Zapped Again (1990)
Psychokinetic Powers Teen Comedy
A sequel to the teen psychic powers comedy Zapped! that takes things even more crass and vulgar
Films of 1990
The Witches (1990)
Evil Witches/Roald Dahl Adaptation
Nicolas Roeg and Jim Henson collaborate on an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book. Roeg leaves the grotesquerie and gleeful malice intact making this one of the best Dahl adaptations
The Willies (1990)
Horror Anthology
A horror anthology that ostensibly tells a series of children’s tales but heads for an admirable grotesquerie
Wild at Heart (1990)
Surreal Disturbed Road Movie
One of David Lynch’s finest films, with lovers Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern on the run in a road movie that travels through deranged places of the mind and explodes with crazy energy
Whispers (1990)
Disturbed Twins/Dean R. Koontz Adaptation
Dean R. Koontz adaptation in which Victoria Tennant kills an attacker only for him to be found alive again and return to attack her, involving her in a complex web involving Satanism, vampirism and twins
Wheels of Terror (1990)
Road Games with a Killer Car
A blatant copy of Steven Spielberg’s Duel in which school bus driver Joanna Cassidy pursues a muscle car with never-seen driver who has abducted her daughter. Two-thirds of the film is taken up by an extended car chase scene where the stunt people seem to be having a field day
Watchers II (1990)
Intelligent Dog Hunted by a Monster
The first of three sequels to the Dean R. Koontz adaptation about an intelligent dog, although for each sequel producer Roger Corman has just remade the book
User Friendly (1990)
Eccentric Comedy/Statuette With Rejuvenative Powers
Oddball New Zealand-made comedy with various characters in pursuit of a statuette with rejuvenative properties
Two Evil Eyes (1990)
Edgar Allan Poe Anthology
George Romero and Dario Argento collaborate on an anthology, each adapting an Edgar Allan Poe tale. Either director leaves you with high expectations but the results are very mixed
Twin Peaks (1990)
Smalltown Weirdness/Murder Mystery
David Lynch’s dive into the dark underbelly of smalltown weirdness became the cult tv series of the 1990s. This is the slightly re-edited pilot issued for theatrical release internationally, which offers an ungainly wrap-up to the proceedings
Troll 2 (1990)
Evil Goblins/Classic Bad Movie
Acclaimed as one of the worst films ever made, this has a legendary bizarreness that has made it a cult film, everything from the ridiculousness of its dialogue and effects to the cast that seems made up of unskilled amateurs
Total Recall (1990)
Virtual Memories/Reality Bender/Action
Adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story is killed by being turned into an Arnold Schwarzenegger action vehicle and by director Paul Verhoeven’s burying the reality bending subtleties of the story under bludgeoning ultra-violence
Der Todesking (1990)
Anthology of Deaths and Suicides
From Jörg Buttgereit, director of the notorious NEKRomantik, an anthology that depicts various scenes of death and suicide. Essentially the original version of The ABCs of Death
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Comic-Book Superheroes
The first live-action spinoff of the comic-book and animated series still holds up well two decades later. Little of the manic barrage of pop culture has dated, there are some excellent animatronics that allow the Turtles to engage in a series of high-energy fights and more importantly emerge as distinctive characters
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)
Horror Anthology
Film spinoff from the Tales from the Darkside tv series, this is an anthology of three horror tales, the result is a surprisingly slick and well made film
A Tale from the East (1990)
Hong Kong Supernatural Comedy
A wannabe entry aboard the HK supernatural fantasy fad of the late 80s/early 90s sparked by the likes of the Mr Vampire and A Chinese Ghost Story films … This, which involves a time travel plot, is crippled by a pandering to a slapstick inanity that makes it a painful watching experience
Swordsman (1990)
Hong Kong Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
The first in a highly enjoyable series of flying swordsman films produced by Tsui Hark. The series hit its peak with the second film but this is an enjoyably energetic and busy effort in its own
Streets (1990)
Teenage Runaways vs Psycho Cop
Gritty urban drama with Christina Applegate as a teenage runaway on the mean streets of L.A. harassed by a psycho cop
Strangest Dreams: Invasion of the Space Preachers (1990)
Alien Invader Televangelists
