Accion Mutante (1993)
Future Mutant Terrorists/Gonzo Comedy
The directorial debut of Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia, a planetary adventure about a group of mutant terrorists that comes with a bizarrely wacky sense of humour
Films of 1993
Addams Family Values (1993)
Kinky Perverse Family
Sequel to the live-action Addams Family film that reunites the same cast who fine-tune their roles, while the black comedy has an even more barbed bite second time around
Arizona Dream (1993)
Occasionally Surreal Desert Happenings
This English-language debut from Emir Kusturica should have been a hit going by its cast that includes a young Johnny Depp romancing a 50+ Faye Dunaway, but is a plotless piece of improv of occasional surreal interludes
Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (1993)
Giant Woman
The first time we have had a remake of a bad movie – in this case the 1958 film. The title role is cast with Darryl Hannah and the shabby effects gets a much more polished work over
The Baby of Mâcon (1993)
Miraculous Child/Meta-Fiction
Peter Greenaway film about a woman claiming her baby is divinely conceived. As fascinating for Greenaway’s constant visual games as for the film’s brutal taboo-defying impact
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Comic-Book Superhero/Animation
Theatrically released film based on the 1990s animated Batman tv series. This allows the series to stretch its wings and do things it never could on tv, although the creation of a new super-villain never quite comes off
Beach Babes from Beyond (1993)
Alien Beach Bunnies
Prolific low-budget hack David DeCoteau directs what feels like a very softcore version of a Gidget film crossbred with Earth Girls Are Easy (albeit with the sexes reversed). A film that quickly sinks into awfulness
Blindfold: Acts of Obsession (1993)
Bondage Psycho-Sexual Thriller
A Basic Instinct-inspired erotic thriller where Shannen Doherty gets into light bondage and attracts the attentions of a killer. A hypocritical film that is predicated on erotic tease then condemns it as disturbed behaviour
Bloodstone: Subspecies II (1993)
Vampires
The second in a series of low-budget vampire films from Charles Band and Full Moon Productions. Nothing much to write home about.
Blue Flame (1993)
Alien Psychological Games in Dream Reality
Low-budget but not uninteresting film that throws in a mind-bending mix of aliens, dream and alternate realities
Body Bags (1993)
Horror Anthology
A pilot for a never sold horror anthology tv series featuring John Carpenter as a pun-cracking narrator. The two Carpenter directed episodes have some tension, while Tobe Hooper’s third episode has a clumsy heavy-handedness
Body Melt (1993)
Gooey Meltdowns
Australian splatter film where a series of drug tests causes people to start melting down. A largely plotless film arranged around a series of gooey meltdown effects
Body Snatchers (1993)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers Remake
Abel Ferrara’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an overlooked film that settles in with an undeniable creepiness that is just as effective as the earlier versions. The metaphor for the pod people is more diffuse in this one but that does not mitigate the film’s effect
Boxing Helena (1993)
Sexual Obsession and Amputation
David Lynch’s daughter Jennifer directs a film about a surgeon who abducts a woman and amputates her limbs to make her love him. A critical bomb, it is a not uninteresting work about woman’s desire handled with more taste than you would think
The Bride With White Hair (1993)
Hong Kong Swordsmen Fantasy
Classic Hong Kong Wu Xia film featuring much aerial swordplay and lushly dressing/lighting but also a work of wildly uneven tone
The Bride With White Hair 2 (1993)
Hong Kong Swordsmen Fantasy
Sequel to the earlier Wu Xia film, which brings back the leads in an enjoyable adventure that places much more emphasis on flying swordplay
Butterfly & Sword (1993)
Hong Kong Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
One of the most amazing of the Wu Xia (flying swordsman) films from Hong Kong in the 1990s, this explodes with out of this world fantastical action scenes
Carnosaur (1993)
Genetically-Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
A Roger Corman produced cheapie about genetically engineered dinosaurs that was quickly rushed out to exploit the success of Jurassic Park. Corman went on to make two sequels
Coneheads (1993)
Alien Visitors Comedy
Film spinoff of a Dan Aykroyd skit on Saturday Night Live about a family of aliens ho attempting to maintain ordinary suburban life on Earth The film has a really wacky sense of humour, which is probably why it was a box-office flop
Cronos (1993)
Rejuvenation Device/Vampire
The very first film from Guillermo Del Toro, a unique take on the vampire film concerning an aging antique dealer who finds a clockwork device that rejuvenates but leaves him with a taste for blood
