10 Most Underrated '90s Horror Movies You Need To Watch

While it's sometimes used to describe things that not enough people have actually seen, the term "underrated" technically refers to something that's undervalued or not rated highly enough. Gauging that in regard to movies can be difficult, as every film has its vocal supporters, but two simple resources exist to help alleviate that concern. Below are 10 movies that are underrated by critics and/or audiences — they're films designated rotten on Rotten Tomatoes (critics) and/or under a 3.0 rating out of 5 on Letterboxd (audiences) — that we think deserve better.

Specifically, they're 10 horror movies from the 1990s, and while some of them will surprise you in their inclusion here — either because you thought they were more beloved, or because you agree that they're stinkers — all of them deserve better than the critical drubbing and dismissive audiences they're currently enduring. Now, keep reading for a look at 10 horror movies that deserve a second chance.

David Fincher's entry into the "Alien" universe has been much maligned over the years, as the studio butchered it, critics trashed it, the director disowned it, and the franchise fans dumped on it. Viewer reaction is understandable, to a degree, as following up the brilliant horror of "Alien" and the epic sci-fi/action of "Aliens" with a bleak drama about the inevitability of death was certainly an unexpected choice. Killing off two of the beloved survivors from the previous film — during the opening credits, no less — infuriated many and left the rest of the film fighting an uphill battle that, for too many audiences, it never managed to win.

Approach "Alien 3" on its own merits and without those expectations, though, and it's revealed to be an emotionally harrowing and claustrophobic horror film. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has fought so hard only to wind up on an alien planet, surrounded by male convicts, and forced to confront the ignoble deaths of her surrogate daughter, Newt, and budding love interest. Hicks. It's a desolate reality in more ways than one, and it's capped off with a rampaging monster roaming the halls and another beast pulsating within her. Terrific performances by Weaver, Charles Dutton, and Charles Dance ground the pathos while the tension and suspense ramp up to an emotional goodbye for Ripley.

The theatrical cut is flawed but still interesting, and the Assembly cut — a version edited to resemble Fincher's original intentions — is an improvement. It's worth the effort, though, to track down the recent Legacy cut. It combines both versions into a seamless feature, complete with score and effects enhancements, and the result is a powerful, dramatically thrilling slice of sci-fi/horror. It closes out a trilogy of films about alien threats and corporate cruelties with an intimately affecting human triumph, and it's a beautiful thing.

Killer snake movies are typically about venomous serpents (1981's "Venom") or slithering hordes (2006's "Snakes on a Plane"), but the star-studded ensemble in "Anaconda" takes a different route and goes toe to tail with a 40-foot anaconda on the Amazon River that's hungry for human meat. Is it ridiculous? Absolutely, but between the cast, the frequently cool snake effects, and whatever the hell Jon Voight is doing with his performance, this is a highly entertaining time for fans of eco horror and actors keeping busy before they became stars.

Look at this cast! Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Ice Cube, Eric Stoltze, and Kari Wuhrer — all of them documentarians stuck on a boat with a psychotic Voight as a South American snake hunter on the trail of a giant anaconda. He takes over their vessel as part of his pursuit, and they all start falling prey to the snake's attacks. The snake effects are a mix of wonky CG and practical elements, the latter of which caused their fair share of issues. Meanwhile, the set-pieces find the fun and thrills along the way. It's a big B-movie, cheesy in all the right ways, and rarely less than entertaining.

The film succeeded at the box office and was chased by three sequels (one theatrical and two direct-to-video), but the general consensus leans inexplicably negative. How anyone dislikes a movie that shows Voight being swallowed by a giant anaconda, regurgitated and covered in stomach acid, and then winking at the survivors, is beyond me. It's called fun, people, but if it's not your speed, maybe you'll prefer the impending comedic remake with Jack Black and Paul Rudd.

If this list is going to lose people to bewilderment and disagreement, it's probably going to happen now. Stephen King's short story "Children of the Corn" is a good if unremarkable tale, but it's been adapted to the screen more than any other piece of King's fiction. There are 11 feature films based on the story — we'll pause to allow you time to soak that number in — and while general audiences and King himself seem to think they're all bad, we're here to say that's not quite the case.

