10. “Ringu” (1998)
Even among the most terrifying horror films, few alter the genre in major, game-shifting ways. One of the small number to manage that in the 1990s was “Ringu,” which virtually invented the J-horror subgenre, and was copied, reflected, or ripped-off for the next decade, if not longer. The international breakthrough of director Hideo Nakata and based on Kôji Suzuki’s novel, the film sees reporter Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) stumble upon and eventually become subject to a mysterious videotape full of disturbing images that cause the viewer to die horrifically seven days after watching. Culminating with one of the most iconic horror images to emerge in the 1990s —the soaking wet ghost of a young girl, hair pulled over her face, crawling out of a television— the film is both a deeply smart reinvention of Japanese folk myths and a canny comment on the technological world in which we now live. In fact, the film was probably more prescient even than Nakata and Suzuki intended —the film’s haunting coda, as Reiko finds a way to save her child from the curse, pre-empts the dawning of the viral internet age. Gore Verbinski’s 2002 “The Ring” is one of the few remakes that comes close to surpassing the original, but Nakata’s film has a pure power all of its own.
9. “Cure” (1997)
Japanese genius Kiyoshi Kurosawa made his horror masterpiece with “Pulse” at the turn of the millennium, but his earlier “Cure” is much more than just a warmup. Koji Yakusho stars as Takabe, a closed-off police detective with a mentally ill wife (Anna Nakagawa) investigating a series of murders of people killed with an X carved into them, which would seem to be the work of a singular culprit, except they’re provably committed by a different person each time. Soon enough, Takabe and psychologist Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) find the common thread —a seeming amnesiac named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) who may in fact be a master hypnotist. It sounds like something cheap and schlocky, like a monster-of-the-week “X-Files” episode at best, but Kurosawa makes this film infinitely more interesting: a bleak, dread-filled picture that uses its high concept to dig into something more existential about free will and the viral-like nature of violence. Kurosawa’s cool, meditative style isn’t for everyone, but if you buy into him as many others have done —Bong Joon-ho called it one of the best films ever made— you’ll be haunted by “Cure.”
8. ”Misery” (1990)
Coming at the end of what is surely one of the greatest 6-year, 6-movie runs in Hollywood history (his debut “This is Spinal Tap,” and “The Sure Thing,” “Stand By Me,” “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally” comprise the preceding five), Rob Reiner turned away from comedy but brought a distinctly witty sensibility to his first and so far only horror film. Orchestrating the scares almost as though they were laughs (it’s a great film for observing how closely related our responses to “funny” and “frightening” truly are), Reiner takes Stephen King’s more grimly-toned novel and turns it into an immensely entertaining popcorn movie that does not skimp on the horror quotient. It boasts two powerhouse performances from a comeback trail-ing James Caan as novelist Paul Sheldon and an Oscar-winning Kathy Bates as his biggest fan Annie Wilkes, and a hobbling scene that has gone down in movie legend (it’s in our list of 40 Scariest Movie Moments Ever). And its portrait of obsessive fandom and the addictive nature of stories feels less farfetched as time goes by —the genius of the movie may be that Wilkes’ fastidious domesticity conceals such psychosis, but she is really an only slightly exaggerated version of an overly invested internet fanboy or -girl (just imagine if George RR Martin or George Lucas/J.J. Abrams were in Sheldon’s position).
7. “Scream” (1996)
With his tongue-in-cheek megahit “Scream,” the late, great Wes Craven lovingly lampooned many of the cheap & nasty teen horror flicks that he himself directed (the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series looms particularly large here) and simultaneously carved out a new blueprint for postmodern, youth-oriented horror. Although the original “Scream” would inspire three inferior sequels and a slew of empty-headed copycat pictures, none of the subsequent slashers come close to matching the original for style, scares and wicked self-awareness. From its instant classic of an opening, in which the crackle of stovetop popcorn is transformed into a death rattle, all the way to its gore-soaked, batshit finale, “Scream” is as ruthless and efficient as the masked, murderous bogeyman at the movie’s center. Every actor, from lead Neve Campbell to the seriously committed Matthew Lillard, pumps new blood into what are essentially stock characters, while Craven pays homage to his heroes and shows the young whippersnappers how it’s really done. Everyone from Edgar Wright to the duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller owes a debt to Craven’s seminal fright flick: it’s where ’90’s fashion never died, where Skeet Ulrich is the living epitome of danger, and most importantly, it’s where scary movies reign eternal.
6. “The Blair Witch Project“ (1999)
Hyped to the ends of the earth after blowing the roof off Sundance, marketed into the ground (cleverly, distributor Artisan tried to suggest, in part through to innovative online work, that the film was real, resulting in one of the most profitable movies in history), and essentially birthing every rubbish found-footage horror that’s followed in the past sixteen years, it’s easy to hate the phenomenon of “The Blair Witch Project” and forget the film itself. But with the dust long settled, you swiftly remember the reason for all the fuss in the first place: Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez made a brilliant, thrifty, ingenious film that uses simple technology to build and build and build to a terrifying climax. Tracking three documentary makers —Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, and Joshua Leonard, playing themselves— who head into the Maryland woods to investigate the rumors of a witch who may have inspired a serial killer in the 1940s, the film has times where it can be a little dull or overstretched, but just as your interest threatens to wane, the filmmakers put the chills up the spine with clever sound design, those fucking stick figures, or the utterly committed performances of their cast. And then comes that abandoned house at the end…