A film that has been sold on the basis of its deliberately ridiculous title concept – that of alien invaders attempting to take over the airwaves by posing as televangelists
Strangers (1990)
Female Stalker
Australian thriller that is a blatant copy of Fatal Attraction
Steel and Lace (1990)
Killer Cyborg
A killer android/cyborg film from the genre’s 1990s heyday with a tasteless concept where a raped woman kills herself and is then resurrected as an avenging cyborg. A bizarre melding of killer cyborg film and I Spit on Your Grave
Spontaneous Combustion (1990)
Pyrokinesis
The start of Tobe Hooper’s decline wherein he borrows the basics of Firestarter in a really bad film with a madly overacting Brad Dourif as a pyrokinetic
The Spirit of 76 (1990)
Time Travel/1970s Retro Comedy
Clearly an attempt to copy the success of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, this is a comedy with time travellers visiting the 1970s. Lots of 70s pop culture and faces without any of it being funny
Spaced Invaders (1990)
Bumbling Alien Invaders
Well produced but otherwise unfunny comedy about a group of bumbling Martian invaders who turn up on Halloween, following a rebroadcast of the Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio show
Solar Crisis (1990)
Space Mission
Ambitious SF film about a space expedition to save the Sun, this bombed at the time but is not uninteresting
Slumber Party Massacre III (1990)
Slasher Film
Second film to follow-on from The Slumber Party Massacre. While the original was a straight-up slasher film, the second became completely ludicrous as it veered off in trying to copy the A Nightmare on Elm Street films but this returns to the slasher basics for a vigorous workout of the formula
Singapore Sling (1990)
Torture and Perverse Goings-On
Completely demented Greek film about a mother and daughter imprisoning and torturing people in a big old house
Shakma (1990)
Killer Baboon
Film about a group of students locked in a lab and being hunted by a crazed experimental baboon
Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (1990)
Gonzo Superhero/Troma Film
One of the more amusing and better made Troma films – their take on the superhero fad of the early 90s featuring a Japanese-themed superhero
Saga of the Phoenix (1990)
Wu Xia Film/Hell Maiden Visits Earth
Sequel to the madcap Hong Kong fantasy Peacock King with Gloria Yip as a hell demon trying to adjust to living on Earth, which then turns into a comedy variant on Gremlins
Rockula (1990)
Vampire Rock Star Comedy
Painfully unfunny vampire comedy from Cannon Films about a vampire teenager who becomes a rock star. This has one of the least credible premises I’ve ever seen in a film. Mostly it seems to have been conceived around placing various musicians of the day in acting roles with bizarre results
Robot Jox (1990)
Future Gladiatorial Combat with Transformer Robots
Stuart Gordon, the cult director of Re-Animator, turns his hand to making a live-action Transformers film way back before anybody had ever head the name Michael Bay
RoboCop 2 (1990)
Cyborg Cop
With a script co-written by Frank Miller, this sequel comes in as a leaner work that abandons the campier excesses of its predecessor while expanding on its ideas with considerable ingenuity
The Rift (1990)
Submarine Encounters Monsters Underwater
A cheap submarine adventure/underwater monster encounter from Spanish director Juan Pique Simon that was intended as a copy of James Cameron’s The Abyss
Repossessed (1990)
Exorcist Spoof
This wants to conduct an Airplane styled parody of The Exorcist to which extent it conducts the coup of casting a grown-up Linda Blair
The Reflecting Skin (1990)
Surreal Vision of Disturbed Childhood
A dark Coming of Age story set in a surreal depiction of the midwest populated by what might be vampires and angels
Red Blooded American Girl (1990)
Medical Vampirism
Heather Thomas starring film about the discovery of a laboratory that has created a vampire virus
Puppet Master II (1990)
Malevolent Dolls
The first of the long-running series of sequels to Full Moon’s Puppetmaster, this is essentially a rerun of the first film
The Punisher (1990)
Comic-Book Vigilante
Dolph Lundgren’s The Punisher is minus his trademark t-shirt and the film takes considerable liberties with the source material but this is a hugely entertaining action comic-book of a film with hilariously tongue-in-cheek dialogue
Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990)
Haunting/Campy Horror
The third of the Prom Night films, a direct follow-on from the second in which Mary Lou becomes a campy Freddy Krueger-like villain firing off bad puns amid her dispatches
Predator 2 (1990)
Action/Humans Hunted by Alien Sportsman
