Throughout the 80s, the slasher subgenre of horror hit its commercial and critical peak with iconic entries like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Child's Play, and many more. While the slasher film has never been a favorite of the film critics (making over 50 on Metacritic is considered an acclaimed slasher film), the style has maintained a popular profile with horror fans, and the sheer bulk of output in the style has led to a wide variety of spins on the simple and common tropes that define the genre.
The 90s saw something of a surge in slasher films, often with a meta twist, which breathed life in the staling genre.
Ravenous (1999) - MC: 46
Certainly a unique spin on the formula, the 1999 cult-favorite Ravenous did not curry the best favor with critics, though it did achieve a loyal following and remains an original take on the slasher template. The film takes place at an isolated military base where a disgraced soldier encounters a mysterious survivor of a cannibalistic attack, played by a career-best Robert Carlyle.
The film divided critics, but its ability to blend period piece drama with a genuinely eerie atmosphere and a handful of scenes directly indebted to the slasher tradition has led to the film standing the test of time.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) - MC: 52
Based upon a young adult book, I Know What You Did Last Summer managed to be a huge financial success and launched two sequels, each to diminishing returns. The film concerns a group of four teenagers, led by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt, who accidentally kill a man during a late-night drive on the Fourth of July.
A year later, the incident comes back to haunt them in the form of a proper slasher killer, hook-hand and all, who stalks them one by one. Its melodramatic thrills and entertaining performance make it a guilty pleasure worth keeping around.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - MC: 52
While a good number of new franchises began their life in the 90s, the old guards were doing their best to remain relevant in the cluttered field as well. That includes the grandfather of slasher franchises, Halloween.
The 1998 soft reboot/sequel to the first two installments brought back Jamie Lee-Curtis to the role that made her famous; this was supposed to be Laurie Strode's final battle with her brother Michael Myers. The film was not a masterpiece, but it brought a new perspective through its return-to-roots approach. One of the better entries in the Halloween franchise, all things considered.
Candyman (1992) - MC: 61
Featuring one of the all-time great horror film scores alongside one of the most physically imposing and terrifying film slashers in the history of the genre, 1992's Candyman is an unusually cerebral and socially-charged piece of horror filmmaking that manages to satisfy in its slasher leaning sequences as well.
Tony Todd is outright terrifying in the titular role, a mythological killer that survives on the power of myth and fear. Candyman crosses paths with a journalist and things turn dark, nasty, and very real. A film that has only grown more powerful and scary with time, Candyman is a legitimate classic.
Scream 2 (1997) - MC: 65
The original Scream was such a success, both critically and commercially, that the sequel seemed a foregone conclusion. Furthermore, the longstanding tradition of slasher film properties spawning a seemingly endless amount of sequels provided a good amount of fodder for the meta-sequel to play with.
Wes Craven, master of the slasher film, returned to the director's chair to riff on the genre that made him a legend. The cast is as good as they were the first time, and the entire through-line of the film's commentary on horror sequels makes Scream 2 an excellent horror sequel in its own right.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) - MC: 64
Something of a precursor to the semiotic meta-experiments of Scream, Wes Craven returned to his iconic A Nightmare on Elm Street for this film, part sequel/part reboot, which imagines what would happen if Freddy Krueger came back to haunt the people involved in the making of the original Nightmare on Elm Street.
It's heady stuff, especially for a horror film, and many of the ideas in the film are so creative in concept, it covers the occasional faltering in execution. Craven has fun with the film and manages to sneak in some great and gory slasher thrills to boot. One of the long-running franchise's very best outings.
Scream (1996) - MC: 65
Quite possibly the most iconic slasher film of the decade is the original Scream. A film that lampooned slasher films of yore, while inspiring countless knockoffs on its own, the film took the angle director Wes Craven took with New Nightmare and refined it into the smooth and brilliant Scream.
Kevin Williamson's whip-smart script pairs well with Craven's directorial style, both of which are complemented by the truly great performances from the young cast, including Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich. A classic and a film that many tried to replicate, but never could.
Sleepy Hollow (1999) - MC: 65
Tim Burton made one of his few proper horror films, and one of his most beloved efforts, with 1999's Sleepy Hollow. Burton's reimagining of the Washington Irving short story puts a darker and gorier edge on the narrative, placing Johnny Depp's Ichabod Crane as a neurotic investigator sent to the titular town to uncover the truth behind a series of grisly beheading murders.
Burton goes full Hammer-Horror-slasher with his film, resulting in a gothic slasher film that marries Burton's signature style with cold-blooded kill scenes.
Man Bites Dog (1992) - MC: 67
Before the horror mockumentary found new life with the release of The Blair Witch Project, there was the Belgian descent into the nightmarish pits of the human condition that is 1992's Man Bites Dog. The film, not for the squeamish, presents itself as the result of a film crew shadowing a murdering lunatic as he goes about his daily routine of committing heinous acts against his fellow man.
Slick, gritty, violent, and funny in all the right ways, Man Bites Dog was a brilliant showing from Belgium and a showcase for the powers of budget constraints when combined with sheer creativity.
Funny Games (1997) - 69
The most acclaimed slasher of the 90s didn't even crack 70. Critics tend to deride the genre for its perceived reliance on violence in place of story, which is exactly what Michael Haneke's underground classic Funny Games attempts to probe.
Another, yet much much more nihilistic, version of the metanarrative present all over post-Scream horror, Funny Games offers an intense dissection of the world's fascination with violence and seeing harm come to innocent people. It is a tough watch that, at times, seems to condemn the audience for watching it, Funny Games is uncompromising and brilliantly scathing.