The Crush (1993)
Psycho Underage Girl
A copy of Fatal Attraction where Cary Elwes rents a room from a family only to find himself dealing with a psychopathic underage Alicia Silverstone determined to seduce/wreak vengeance
Cyborg2: Glass Shadow (1993)
Cyberpunk
Sequel that abandons that mindless chop suey of Albert Pyun’s Cyborg and reconstructs it into a halfway reasonable Cyberpunk film. A then unknown Angelina Jolie plays the cyborg
Cyborg Cop (1993)
Action/Killer Cyborg
A low-budget action copy of RoboCop starring David Bradley as a DEA agent up against drug lord John Rhys-Davies who has transformed his brother into a cyborg
The Dark Half (1993)
Writer's Evil Doppelganger/Stephen King Adaptation
George Romero’s adaptation of a Stephen King novel with writer Timothy Hutton haunted by an evil alter ego. Underrated and quite possibly the King adaptation that is the most faithful to its source material
Dark Waters (1993)
Sinister Convent
A film about a woman’s journey to a convent of sinister secrets that is aswim in religious imagery, although the film itself eventually proves to be all imagery with no coherent plot
Darkness (1993)
Vampire Splatter Film
A no-budget vampire film from ingenue Kansas-based filmmakers. What the film suffers in the amateurism of its cast and lack of plot, it makes up for with its enthusiastically over-the-top gore effects and bucketloads of gore
Death Ring (1993)
Action Film/Human Hunting for Sport
Another action movie variant on The Most Dangerous Game with Chuck Norris’s son Mike facing hunters on a remote island. Featuring a cast made up of the relatives of more famous actors
Demolition Man (1993)
Satirical Politically Correct Dystopia/Action
One of Sylvester Stallone’s better films, a satirically funny work where he plays a contemporary police officer unfrozen in a future overrun by Political Correctness to chase down criminal Wesley Snipes
Dollman Vs. the Demonic Toys (1993)
Miniature Cop vs Satanic Dolls
Full Moon production that offers the novelty of bringing together their Dollman and Demonic Toys franchises, although nearly a third of the film is comprised of recycled footage from said films
Doppelganger (1993)
Mysterious Doppelganger
Horror film in which Drew Barrymore is haunted by a doppelganger. Before allowing the film to collapse into incomprehensibility, director Avi Nesher creates some fascinatingly weird images
The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993)
Wu Xia Film
A Hong Kong Wu Xia film from Jeffrey Lau that is near plotless and made at a madcap level of slapstick comedy that is frequently exhausting.
Ed and His Dead Mother (1993)
Zombified Mother Comedy
A very eccentric comedy in which momma’s boy Steve Buscemi accepts a deal from a strange salesman to resurrect his beloved mother (Miriam Margolyes) from the dead
Falling Down (1993)
Man's Shooting Rampage Against the Frustrations of Life
Though many people celebrated this as black comedy about Michael Douglas taking up arms on a shooting rampage against the petty frustrations of modern life, it is a film that is really a single redneck rant against the poor and minorities
Faraway, So Close! (1993)
Angels
Wim Wenders returns to angels in this sequel to Wings of Desire, along with most of the cast. Again Wenders delivers a work of haunting beauty about the angels invisibly looking in on humanity
Fatal Instinct (1993)
Psycho-Thriller & Film Noir Spoof
An occasionally amusing Airplane-styled spoof of film noir and psycho-thrillers, including parodies of then recent films like Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, among others
Fire in the Sky (1993)
Alien Abduction/"True Story"
Film based on a true-life claim about a supposed alien abduction. This probably won’t convince anybody who does not already believe but it is undeniably a well-made film, at its most striking when we go aboard the UFO
Forced to Kill (1993)
Action/Backwoods Brutality
A modestly effective action film written by/starring stuntman Corey Michael Eubanks where he is forced by backwoods hicks to compete in bare-knuckle fights
Fortress (1993)
Future Prison
Stuart Gordon, a cult director on the basis of Re-Animator, ventures into making an SF action film set in a futuristic prison. The film has a bone-headed script that feels like it is only rehashing cliches from every SF film
Freaked (1993)
Mutants and Mad Scientist Gonzo Comedy
Wonderfully nonsensical film directed by Alex Winter of Bill and Ted fame about the lives of a group of mutant freaks. Amazing makeup effects, a bizarre sense of humour and several well-known actors spoofing themselves
Future Cops (1993)
Time-Travelling Superheroic Battle
Manically paced Hong Kong action comedy about a time-travelling action team purportedly inspired by the Street Fighter videogame. Imagine The Terminator as a manic slapstick comedy with martial arts sequences.
