Alien pregnancies, bloody holidays, giant bugs, and all sorts of ghosts await you in these underrated horror gems from the '90s.
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00:00What's up everybody, Griffey here.
00:02Alien pregnancies, bloody holidays, giant bugs, and all sorts of ghosts await you in
00:07these underrated horror gems from the 90s.
00:10Have you ever been watching a movie and you said, hey, why is there not an Angel Patrick
00:14Ewing and an Angel Fabio in the movie?
00:17Not while you're watching Exorcist 3, because that's in there for some reason.
00:20This movie is bizarre, it's wild, it has real bone-chilling moments.
00:25It's one of those movies that feels exactly like an exorcism movie while following a lot
00:29of elements that are not super naturally based.
00:33You need real world horror to play with the exorcist.
00:36That is what Exorcist 2 got wrong, right?
00:39We don't want to fly around on the wings of a locust.
00:41We want a real world story.
00:43So the edifice of the police procedural gives it a really good backbone.
00:47It kind of roots the exorcist in a world that it needs.
00:51Setting this in a hospital gives you real world sicknesses.
00:54We have a serial killer.
00:55The serial killer setting is super helpful for the exorcism.
00:58This movie also has a wonderful Brad Dourif performance as the possessed victim at the
01:04end of the movie.
01:05Now, you probably know Brad Dourif as the voice of Chucky, so he was whore royalty before
01:10he even took on the mantle of the rubber doll.
01:14People who want a straight whore ride, this is not it.
01:17This movie always veers towards fun, it veers towards sexy, which is weird in a zombie setting,
01:22right?
01:23Usually when you see undead zombie shambling around, you're also not turned on.
01:27In Cemetery Man, you are.
01:29The Italian horror comedy stars Rupert Everett as a love-lorn cemetery caretaker whose pursuit
01:34of romance is upended by a constant stream of zombies.
01:37The European horror aesthetic can often be very different and hard for audiences to hit
01:42when it first lands in America.
01:43It's possible that the film's tonal shifts may have confused viewers.
01:47This movie should have worked.
01:48This movie is in the same vein as Evil Dead.
01:51It veers towards fun first, it veers towards sexy first, and that's a beautiful thing.
01:55Why do you want the same old zombie movies?
01:57You don't want people walking around.
01:59You want people walking around while beautiful people stand next to you.
02:02That's what Cemetery Man does.
02:03It's a wild, fun ride.
02:05It's beautifully shot.
02:07This movie should have hit and crushed everything when it landed.
02:11But at least it slowly built up a cult following of fans who appreciate its cool, off-kilter
02:16perspective now.
02:17What are you doing on TV?
02:19I'm rutting fast, Daddy.
02:21The supernatural horror flick Stir of Echoes was a modest hit when it was released in 1999.
02:26I still, to this day, don't know why this movie didn't hit bigger than it did.
02:31It stars Kevin Bacon as Tom Witski, a working-class husband and father who discovers that he can
02:35communicate with the dead after being hypnotized by his sister-in-law.
02:39He then has visions of a missing young girl, so he begins to investigate the circumstances
02:43behind her death.
02:44If you did The Sixth Sense without the insane, shocking twist ending of that movie, it's
02:49Stir of Echoes.
02:50And that's perhaps the most memorable element.
02:52Stir of Echoes is equally as personally haunting as The Sixth Sense.
02:57Beneath the ghostly trappings of the paranormal, there is always real pain and loss.
03:02Guillermo del Toro's American feature film debut, 1997's Mimic, is a sci-fi-horror hybrid
03:08about a strain of human-sized insects that emerge from New York City's subway system.
03:13I love the idea of this.
03:14We create a super genetically altered cockroach to destroy cockroaches.
03:19And then life finds a way, and those cockroaches bang other cockroaches that then make cockroaches
03:24that haunt New York City.
03:26And this is the best part.
03:27Their carapace shells come together to form not protection, but what looks like a vagrant
03:33in a trench coat, walking around on two legs that look exactly like flashers.
03:37That's scary before you find out they're bugs that eat us.
03:40Now if we could catch that male and kill him, then the females won't be able to breed,
03:48and the whole generation could die out.
03:49Alas, making Mimic was an unhappy experience for del Toro as he reportedly clashed with
03:54Miramax chief Arvey Weinstein and eventually lost control over the final cut.
03:59Giant bugs are always scary, but none of them look like they could also be sex offenders.
04:04That's where you see the del Toro.
04:06That is the kind of weird idea that makes this movie unique and memorable and terrifying.
04:12Audiences hoping for a return to the gore of Hellraiser may not have known what to make
04:16of the Clyde Barker-directed Lord of Illusions.
