90s: Best Left Forgotten?

Remember the 80s? Most horror fans will tell you it was the best decade of horror, and it’s hard to argue. The 1970s were great, but the 80s took horror to a new level. You probably recognize titles such as “Friday the 13^th”, “A Nightmare On Elm Street”, “The Thing” and “Evil Dead”. The 80s was the decade of slashers and new horror icons, and oh yes, blood and gore.

So with that in mind, let’s take ourselves back to 1990. As a die-hard horror fan, I probably would have thought, how could the ‘90s follow up to the success of the 1980s? Okay, let’s move forward to 2008: It didn’t. I’m not going to flat out bash the 1990s (well…maybe a little bit), because, to be honest, it wasn’t all bad, there were some damn fine movies that I own and enjoy more and more with every viewing. But with every good flick (Scream, New Nightmare), there were a lot more best left forgotten, or better yet, locked away and never to be seen again. (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Bride of Chucky, Leprechaun).

 I understand filmmakers were trying to do something new, but I think it’s quite      clear now that whatever they were trying to do didn’t work. The great style of horror we saw in the 70s and 80s were left in the dark, and we were instead treated to the same old half-baked teen slasher shit. And gone were the days of gore, or at least bucket loads of it. These movies were not fun, they were dull and gave you headaches. Hey, let’s watch In The Mouth Of Madness! And don’t forget to bring lots and lots of aspirin.

Not surprisingly, there were many people that appreciated this new wave style of horror. I think you can guess who most of them are. Hey, if I was writing for TeenHorrorGalore.com, maybe I’d be praising the 90s in this article, but I can assure you that I am not a member of such a forum. The only other decade that compares to the mess that was the ‘90s is the ‘40s, but there was a legitimate excuse. Y’know, that little war that was going on? What excuse did the ‘90s have? I hear you, crickets. There was absolutely no excuse for why they were making this toned down teenybopper garbage. The 80s took horror to a new level, and the 90s took two steps back, and never went forward. Imagine what kind of stuff we could have seen in this mess of a decade if they had taken that extra step forward. I can’t tell you exactly what we would have seen, but my guess is I wouldn’t be ranting right now.

Nevertheless, there is promise now. After the dust had settled horror fans pondered, “How much worse could it get”? The new decade started off very rocky, picking up right where the 90s left off, which if I haven’t mentioned enough, was not good at all. But after a few years, those old school horror fans that had gone into hibernation came out of their caves, or labs, or whatever weird little nerdy fortresses (kidding) and shelters they may have hid in while being shot at with constant “new age of horror” trash. “Hey now, wait a minute, those Saw movies are pretty good. And Eli Roth, he has potential. And that dude that was in that 90s metal band!” You no longer have to hide folks, horror has come back, with all its gory greatness and suspense. It may not be the 70s or 80s, but it’s the best we can get, and let’s enjoy it. Try to forget the 90s; it’s a new decade, horror fans.