This decade has seen a major resurgence of ’90s trends. Wide-legged jeans, halter tops, animal prints, and chunky heels are back. The Backstreet Boys are touring again. Even scrunchies have made a comeback. Goodness willing, we’ll all be getting new dELiA*s catalogues in the mail again any day now.
But while the ’90s may be best known for grunge fashions, big hair, and those pop radio jams, it was also a peak era for teen thrillers and slasher films. With the revival of I Know What You Did Last Summer hitting theaters — with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. both on board to boot — it’s clear that element of the decades is making a comeback right now, too.
There were many, many cheese-tastic teen horrors to come during the mid-to-late ’90s. The decade began with the spine-tingling miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s IT that inspired a generation of horror fans. The decade soon introduced us to Buffy the Vampire Slayer (before the TV show took the story to all-new levels), and then there was a swell of disturbing teen-centric psychological thrillers like Poison Ivy, The Crush, and Fear, along with a few over-the-top pics like Freeway and Strangeland.
After that came the moody supernatural thriller The Craft and a bevy of teen slashers, starting with the franchise-starter Scream, followed by the campy original I Know What You Did Last Summer, the anthology shrieker Campfire Tales, and high school-centric thrillrides like Disturbing Behavior, The Faculty, and Teaching Mrs. Tingle. The era even saw a few dormant franchises seize on the teen horror craze with their sequels, such as Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and The Rage: Carrie 2.
The time period was also marked with several standout horror comedy films, including the goofy Idle Hands, the eyebrow-raising Jawbreaker, and so much more.
So which of the many standout ’90s teen horror/thriller films reigns supreme? You decide. Weigh in with our poll below to choose the ultimate ’90s horror favorite.