Ghost in the Machine (1993)
Serial Killer in Cyberspace
Made in the aftermath of The Lawnmower Man, this utterly ridiculous film has a serial killer uploaded to the internet. Written by people who know nothing about computers and filled with absurdly over-the-top effects
Ghost Lantern (1993)
Hong Kong Reincarnation Romance Comedy
From Andrew Lau, director of Infernal Affairs, a weepy Hong Kong comedy about a man caught up in a romantic quandary from his previous reincarnation
Ghoulies IV (1993)
Malevolent Satanic Creatures
The fourth and final of the Ghoulies films. This one comes from B-budget hack Jim Wynorski who seems to not be taking any of the show seriously
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes (1993)
Vampire
Based on a short story by Fritz Leiber, this is a low-budget vampire film that quickly collapses amid its absurd artistic pretensions
The Good Son (1993)
Psycho Child
A variant on the evil child psycho-thriller, this seems set up specifically to allow Macaulay Culkin, the obnoxious cute kid from Home Alone, to trash his wholesome image
Green Snake (1993)
Hong Kong Supernatural Fantasy
One of the most gorgeous and beautiful of all Hong Kong fantasy films A lush, dreamy work of Wu Xia from Tsui Hark filled with wild, fantastical martial arts scenes
Groundhog Day (1993)
Timeloop Comedy
Winning comedy with Bill Murray trapped in a timeloop and forced to repeat the same day over. Murray is at a career-peak best and served by a great script. The surprise is how much the timeloop theme was copied by subsequent films
Hard Target (1993)
Human Hunting for Sport/Action
John Woo made his US debut with this Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle, which is essentially an urban version of The Most Dangerous Game. Woo’s stylised action set-ups give a slight script a dynamism that blows his contemporaries away
The Hawk (1993)
Wife Believes Husband May Be a Serial Killer
BBC produced film with Helen Mirren as a housewife who believes her husband might be a serial killer. Despite promise, this never digs in like a good thriller should
Heart and Souls (1993)
Disembodied Souls Comedy
Likeable light fantasy comedy where Robert Downey Jr is possessed by four disembodies souls and sets out to help them achieve their purpose. Filled with some great performances.
HellBound (1993)
Cop vs Satanic Avatar/Action
Hysterically bad film where Chuck Norris turns one-man fighting machine and goes all out to save the world from the Anti-Christ calling down the Armageddon
Hercules Returns (1993)
Italian Muscleman Movie with a Rifftrack
Excrutiatingly unfunny Australian film that has taken an old Italian 1960s Italian Hercules film and redubbed it with a comedy rifftrack
The Heroic Trio (1993)
Hong Kong Superheroines
Enormously entertaining and hilariously tongue-in-cheek Hong Kong action film featuring three popular actresses as superheroines who go into action in a series of wildly over-the-top moves
The Heroic Trio II: Executioners (1993)
Hong Kong Superheroines
A disappointing sequel to the madcap Hong Kong superheroines film. This reunites the principal cast members but seems to miss all the fun of its predecessor
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Revived Witches/Disney Film
A Disney live-action film that engenders no believability in its basic premise. Much of the show is regarded as an opportunity for Bette Midler to steal the limelight and play to over-the-top excess
The House of the Spirits (1993)
Latin American Family Saga/Magical Realism
A star-studded but ponderous adaptation of Isabel Allende’s cross-generational family saga set in an unnamed South American republic that comes with Magical Realist elements
Household Saints (1993)
Catholicism and Miracles
Warm and appealing film filled with great performances that takes place across two generations of an Italian-American family. An obsession with Catholic miracles takes over in the second half, although the film remains ambiguous to their actuality
Into the West (1993)
Mystical Horse/Irish Magical Realism
A Magical Realist film sets against the harsh backdrop of a dreary present-day urban Dublin as two boys befriend the mythical horse Tir na Nog and go on a cross-country journey
Iron Monkey (1993)
Hong Martial Arts/Masked Hero
Martial arts film from legendary Hong Kong action coordinator Yuen Wo Ping (behind the fight scenes in The Matrix). Essentially a Wu Xia version of Robin Hood and worth watching for Yuen’s amazing action scenes
Jack Be Nimble (1993)
Psychically Linked Brother-Sister
An over-the-top New Zealand-made Gothic horror with Alexis Arquette and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy as psychically connected brother and sister who set out on a quest to find their parents, killing all in the way