Predator was one of the better Alien/Aliens copies of the 1980s. This sequel does little more than serve the same up all over again bar the substitution of a near-future L.A. for the jungle but manages to generate a reasonably intensive ride out of the action
The Phantom of the Opera (1990)
Disfigured Madman Beneath the Opera House
Lush tv mini-series with Charles Dance as the Phantom, this stands too much in the shadow of the then recent Lloyd Webber musical and its making The Phantom into a romantic figure as opposed to a horror icon
Peacemaker (1990)
Alien Cop and Criminal Fight on Earth
Entertaining B-budget variant on The Hidden with a woman caught between an alien aw enforcement officer and fugitive criminal both of whom offer contradictory stories
Pale Blood (1990)
Vampire
A vacant and stylistically empty modern vampire film that is all posed mood
Pacific Heights (1990)
Psycho Tenant
Thriller in which landlords Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith’s lives are terrorised by psychopathic tenant Michael Keaton
Omega Cop (1990)
Post-Holocaust Action
A low-budget post-apocalyptic action film featuring the almost completely forgotten martial arts and (non)-actor Ron Marchini who must venture out into the ruined city to rescue three girls
A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell (1990)
Heroine vs Post-Holocaust Dinosaurs
Despite one of the great exploitation titles of all time, this bikini clad babes vs dinosaurs after the apocalypse effort lacks the cheerful cynicism of other Troma films and is just cheap, dull and unwatchable on almost every level
Nightbreed (1990)
Secret City of Monsters
The second directorial film from Clive Barker is a hugely ambitious work concerning the discovery of a city of monsters – containing some extraordinary makeup creations – but proved a box-office flop
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Zombies
George Romero produces a remake of his groundbreaking zombie film. This adheres closely to the original but manages to modernise it in interesting ways
Night Angel (1990)
Demonic Temptress
Erotic horror as the demon Lilith attempts to take over a fashion magazine
The Neverending Story II: The Next Chapter (1990)
Adventures in a Fantasy Land
Sequel to The Neverending Story made with a better budget. This delivers some amazing sets and creature designs but is killed with a script that discards the metaphors and complex level of meta-fiction of the original
Mr Destiny (1990)
Angel Presents an Alternate Life Pathway
A variant on It’s a Wonderful Life where James Belushi gets to live the life he never did due to missing a key baseball homerun
Moon 44 (1990)
Interstellar Prison
Early Roland Emmerich film with Michael Paré investigating pirates targeting a mining moon. As usual with Emmerich, the focus is on action while neglecting the plausibility of the scenario
The Monk (1990)
Monk's Temptation by the Devil
An adaptation of a classic 18th Century Gothic novel about a priest who faces diabolic temptations in the form of a woman disguised as a novice monk amid much tortured guilt and damnation
Mister Frost (1990)
The Devil in an Asylum
Fine film that deserves wider recognition with Jeff Goldblum as a man in an asylum who claims to be The Devil
Misery (1990)
Writer Imprisoned by a Psycho Fan/Stephen King Adaptation
A classic Stephen King adaptation from Rob Reiner with writer James Caan imprisoned by psycho fan Kathy Bates, who gives a terrifying performance that won her an Academy Award
Mirror Mirror (1990)
Cursed Mirror
A 1990s video release, a variant on Carrie where a bullied teen girl enacts vengeance against tormentors with the aid of a cursed mirror
Midnight Ride (1990)
Psycho Hitchhiker/Action
Cheaply made Cannon Film that plays out like an action version of The Hitcher featuring a completely over-the-top Mark Hamill as the psycho
Metamorphosis (1990)
Mutating Scientist
An Italian exploitation film intended to take advantage of the 80s makeup effects revolution of the day as a scientist injects himself with an untested serum and transforms into a monster
Meridian (1990)
Erotic Fairytale
A much better than usual film from Charles Band, an erotic fairytale in which Sherilyn Fenn becomes involved with a circusmaster and his twin brother who turns into a werewolf
Megaville (1990)
Dystopian Future
Little-known SF film with Billy Zane in a dystopian future involving Virtual Reality tech and implanted memories. Like Total Recall rewritten as an episode of Miami Vice
Meet the Feebles (1990)
Obscene Puppet Show
Peter Jackson‘s second film, what might be called The Muppet Show by way of John Waters, an inspired work of puppet depravity that makes a beeline for bad taste