04:19A mystery-fantasy-horror hybrid, Lord of Illusions follows a cult detective, Harry Damore, who's
04:24hired to protect a stage magician who's been targeted by the leader of a doomsday cult.
04:29And anyone who's a magician, you're a creep.
04:31We don't trust you.
04:32We don't like you.
04:33No one who does sleight-of-hand magic is cool.
04:35No one who performs on stage as a magician is cool.
04:39So the idea that you're in doomsday cults and may have real power, that all you do with
04:44it is do terrible Vegas shows that look like Criss Angel stuff, is really lame, but is
04:50a great place to find a super-powered cult.
04:53Then you throw in Scott Bakula as this confused, befuddled detective, and he's like, wait,
04:58is this really about magicians battling each other for the powers to end all of mankind?
05:03And the answer is always yes.
05:05Like other films on this list, Bride of Reanimator suffered in part because it was considered
05:09a lesser follow-up to the original.
05:11Much of the sequel centers around West's plan to reanimate body parts instead of corpses,
05:16which leads to some revolting yet hilarious special effects.
05:19This culminates in a ghoulish scheme to revive Kane's girlfriend.
05:22The creation is gross and gives us those ghoulish, bizarre, fun elements that only Reanimator
05:27gives us.
05:28You're nothing but a dead head.
05:32This is the example of give me too much of a good thing.
05:35This is why we have Cracker Barrel.
05:36This is why we have all-you-can-eat buffets.
05:39This is why candy bars now come in two-pound bags.
05:42Because, yes, is it better than the original Reanimator?
05:45No.
05:46Is it somewhat just rehashing the same territory?
05:48Yes.
05:49Do I want you to shovel all of that into my eyeballs?
05:51Absolutely, I'll get the clamps.
05:54The cast is amazing.
05:55The effects are gross and gnarly.
05:57It's hilarious.
05:58So, if you want to say it's a lesser Reanimator, that's fine.
06:02So is almost every other movie.
06:04Leatherface, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, follows the by-now standard plot of travelers
06:08who fall afoul of Leatherface and his cannibal family.
06:12Leatherface in this, he's got big uncle energy.
06:14This is the Leatherface movie where you can see years of mayhem and chasing people down
06:18and carrying them to your butcher shop.
06:20It takes a toll on your joints.
06:21Did we want Leatherface with a really overly big knee brace?
06:25What doctor did Leatherface go see?
06:27F-O-O-D.
06:32Don't try this.
06:35Viggo Mortensen is not only in this movie.
06:38He is the main driving force of the cannibal family.
06:41He plays a charming, kind of slick, beautiful cowboy type.
06:45And then when he flips the switch to go dark, it is super dark.
06:49And it is so fun to imagine Aragorn in his younger days just behaving this absolutely
06:54reprehensible.
06:56His performance is one that you must see if you're a horror movie fan.
06:59The 1995 Spanish-Italian production, The Day of the Beast, about a priest, a professor,
07:04and a metalhead who commit a string of criminal and blasphemous acts in order to prevent the
07:09birth of the Antichrist, is fueled by a steady stream of cartoonish violence and pointed
07:14criticism of religion.
07:16And to top it all off, it's a Christmas movie, but just the very base conceit that
07:20a priest must save mankind by going out and sinning as absolutely much as possible is
07:26a beautiful place to start this movie.
07:28Weirdly, in a movie that is mostly a comedy with some horror flavor, kind of poking the
07:33power systems that be.
07:34It also has a lot of brains to it, which you are not expecting when you turn this movie on.
07:391995's Haunted clearly represents an old-fashioned approach to ghost stories.
07:43It's a period piece set in post-World War I England, where an American parapsychology
07:47professor played by Aidan Quinn investigates claims by an elderly maid that the three siblings
07:53under her care are plagued by ghosts.
07:55The professor discovers that all is not as it seems between the siblings, and he also
07:59soon finds himself targeted by the ghosts.
08:01I don't trust anyone or anything in this house.
08:05Haunted came at the end of director Lewis Gilbert's long career, which also included
08:09three James Bond films.
08:10Those expecting elaborate special effects will be sorely disappointed, but horror fans
08:15who appreciate slow-boiling suspense and gothic atmosphere will appreciate Gilbert's steady
08:19hand and attention to detail.
08:21When Haunted gets scary, it delivers a surprisingly grisly, though not graphic, story marked by
08:26murder and madness.
08:28Plus, a young Kate Beckinsale is particularly effective as a young woman whose flighty behavior
08:33masks a truly diabolical nature.
08:36The 1999 Spanish flick The Nameless wasn't exactly a hit with critics, and it does struggle
08:42at times with plot coherence, but it's also possible that the negative response is due
08:46to its unrelentingly dark tone and subject matter.
