose weird behavior has a strange effect on everyone he comes into contact with. Takabe teams up with the psychologist Sakuma, as they begin a disturbing game of cat and mouse to determine the man’s connections to the killings.
Ringu (1998)
Toho
Ringu is a 1998 Japanese supernatural horror film directed by Hideo Nakata, based on the 1991 novel of the same name by Koji Suzuki. After viewing a cursed videotape, Tomoko supposedly dies of sudden heart failure. Her aunt Reiko begins to investigate and discovers that some of Tomoko’s friends had died on exactly the same night, at exactly the same time, and in exactly the same way.
While the audience is begging Reiki not to watch the tape, she of course does, and soon receives a phone call informing her that she will die in a week. Things become more tense and disturbing when her son Yoichi also watches the tape. Determined to get to the bottom of the curse, Reiko summons the help of her ex-husband, and together they work to discover the origin of the video, but will they manage to break the spell before the week is out? One of the few great horror films with an almost equally perfect remake (from director Gore Verbinski), Ringu launched a J-horror craze and a series of increasingly weak American remakes, remaining one of the most important horror films of the ’90s.
Audition (1999)
Omega Project
Takashi Miike’s 1999 Japanese horror film Audition is one of the greatest bait-and-switch movies ever made, and if you haven’t seen it, you probably should before reading anymore about it; it’s a masterpiece that’s worth it. In the film, we follow widower Aoyama, who invites people to audition for a fake production in order to meet a new romantic partner. He becomes intrigued by the beautiful ballerina Asami, a withdrawn and quiet woman. They begin a relationship, however the viewer know something more sinister is going on when Ayoma’s life quickly takes a strange turn with a tense and harrowing climax.