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Slasher/Mind-Control Parasite
The ninth of the Friday the 13th films and the most variant and fun of the series. This cheerfully turns expectations on their head and readily punctures the series cliches
Jurassic Park (1993)
Genetically-Engineered Dinosaurs Amok
An enormous hit for Steven Spielberg who took new emergent CGI technologies and wowed audiences with dinosaurs brought to life in dazzlingly realistic detail. It doesn’t hurt that he delivers a relentlessly suspenseful film too
Kalifornia (1993)
Serial Killer Road Movie
Coolly intelligent road movie with a then-unknown David Duchovny as a writer on a tour of serial killer murder sites and an unknown Brad Pitt giving a charged performance as a psychopathic redneck
Karate Cop (1993)
Post-Holocaust Action
A really cheap and unconvincing post-apocalyptic action film starring forgotten martial arts star Ron Marchini as a lawman fighting off mutant crazies to obtain a power crystal
Knights (1993)
Post-Holocaust Kickboxing Cyborgs
Another of Albert Pyun’s post-apocalyptic kickboxing cyborg films. The film consists of almost nothing but action scenes as pint-size Kathy Long and a cyborg Kris Kristofferson battle warlord Lance Henriksen
Last Action Hero (1993)
Adventures Inside the Movie Screen/Action Movie Parody
A big flop but highly underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger film, a sophisticated meta-fiction that views the cinema screen as another dimension and wittily deflates action cliches
Little Buddha (1993)
The Story of Buddha
Bernardo Bertolucci directs a biopic of the Buddha, which is interspersed with a modern story where a Western boy learns that he is the reincarnation of a revered abbot
Love & Human Remains (1993)
Modern Sexuality/Serial Killer
From Denys Arcand, a strong and powerful examination of all differing aspects of sexuality in the 1990s via a crosscut of characters, including a serial killer also in the mix
The Mad Monk (1993)
Hong Kong Heavenly Comedy
Madcap Hong Kong comedy starring Stephen Chow as a man sent back down from the afterlife to get three people to repent of their ways. Full of deliriously crazed action and slapstick
The Magic Crane (1993)
Hong Kong Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
Another entry in the Wu Xia cycle. By this time most of the moves of the genre have been used so this goes to wild extremes to find some type of originality
Man’s Best Friend (1993)
Genetically-Engineered Killer Dog
Film about a dog that has been experimentally crossbred with DNA from other animals that proceeds to go amok. The film proceeds to collapse into the completely ridiculous
Matinee (1993)
B-Movie Homage/Genre Fandom Childhood
Joe Dante film set during the Cuban Missile Crisis about a childhood in B movie fandom and with John Goodman paying homage to filmmaker William Castle
The Meteor Man (1993)
Black Superhero
Robert Townsend directs and stars as the screen’s first Black superhero in this comedy take on the superhero film
My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)
Teen Zombie Comedy
Rather silly and not particularly funny Disney comedy in which a teenager returns from the dead as a zombie and nobody seems to notice any difference. Does contain a number of before-they-were-famous names
Necronomicon (1993)
H.P. Lovecraft Anthology
Anthology of three H.P. Lovecraft tales from directors Christophe Gans, Brian Yuzna and Shusuke Kaneko. For claiming such a quintessentially Lovecraftian title as this, you feel that it should have been more than it is
Needful Things (1993)
The Devil Stirs up a Small Town/Stephen King Adaptation
Anodyne adaptation of a weaker Stephen king novel about a curio shop that sells objects that cause people to become obsessed and in so doing wreaks havoc throughout a small town
Nemesis (1993)
Cyberpunk/Cyborg Takeover
Albert Pyun’s finest film. It is another of his standard killer cyborg films but comes with an often hauntingly written gritty Cyberpunk edge that makes it quite unique
Night Terrors (1993)
Sado-Sexual Games/Marquis De Sade's Descendant
Another example of Tobe Hooper’s slight into mediocrity in the 1990s, an erotic thriller that features a madly overacting Robert Englund as the Marquis de Sade and an innocent being corrupted by his descendant in the modern day
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Halloween Denizens Take Over Christmas/Stop-Motion Animation
Tim Burton and Henry Selick combine on this stop-motion animated fantasy made in Burton’s characteristcially eccentric style, a beautifully stylised and dark fantasy in which assorted Halloween denizens invade Christmas
Ninja Scroll (1993)
Anime/Ninja vs Demonic Forces