To be clear, "Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice" is no lost classic, but it is one of the only two worthwhile entries in the 11-film franchise (the other being "Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest" thanks to some gnarly practical effects by Screaming Mad George) and a rarely mentioned title when people talk about sequels that vastly improve on the original. The film is more energetic than the others, and sports something of a sense of humor in the expressions of its villains and even some of its kills.

It's okay to laugh when the evil kid uses a remote-controlled wheelchair to send an old woman into traffic, causing her and the chair to be knocked through a store window. The film also stars Ned Romero as a wise Native American who might know the truth about He Who Walks Behind the Rows. While the character is a genre trope, he has more depth and personality than anyone else, in addition to being a real hoot.

You wouldn't know it by the past 25 years, but Renny Harlin was a pretty big director back in the 1990s with box-office hits like "Die Hard 2," "Cliffhanger," and "The Long Kiss Goodnight" to his name. (He even made an early bid to make "Alien 3" before it was handed to Fincher instead.) He ended the decade with the final blockbuster of his career (so far), but while "Deep Blue Sea" made money and is borderline fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, it's sitting far too low on Letterboxd for a film this purely entertaining.

Like "Anaconda" above, Harlin's killer shark flick assembles a fun, recognizable cast and then lets some dangerous animals chow down with impunity. The film delivers three top-tier death scenes ranging from the fun and surprising to the utterly brutal, all while the movie itself delivers big set-pieces, charismatic characters, and slick thrills. It's rare to get shark horror with this kind of budget, and Harlin puts it all on the screen, starting with an impressive set both above and "below" the water.

We still get some CG sharks, but much of their onscreen time is in the form of terrific practical effects. It's a world of difference watching the actors interact with physical creatures swimming towards them, dorsal fins cutting the surface with a menacing swagger, and it helps give the thrills a tangible weight alongside the rushing waters and ticking clock before the underwater lab implodes. This is pure popcorn entertainment, and while its direct-to-video sequel is a bust, the third film in the franchise is actually worth your time. Seriously!

Movies about body-swapping killers — as in killers hopping between human hosts — were a hot property once, with the likes of "The Hidden" and "Shocker" blowing up screens in the 1980s. The following decade delivered two movies riding this same wave, and while the Denzel Washington-starring "Fallen" could use more love as well (as evidenced by its absence on our list of Washington's 21 best movies), it's 1990's even more underrated "The First Power" that deserves a re-evaluation. It may lack the A-list cast and expensive Rolling Stones song on repeat, but it makes up for it with spunk, a creepily demonic vibe, and some genuinely exciting stunt work.

Lou Diamond Phillips is no Washington, but he's having a good time playing a tough L.A. cop on the trail of a serial killer. He catches the murderer, with the help of a psychic, naturally, but after he's executed, he returns by possessing other bodies — including a horse at one point, which he uses to trample a cop. Chaos ensues, and that's a good thing for viewers as the film delivers plenty of action and bloodletting along the way.

Director Robert Resnikoff's sole feature dabbles in the supernatural with a silly script, but you can't go wrong with a fantastic car stunt, a homeless woman doing parkour, and some epic high-fall stunts. The film also makes great use of real Los Angeles locations with set pieces unfolding at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park, the L.A. River, and numerous streets used for chase scenes. We really don't get enough action/horror films, but this one scratches that particular itch pretty well. 

Stephen King adaptations tend to come in waves, and he's currently enjoying an A-list tsunami with critically acclaimed films (" The Life of Chuck") and a pair of big studio efforts on the horizon ("The Long Walk," "The Running Man"). There was a time, though, when fans were satisfied on a steady diet of low-budget, B-movie tales of terror. "The Mangler," "The Night Flier," "Maximum Overdrive" — they're grungy, mean, and occasionally goofy adaptations of stories that pass a low bar with flying colors. "Graveyard Shift" is one of those sweaty triumphs despite being considered to be the worst King adaptation.

The story unfolds in a textile mill with a rodent problem, and by problem, I mean an infestation that has grown to include a giant, man-eating rat. Workers desperate for employment in tough economic times are forced into the overnight shift and made to clean up the mill's basement, but soon the body count starts rising. Bloody kills, fun creature effects, buckets of sweat, thick Maine accents, this messy treat of a horror movie has it all.

