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Films which focus on the power of fear in one way or another have become a staple of the Halloween period over the years. As well as stories which focus on the supernatural itself, horror films which explore fears in the real world have also become popular, as well as movies which explore relationships between the real and the paranormal. Here is a chronological look at five movies from the 1990s which deserve a rewatch this Halloween.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
- Interview With the Vampire (1994)
- Scream 2 (1997)
- Practical Magic (1998)
- Halloween H20: 20 Later (1998)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Streaming on Disney+.
This might sound surprising to those who haven’t seen the film, but the 1993 animated movie The Nightmare Before Christmas is as much a Halloween movie as it is a Christmas movie. It portrays the story of a skeleton (voiced by Chris Sarandon and Danny Elfman) who lives in Halloween Town but is drawn towards the neighboring Christmas Town, leading to a battle between the two holiday realms.
The film deserves to be checked out in the context of supernatural season as well as Christmas time: it even features a song titled “This is Halloween,” which has become so enduringly popular that it even entered the Billboard top 100 in 2023, 30 years after the film was first released.
Interview With the Vampire (1994)
Streaming on HBO Max.
The success of the recent TV adaptations of Anne Rice’s novels Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, which star Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid, has also brought renewed attention to the 1994 film adaptation directed by Neil Jordan.
In this version, the leads are played by Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst (who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance), and Antonio Banderas. It follows the tale of Louis de Pointe du Lac and his centuries-long relationship with fellow vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, as told by Louis during the interview of the title.
Rice herself was famously hostile to aspects of this adaptation before seeing the film, including the idea of Cruise playing Lestat, but changed her mind after watching it and ended up endorsing the final result, even taking out an advert to express her enthusiasm for the film.
Scream 2 (1997)
Streaming on Peacock, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Pluto TV, fuboTV, and YouTube.
The first Scream film, which was released in 1996, began an ongoing franchise and created the idea of the self-aware horror film, but the second film is also worth a rewatch, and is preferred by some to the original.
The story follows the protagonist Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in her new life as a college student, before ghosts of the past begin to appear again, leading to both students and staff being stalked and killed on campus. As well as continuing the story of the central characters, it also plays on the idea of sequels in general, as well as the nature of horror films frequently leading to long-running franchises like A Nightmare on Elm Street and others.
Practical Magic (1998)
Streaming on HBO Max.
This 1998 film starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock recently got a sequel, which makes it worth reminding people to watch the original film too. Kidman and Bullock play sisters from a long line of witches, who live with a family curse which condemns any man they fall in love with to an early demise. It received mixed reviews at the time of its original release, but has since become a cult favorite, and its strong fan following eventually led to enough demand for a follow up to the first story
Halloween H20: 20 Later (1998)
Streaming on HBO Max.
A sequel to the original 1978 film Halloween, which, as the title suggests, takes up the events two decades after the first installment. The film’s star Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode, which sees her trying to make a new life for herself in California, but is faced with the returning threat of series villain Michael Myers.
It was critically divisive at the time but is worth another look, including as a showcase for Michelle Williams in one of her first major film roles. Curtis herself would later return for four further films in the Halloween franchise.