Martians Go Home (1990)
Annoying Alien Invaders Comedy
A majorly unfunny film about the arrival of aliens in Hawaiian shirts that do bad stand-up comedy routines and tell everybody’s embarrassing secrets
Maniac Cop II (1990)
Disfigured Psycho Cop
Standout sequel to Maniac Cop, the best of the series, where Larry Cohen turns in a remarkable script and William Lustig delivers incredible action sequences
Malediction (1990)
Missing Girl/Black Magic
A Bert I. Gordon film with Robert Forster as a P.I. hired to search for a missing girl before finding she was mixed up with a modelling agency and the occult
Magic Cop (1990)
Hong Kong Comedy/Supernaturally Empowered Detective
A crazy Hong Kong blend of supernatural and slapstick, featuring a detective who employs supernatural methods to fight drug dealers who use the resurrected dead as couriers
Lord of the Flies (1990)
Reversion to Barbarism
Remake of William Golding’s classic work about boys stranded on a desert island descending into barbarism where the book is disastrously Americanised in a clodding adaptation that misses the original’s rich swim of symbolism
Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)
Backroads Brutality
The third of the Texas Chainsaw films where the rights have now been inherited by New Line Cinema and the brutality of the original promptly watered down to MPAA standards
Killer Crocodile 2 (1990)
Giant Crocodile
A sequel to Killer Crocodile, which was a dreary Italian-made Jaws ripoff. Here another radioactive waste mutated crocodile stalks people. Indifferently made.
The Juniper Tree (1990)
Brothers Grimm Fairytale Adaptation
The singer Björk appears in the adaptation of a fairytale by the Brothers Grimm about witchcraft in mediaeval Iceland
Jetsons: The Movie (1990)
Jetsons Movie/Animation/Future Family
A theatrical film version spun off from The Jetsons, the popular Hanna-Barbera animated tv series about a space age family. Not too much has changed since the 1960s
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Deathdream
Adrian Lyne became one of the most visually exciting directors of the 1980s. Here he makes an afterlife film that swings between moments of greatness and a script that seems very confused about what is happening
It (1990)
Stephen King Adaptation/Killer Clown Monster
Stephen King adapted mini-series and one of the best. A dark Coming of Age tale, Tim Curry makes an unsettling Pennywise (in doing so popularised the figure of the killer clown)
The Invisible Maniac (1990)
Invisible Man
Low-budget invisible man film that makes a beeline for the squalid – the invisible man is a nerd scientist and invisibility becomes an opportunity for him to wander into girl’s locker rooms, kill bullies and the like
Initiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (1990)
Strange Cult
From regular horror director Brian Yuzna, a sequel to the Christmas slasher films series. This is quite possibly not only the weirdest Christmas film ever made but the weirdest Christmas horror film ever made
If the Shoe Fits (1990)
Modernised Cinderella
A modernised retelling of the Cinderella story that is set in the Paris fashion world starring with Jennifer Grey as a lowly seamstress falling for self-important fashion designer Rob Lowe
I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle (1990)
Vampire Motorcycle/Splatter Comedy
A British venture into the gonzo splatter film about a motorcycle that develops vampiric tendencies after blood is spilled in its tank in a Satanist ceremony. Beyond an amusing title, this is crude and heavy-handed
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Tom Clancy Techno-Thriller/Advanced Submarine
The first and best Tom Clancy adaptation about a hi-tech Soviet submarine whose captain goes rogue. Director John McTiernan conducts the undersea maneuverings with gripping psychological tension
Hiruko the Goblin (1990)
Gateway to Hell/Demons Unleashed
After his extraordinary breakthrough with Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto went onto make this altogether lighter film about demon hunters, filled with bizarrely wacky imagery and way-out effects
Heart Condition (1990)
Bigoted White Man Gets a Black Ghost Companion
Light fantasy oddity with Bob Hoskins as a racist slob of a cop who receives a heart transplant and suddenly gets a deceased Denzel Washington as a ghostly companion
The Haunting of Morella (1990)
Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation/Resurrected Wife
An adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story produced by Roger Corman. Alas giving it to exploitation director Jim Wynorski, who likes to add really well stacked women to everything does, kills all of Poe’s atmosphere