08:50Based on a novel by celebrated British horror author Ramsey Campbell, The Nameless centers
08:54on a violent child murder, and also features a satanic cult, a concentration camp doctor,
09:00an abusive ex-boyfriend, and matricide.
09:03What sounds like a checklist of unpleasant ideas is handled skillfully by director Ja
09:07Mae Ballegaro.
09:09Best known for the found footage film Wreck, Ballegaro emphasizes atmosphere and emotion
09:13over gore, though there is plenty of the latter, and he concludes it all with a devastating
09:18plot twist that will leave viewers breathless.
09:22Chances are, you've never even heard of this next selection, let alone forgotten about it.
09:26Released in 1994, Dark Waters is a surreal thriller that features British actress Louise
09:31Salter traveling to an island convent to understand its connection to her late father.
09:37She then discovers strange rituals, human sacrifices, and a locked closet that contains
09:42something loud and angry.
09:44I can't stay here.
09:47Where else can you go?
09:50I don't know.
09:51Though reportedly a challenging production due to language barriers and other issues,
09:56Dark Waters boasts a creepy, dreamlike take on elements from H.P.
09:59Lovecraft's mythology.
10:01The remote Russian and Ukrainian locations also provide an eerie, alien atmosphere, making
10:06for the sort of place where diabolical rites might have taken place for centuries.
10:10Dark Waters has been difficult to see in the United States, save for one Blu-ray released
10:14in 2017, although cult label Severn Films did release it as part of a sprawling, full-core
10:20movie box set.
10:22In the 1998 South Korean film, Whispering Corridors, something terrible stalks the halls
10:27of the Jukgaran High School for Girls.
10:30All of the students and teachers accept that the ghost of a former pupil is lingering.
10:34But when the most brutal teachers begin dying, a new hire digs deep into the school's history
10:38to determine who, or what, may be responsible.
10:41A foundational entry in the wave of South Korean horror that emerged as cultural restrictions
10:46were waived when the country's military dictatorship ended in 1987, Whispering Corridors sought
10:51to emulate the Japanese horror boom of the early 90s.
10:55Many of the tropes popularized by films like The Ring are echoed here, especially the vengeful,
11:00dark-haired female spirit.
11:02But the heart-stopping scares in J-Horror are traded for a gloomy and unnerving atmosphere,
11:06though there are still jumpy moments and gruesome deaths.
11:10Director-slash-co-writer Park Ki-young also uses his film to criticize a broken school
11:14system and authoritarian regimes in general.
11:17The mix of commentary and thrills made Whispering Corridors one of the most popular South Korean
11:22films of the year and spawned five unrelated sequels.
11:27As far as outrageous premises go, it's hard to beat Baby Blood.
11:31This 1990 French film concerns a pregnant woman abused by her circus-owner husband who
11:36encounters an alien creature that enters her body to assume control of her unborn child.
11:41Once inside, the creature demands constant nourishment in the form of human blood, while
11:45also offering steady commentary on her behavior and its need for her help with an escape plan.
11:51The woman finds no shortage of meals for her parasitic companion, and she spends much of
11:55the movie completely covered in blood.
11:57But if Baby Blood were just a non-stop gore-fest, it would be instantly forgettable.
12:01But the relationship between the chatty alien and its host slowly begins to resemble a warped
12:06version of motherhood.
12:07When it was released in America with the title The Evil Within, audiences saw a dramatically
12:11cut version with one unique perk.
12:14The voice of the alien was provided by Gary Oldman.
12:17Japanese filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto gained international attention in the late 80s with
12:22visually assaultive experimental films like Tetsuo the Iron Man and Tokyo Fist.
12:28He shifted gears in 1991 for Hiroko the Goblin, a supernatural thriller based on stories from
12:33the Yokai Hunter manga.
12:35Alas, Hiroko was a critical and box office failure upon its release, and it remained
12:39unavailable in the United States until 2022.
12:43The primary complaint seemed to be that it hewed closer to a traditional horror film
12:46than Tsukamoto's previous work, with seemingly normal characters and a linear plot.
12:51But in its best moments, it's just as chaotic and outrageous as any of Tsukamoto's other films.
12:57The core premise is simple.
12:58An archaeological dig releases the titular spirit, which turns a student into a malevolent,
13:03severed head on scuttling spider legs.
13:05The movie is eventually swarming with such monsters, all given life through practical
13:09effects and stop-motion animation that evokes the cartoon energy of Sam Raimi and the nightmarish
13:14aliens of the thing.
13:17So there you go.
13:18Fill your weekend with these underappreciated 90s horror movies.
13:21And let us know in the comments which ones we missed.