One of the most extraordinary of all anime films – apparently a favourite of The Wachowskis (you can see they’ve borrowed moves from it), concerning ninja facing supernaturally empowered assassins demonic forces, directed with an extraordinary visual stylism
Once Upon a Forest (1993)
Environmentally Aware Animation/Talking Animals
Appealing animated film with an environmentalist theme where four young orphan animals go on a quest to save their woods
Prehysteria! (1993)
Baby Dinosaurs
In the aftermath of the success of Jurassic Park, Albert and Charles Band quickly responded with this children’s dinosaur film that contains some of the most pitiful effects in any film of this era
Puppet Master 4 (1993)
Malevolent Dolls
The fourth in Charles Band’s most popular series about a group of malevolent dolls. This turns the dolls into good guys and adds an Ancient Egyptian deity who despatches a Terminator robot against them
Reckless Kelly (1993)
Gonzo Bank Robber Comedy
The second of the films directed, written by and starring Yahoo Serious where he plays a descendant of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly who discovers fame in Hollywood
Return of the Living Dead III (1993)
Zombie Girlfriend
Brian Yuzna’s entry is the only worthwhile effort among the sequels to Dan O’Bannon’s Return of the Living Deadwhere Yuzna adds an original plot about a zombie girlfriend and the film is spiked with perverse imagery
Roadflower (1993)
Backroads Brutality
Psycho road movie in which Christopher Lambert must rescue his family after they are abducted by a gang. An amazing cast list deliver subtle and effective performances
RoboCop 3 (1993)
Cyborg Cop
The third Robocop film killed the series off with a disastrous decision to go for a PG rating and pair Robocop with a cute kid
Schramm (1993)
Serial Killer
Jörg Buttgereit made the notorious NEKRomantik films and is a director about an uncompromising and determined to outrage as possible. This inevitably falls in the shadow of NEKRomantik but is a grim and disturbing in its own right in its kitchen sink depiction of the life of a serial killer
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993)
Little Person/Surreal Bizarreness
Bizarre stop-motion animated version of the farytale that resembles Gumby that takes place in a surreal Eraserhed-like world
Shadow Hunter (1993)
Detective Tracks American Indian Sorcerer
Directed by the underrated J.S. Cardone, this features Scott Glenn in a fine performance trying to track Indian sorcerer Benjamin Bratt
The Silver Brumby (1993)
The Lives of Horses
Adaptation of a classic Australian children’s story about a breed of mythic horses. Starring an unknown Russell Crowe.
Skinner (1993)
Psycho Film
A serial killer film that is fairly strong stuff, starring Ted Raimi as a killer who skins his victims and wears their bodies. This pushed the censorship envelope considerably back in its day. With Ricki Lake as an innocent housewife who befriends Raimi
Slaughter of the Innocents (1993)
Serial Killer Thriller
Reasonable copy of The Silence of the Lambs with Scott Glenn as an FBI agent tracking a killer obsessed with Noah’s Ark
Sliver (1993)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
An adaptation of an Ira Levin thriller that has been turned into a blatant copy of Basic Instinct featuring Sharon Stone in more steamy scenes in a plot involving video voyeurism in an apartment building
Space Zombie Bingo!!! (1993)
Deliberately Bad SF Film
Part of the late 80s/early 90s fad for deliberately bad SF films, this has plentiful references to Plan 9 from Outer Space but little that is funny
Striking Distance (1993)
Action/Psycho-Thriller
Action thriller with Bruce Willis as a river patrol detective hunting a serial killer
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
Videogame Adaptation/Evolved Dinosaurs
The first film to be adapted from a videogame and inauspiciously one of the worst. This is a film made on a decent budget that seems to have set out to be as stupid and brainless as possible
Swordsman III: The East is Red (1993)
Hong Kong Flying Swordsmen Fantasy
The third in the Hong Kong Wu Xia/flying swordsman series. After a sensational second entry, this one figures it has to top it, resulting in some utterly whacko scenes even by the usually OTT, anything-goes standards of Hong Kong fantasy
The Tai Chi Master (1993)
Hong Kong Martial Arts
Hong Kong action choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping directs a masterpiece of martial arts cinema, featuring some of the sensational fight sequences ever put on film
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)
Comic-Book Superheroes in Feudal Japan
The third of the original live-action Turtles films is a lazily conceived affair that transplants the Turtles back in time to feudal Japan in a plot that rips off The Seven Samurai