Hardware (1990)
Cyberpunk/Killer Robot
Richard Stanley film where killer robot invades and takes over a girl’s apartment. Stanley transforms the film into an astonishing vision of pure unfiltered Cyberpunk. One of the most visually dazzling directorial debuts of its day
The Handmaid’s Tale (1990)
Fundamentalist Dystopia
The original version of the Margaret Atwood novel made way before the tv series. This aims in the general direction but is more a film that achieves a sense of disquiet rather than the true horror of its’ heroine’s situation in this world
The Guardian (1990)
Sinister Druidic Babysitter
William Friedkin film with Jenny Seagrove as a sinister nanny who is really a baby-snatching druidic tree spirit. Friedkin and all concerned play a B movie idea in remarkably straight face
Grim Prairie Tales (1990)
Anthology of Wild West Horror Tales
An interesting, if not completely successful, attempt to revive the horror anthology – in this case with four tales that all take place in a Western setting
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Malicious Creatures
A far less successful sequel to the mega-hit of Gremlins where director Joe Dante brings the gremlins to Manhattan and allows the silliness to go completely over-the-top and into orbit, even breaking the fourth wall
The Green Man (1990)
Literary Ghost Story
Adapted from a Kingsley Amis novel, this BBC mini-series is a ghost story for arts audiences. Albert Finney is great as a philandering hotelier who must deal with the appearances of an 18th Century sorcerer
Graveyard Shift (1990)
Giant Rat/Stephen King Adaptation
From a Stephen King short story about mill workers facing a giant rat, this has become one of the most ridiculed of all King adaptations. Everything takes place with absurdly over-the-top melodrama
The Gift (1990)
Clairvoyant Youth
A modestly made BBC mini-series concerning a boy who discovers he has the titular gift of clairvoyant visions and how those around him try to exploit this
Ghost Dad (1990)
Man Returns as a Ghost Comedy
Riding high on the success of The Cosby Show, Bill Cosby flopped on cinema screens with this comedy where he appears as a father who returns as a ghost to sort out his children’s lives
Ghost (1990)
Man Returns as a Ghost
A popular hit in which Patrick Swayze is killed and becomes a ghost. Bruce Joel Rubin’s script has enormous fun in interpreting aspects of the ghost story from the ghost’s point-of-view.
Gate II (1990)
Demonic Wishes
A superior sequel to the modest The Gate. This borrows from H.P. Lovecraft and delves into the area of cursed wishes that turn on the wisher, all with imaginative results
Frankenstein Unbound (1990)
Time-Traveller Meets Frankenstein and Mary Shelley
Roger Corman disappointed with his return to the director’s chair after twenty years. He adapts a Brian Aldiss novel about a time-traveller meeting both Mary Shelley and Dr Frankenstein
Frankenhooker (1990)
Frankenstein Parody
Frank Henenlotter of Basket Case fame modernises the Frankenstein film Here Frankenstein creates a body out of parts from Time Square hookers. Amusing but eventually a film where the humour is too broad
Flatliners (1990)
Exploring the Afterlife/Haunting
A film about med students stopping their hearts so as to explore the afterlife. This aims for big ideas but befalls director Joel Schumacher who delivers pretty visuals but finds nothing any more profound than a figurative group hug
The First Power (1990)
Executed Killer's Supernatural Revenge
This was made not long after Wes Craven’s Shocker. Here detective Lou Diamond Phillips faces a serial killer who comes back from the dead after going to the gas chamber and can hop between bodies
Fear (1990)
Psychic Link with a Serial Killer
Fine copy of Eyes of Laura Mars from Rockne S. O’Bannon in which clairvoyant Ally Sheedy gains the ability to see through the eyes of a serial killer
The Exorcist III (1990)
Demonic Possession
One will go out on a limb and argue that William Peter Blatty’s sequel is actually a far superior work to the original The Exorcist, one that substitutes a literate theological detective story for barf bag theatrics and contains at least one real out there jump
Erotic Ghost Story (1990)
Hong Kong Erotica/Mischievous Fairies
Hong Kong film that blends gauzy erotica and supernatural (although no ghosts despite the title). Not as a good as the first sequel (one of several that followed) due to crude direction
Ernest Goes to Jail (1990)
Idiot Gets Magnetic Powers
The third of Jim Varney’s Ernest films where he is mistaken for a wanted criminal who is his double – only to go to the electric chair and this to cause his body to become magnetised