The 10 best horror films of the ’90s ranked | Films | Entertainment

The 1990s still gave audiences some of the most inventive, unsettling, and enduring horror films ever made – movies that combined psychological terror, supernatural frights, and black humour in ways the previous decade hadn’t quite managed.

From slow-burn Japanese horror to meta-slasher revivals, these films were quietly shaping the modern horror landscape.

Using Rotten Tomatoes scores and critical acclaim as our guide, here are the ten best horror films of the 1990s, ranked:

10. The Sixth Sense (1999) – 86%

M. Night Shyamalan’s breakthrough hit brought ghost stories into mainstream cinema with a twist. Haley Joel Osment stars as Cole Sear, a young boy haunted by visions of the dead, while Bruce Willis plays child psychologist Malcolm Crowe, trying to help him.

The film’s shocking twist ending became a cultural phenomenon and influenced a generation of supernatural thrillers. It combines tension, atmosphere, and a quiet emotional core, earning its 86% Rotten Tomatoes score. Toni Collette and Olivia Williams also provide standout performances, making it a meditation on grief, trauma, and unseen worlds.

9. The Blair Witch Project (1999) – 86%

Few films reinvented horror as effectively as Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s The Blair Witch Project. The 1999 found-footage phenomenon follows three student filmmakers – Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael C. Williams – into the Maryland woods to investigate the legend of the Blair Witch.

Shot with a minimal budget, the movie’s realism and use of unseen terror sparked a wave of copycats while demonstrating that imagination could be far scarier than onscreen monsters. Rotten Tomatoes’ 86% rating reflects its influence and enduring creepiness.

8. Dead Alive (1992) – 89%

Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive is pure, unfiltered gore with a touch of comedy. Known as Braindead outside North America, it tells the story of Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme), whose overprotective mother (Elizabeth Moody) becomes a zombie after a monkey bite. The film escalates into a spectacularly messy gore-fest, featuring set pieces that are as hilarious as they are gruesome.

Jackson’s love for B-movie horror and extreme effects pays off, and critics laud it for being “extremely gory and exceedingly good fun.”

7. Tremors (1990) – 88%

Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward headline Tremors, a creature feature set in a small desert town terrorized by massive subterranean worms called Graboids. Ron Underwood’s film is part homage to 1950s monster movies, part comedy, blending thrills and laughs in equal measure.

The chemistry between the lead actors and the film’s clever use of practical effects make it endlessly watchable. Rotten Tomatoes praises it as “an affectionate throwback” that reinvigorates its genre with humour and suspense. Over three decades later, it’s still the standard against which small-town monster movies are measured.

6. Cronos (1993) – 88%

Guillermo del Toro’s feature debut Cronos combines gothic horror with a vampire-style story of immortality. Federico Luppi plays antique dealer Jesús Gris, who discovers a mysterious, 400-year-old mechanical scarab that grants eternal life – but at a terrible cost.

Del Toro’s signature visual style and thoughtful storytelling earned immediate acclaim, and the film set the stage for his later masterpieces. The Rotten Tomatoes consensus notes it as “gory, stylish, and intelligent.”

5. Misery (1990) – 91%

Rob Reiner’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Misery is one of the decade’s most tense thrillers. James Caan stars as novelist Paul Sheldon, who, after a car accident, is rescued by Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) – only to find her obsession turns into imprisonment and terror.

Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal, delivering one of the most terrifying and controlled performances in horror history. Critics praise it as “taut and frightening,” and the film is consistently listed among the best King adaptations.

4. Arachnophobia (1990) – 93%

Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia blends horror and comedy in a story about a deadly spider that reaches California from South America via a deceased photographer. Jeff Daniels stars as Dr Ross Jennings, with John Goodman as an exterminator tasked with stopping the infestation.

While it may not terrify audiences in the same way as psychological thrillers, Rotten Tomatoes calls it “an affectionate, solidly built tribute” to classic creature features.

3. Cure (1997) – 94%

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure is a chilling example of Japanese psychological horror at its best. Detective Takabe (Kôji Yakusho) investigates a series of bizarre murders – each victim is killed in the same method, but the perpetrators have no apparent motive or memory of their crime.

The film is as much a meditation on human fragility as it is a crime thriller, with a creeping, oppressive atmosphere that leaves viewers uneasy long after the credits roll. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes praised it for its “mesmerizing and psychologically intriguing” storytelling.

2. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – 95%

Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs is often thought of as both horror and thriller, and for good reason. Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling, a promising FBI trainee, is drawn into a chilling cat-and-mouse game with Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal Lecter, who provides crucial insight into the mind of another killer.

The film swept the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress — a remarkable feat for a horror-leaning film. Rotten Tomatoes praises its blend of psychological depth and suspense, and its influence on both crime thrillers and horror is undeniable.

1. Ringu (The Ring) (1998) – 98%

At the top of the 1990s horror list sits Hideo Nakata’s Ringu, a Japanese supernatural horror that has influenced countless films, including the American remake, The Ring. Reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) investigates a cursed videotape responsible for several mysterious deaths. The tension builds through atmosphere rather than gore, and Nakata’s meticulous direction creates a sense of inescapable dread.

With a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score, it is not only the highest-rated horror film of the decade but also one that transformed the global horror landscape, introducing audiences to the now-iconic Japanese horror style.