Top 10 Horror Films of the Nineties and Beyond

The Vault of Horror is at it again. Brian Solomon, that man of science, was visited by Cenobites from Fangoria and Bloody Disgusting and compelled to update his top horror film list. Naturally, he contacted his network of horror elite and myself (who is just a guy who likes the combination of buckets of blood and inexplicable boob shots, really) to help him out.

Disclaimer: I do not particularly enjoy the recent plague of politically correct demographically representative excuses for info-mercial teen flicks of horror. This list was compiled by looking through my DVD collection and picking the ones that came out in 1990 or later in no particular order. Very few recent horror films obey my 10 commandments of horror, much to my dismay and much to their detriment.

My Top 10 Horror Films of the Nineties and Beyond

• Saw


• Sleepless


• The Skeleton Key


• The Exorcism of Emily Rose


• Dagon


• Stigmata


• Bram Stoker's Dracula


• The Ninth Gate


• The Addiction


• 1408

Saw

Unfairly grouped with the vacuous Eli Roth-style gorno films, Saw actually offers much by means of existential crisis. The first film in the series had a great story in the tradition of the master, Alfred Hitchcock. The actors were all unknowns (or near unknowns) and that helped to prevent the film from becoming a vehicle for big names, like the Hannibal Lecter series inevitably became. Gives new meaning to the term 'cancer of our society'.

Sleepless

It's a giallo film. More than that, it's one of Dario Argento's giallo films. I don't need much more convincing, plus I'm having an Argento come hell or Dark Water.

The Skeleton Key

It's been a while since zombie movies involved a bit of voodoo. This tradition gets a tribute in this stellar film, which never quite becomes a zombie film, but wanders in the time frame before one becomes a zombie.

By mixing zombie-like voodoo practices into a psychological thriller and adding a little bit of horror with the delectable Kate Hudson, this film is a rare treat in an era where horror films just aren't what they used to be.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

What a pleasant surprise! At first, I was apprehensive about this film because no exorcism film could possibly be on par with The Exorcist - ever. Fortunately, The Exorcism of Emily Rose does not try to compete with The Exorcist.

Where The Exorcist has the shape of a psychological thriller, which focuses on the faith of the exorcist, this film takes the shape of a courtroom drama and leaves the supernatural elements largely open ended and unattended. It also features the brilliant music of Christopher Young, who somehow manages to fuse modern sounds with the tradition of Bernard Herrmann.

Dagon

Lovecraft like only Brian Yuzna could produce it. If you are a horror aficionado, you owe it to yourself to check out this low budget gorefest. Lots of ominous weather patterns, buckets of blood and even an evil cult much like Scientology.

Stigmata

A film about someone who gets stigmata, only the church doesn't want that person to get stigmata. A fancy, flashy editing job that perhaps highlights how much the church has lost touch with the average man on the street it is meant to serve. Features Patricia Arquette, who is no stranger to horror having started off in Nightmare on Elm Street 3.

Dude, it's a film about religion and the church. Of course it is a horror! Not quite as horrific (or as horrible) as Faith Like Potatoes, but also more entertaining.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Stylish, suave and nearly unbeatable as far as the story of Dracula is concerned. It features the whores of Satan. I'm sold.

The Ninth Gate

Stylish, suave and nearly unbeatable as far as the story of Faust is concerned. It features Satan as a whore. I'm sold.

The Addiction

Simply superb. Not even the rap music on the soundtrack can ruin Abel Ferrara's magnum opus (thus far).

1408

One of the handful of Stephen King films that does his literary excellence justice. It does run the danger of turning into a John Cusack vehicle, but then John Cusack is not Tom Cruize. Cusack manages to convince you that he is someone other than John Cusack, which is exactly the point of acting. Great story, executed on screen very adequately.

The Ninth Gate (1999)

Director
Roman Polanski

Cast
Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, James Russo, Emmanuelle Seigner.

Shop for Ninth Gate on DVD at Amazon.com!

Plot
Meet Dean Corso (Johnny Depp): book seller; raconteur; conman extraordinaire. He capitalises on his extensive knowledge of rare books, the ignorance of those in possession of these and his skills to manipulate people. Never too busy to pass by an opportunity to increase his fortunes, he decides to look for prints of a book called The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows on behalf of Boris Balkan (Frank Langella). There are three known prints of this book. Balkan already owns one, and Corso has to find the others to verify their authenticity. If he believes them to be real, he must acquire them at all costs. All expenses paid!

Corso manages to track down the remaining two, and finds discrepancies in the illustrations. At first, Corso is lead to believe that the discrepancies mean the books are counterfeit. A series of unfortunate events and a female consort known only as the girl (Emmanuelle Seigner) lead him to believe the discrepancies are deliberate. The girl and Balkan seem to be locked in a race to gather all the copies of the book in order to perform diabolical rites successfully, and Corso is not sure whose pawn he is. Who will be first to open the mystical ninth gate, and is it really that much better on the other side?

Review
Based on The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Polanski reportedly chose only one of the many sub-plots of the book for the film. In step with Pérez-Reverte's writing style, the film focuses in detail on the doings of one central character, namely that of Corso. The book is allegedly a bibliophile's dream, with references to classic literature throughout. As the title suggests, the book deals extensively with the methods of Alexander Dumas, while the film chooses to virtually ignore this link. Instead of offering a multi-faceted surreal world of endless possibilities, the Ninth Gate is the equivalent of the tunnel vision one has sliding down a water slide that runs out of water around the last bend.

While you can expect the same visual feast as in China Town, Polanski does not offer nearly the same complexity and suspense in the plot of the Ninth Gate. Upon further reading, it seems that his intention was to ridicule those who believe in the occult, while at the same time presenting a film riddled with occult references both obscure and bluntly obvious. It seems that Polanski considers his audience to consist of 15-year-olds who discovered the writings of La Vey. The film has a comic feel, and it does tend to drag at points. Some interesting concepts such as the nature of supernatural powers of the girl are treated with nonchalance, hovering somewhere between not quite explicit and not quite implicit enough, while other avenues not nearly as interesting enjoy fare too much attention. Still, with this fool's gold plot and strong performances by most actors, coupled with the fantastic score by Wojciech Kilar, the Ninth Gate is not devoid of entertainment value.

Conclusion
Compared with the recent outbreak of American creature features, it is refreshing to find a film nearly in the same who-dunnit tradition of Dario Argento. Polanski certainly has the experience and the flare to pull of a very stylish suspense thriller, yet somehow does not manage to do so here. It boils down to Johnny Depp to carry the film. The on-screen chemistry between him and the rest of the cast is worth watching, and the visual aspects of a Polanski film alone merits at least a second viewing. Not a bad film at all, just a poorly executed film for Polanski.

Rating