Story of Ricky (1991)
Gonzo Splatter/Ultra-Tough Future Prison
An outrageous Hong Kong prison film that comes filled with mind-bogglingly over-the-top splatter effects
Films of 1991
Subspecies (1991)
Vampires
The first in a series of vampire films from Charles Band and Full Moon Productions. Several sequels followed.
Teenage Exorcist (1991)
Possession Comedy
Written by and starring 80s Scream Queen Brinke Stevens, this offers an occasionally amusing comedy take on the possession and exorcism film
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
Comic-Book Superheroes
The second live-action Turtles film is a disappointment. The Turtles are infectiously enjoyable characters but the script has an indifferent laziness, while parental concerns over violence have mandated that the fight scenes be watered down to an absurd level
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Time-Travelling Killer Androids
The first sequel to The Terminator where James Cameron returns with the biggest budget for a film at the time. Cameron harnesses then top-drawer CGI technology to create one of the most original nemeses in any SF film
Timebomb (1991)
Brainwashing/Action
Action film from Avi Nesher that comes with a solid and satisfying punch. Michael Biehn is a mild-mannered clockmaker who suddenly discovers he is a brainwashed assassin
Trancers II (1991)
Time-Travelling Detective
The first of several sequels to Charles Band’s Trancers with Tim Thomerson as a hard-boiled time-travelling detective. This does a passably okay job of following up on its predecessor
The Unborn (1991)
Sinister Pregnancy
Roger Corman produced film where Brooke Adams realises that something sinister might be happening with her pregnancy
Upworld (1991)
Cop and Gnome Partner
The most bizarre of the variants on the buddy cop film that came out after Lethal Weapon in which Anthony Michael Hall is partnered with a gnome. Directed by makeup effects man Stan Winston and an embarrassment to all involved
Wedlock (1991)
Future Prison Escape
SF action where Rutger Hauer is sentenced with a collar that will explode if he moves 100 yards apart from Mimi Rogers
White Light (1991)
Return from the Afterlife Thriller
Cheap badly directed film starring Martin Kove as detective who is shot but comes back haunted by visions of the afterlife
World Apartment Horror (1991)
Strange Apartment Building Comedy/Haunting
After making the groundbreaking anime Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo then chose to direct this oddity – a live-action comedy about a frustrated Yakuza enforcer trying to evict an apartment of foreigners that turns into a horror film in its last third
Xtro II: The Second Encounter (1991)
Other-Dimensional Nasty
Xtro was cheesily ridiculous Alien copy. This is a sequel that bears nothing in common with the original beyond the title. In between the two films, we had Aliens so there is now a plot about soldiers hunting the creature with biiig guns. Nothing bad, just an uninspired rehash of the standard Alien copy
Zombie Cop (1991)
Police Officer Resurrected from the Dead
A very low-budget film from regular genre director J.R. Bookwalter about a police officer who is resurrected from the dead by a voodoo priest