Familiar faces make up much of the cast, with the great Brad Dourif stepping into the showy role of a local exterminator who knows the place should be condemned. Everyone here is dirty and doomed, if not by a monstrous rat then by a soured economy, and that more grounded horror makes for a solid backdrop to the blue-collar nightmare that's unfolding downstairs. If you're ever craving the messy charms of old school King, this is the movie you want.

As with "Deep Blue Sea" above, I would have bet good money that 1999's "Lake Placid" was an agreed-upon good time at the movies, but it appears to be a dud for both critics and viewers alike. Madness! A very big crocodile shows up in a small Maine lake where it begins feasting on both animals and people, prompting the local sheriff, a US Wildlife official, a paleontologist, and a bored millionaire to hunt it down.

Director Steve Miner's eco horror film leans closer to his horror/comedy "House" than it does his more serious "Friday the 13th" sequels, and it pays off with a fun romp. The crocodile, a mix of CG and practical effects courtesy of the great Stan Winston, is a lively threat, and the set pieces deliver plenty of entertaining thrills. From a grizzly bear attack interrupted by the croc to the scaly beast assaulting a helicopter, it's a big blast, balancing laughs and horror beats.

The cast raises everything up a notch, too, with Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Brendan Gleeson, and Oliver Platt all fully onboard with the monstrous mayhem. They know precisely what the film's aiming for, and their performances all come with an invisible wink to the audience. Betty White steals the show, though, and saw her career revitalized, as a foul-mouthed widow who's been feeding the croc all these years as an unspoken thank you for eating her husband a while back. This is a fun creature feature, people.

While the argument can (and should) be made that there isn't a bad movie in the "Alien" franchise, it's a tougher sell when talking about the "Predator" films. If you're thinking about the "Alien vs Predator" movies, just know that you're wrong, they're both good fun, and the real culprit is 2018's "The Predator." That film is a mess, but while it has a similar reputation, 1990's highly underrated "Predator 2" is a fun time blending genre thrills and the thinnest throughline of social/political commentary.

The action moves from the first film's South American jungle to the urban jungle of Los Angeles, and that setting change alone makes this a film of interest. The predator's hunt intertwines with beleaguered cops, warring gangs, and an epic heat wave to deliver a loud, colorful, and energetic genre mashup that entertains despite its stupidity. The plot lines and dialogue rarely land with the intended effect, but performances go a long way as Danny Glover, Ruben Blades, Gary Busey, Bill Paxton, and Maria Conchita Alonso give it everything they've got.

The change of setting affords director Stephen Hopkins the opportunity for some fun set pieces playing off the city's architecture and geography in atypical ways, and the result is a film that's every bit a 1990s action movie. (That's a good thing.) The film's ending also gives an engaging nod to the franchise as a whole, as well as the crossovers that everyone wanted (only to eventually hate), as Glover's character sees the Predator's trophy room and the Alien xenomorph skull within.

Wes Craven's "Scream" kicked off a postmodern slasher boom with films aiming to mimic its sharp writing, hot, young cast, and surprising twists, but most of them missed the mark. Jamie Blanks' "Urban Legend" succeeds where many others don't, in part because it features a fun hook in its story — a murderer is targeting folks on a college campus and killing them in alignment with various urban legends. It's underrated, but it still landed a spot on our list of the best slasher movies.

A killer in the back seat, the danger of Pop Rocks, someone slashing ankles from beneath cars, a note surrounded by carnage saying, "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" — We've all heard some variation of these legends over the years, and the film does great work integrating them into the story. Some are innocuous references while others actually lead to death, but they're all enough to keep smart viewers on their toes and looking for clues.

To that end, the script does a good job giving viewers the information while still being able to pull a surprising, atypical reveal. Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, Tara Reid, and Michael Rosenbaum are joined by genre royalty in Robert Englund, Brad Dourif, and Danielle Harris, and they're all having a good time making a pretty solid "Scream" copycat. It may not be as witty or twisty as Craven's classic, but it's smart enough to ensure an entertaining ride. The two sequels? That's a whole different story.

It's often the case that some of the best action films are directed by stunt professionals, and by that same logic, it shouldn't surprise anyone when makeup effects artists deliver fun, gory slices of horror. Robert Kurtzman, one-third of the legendary makeup house KNB EFX Group (with Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger), has created creatures and kills for many of your favorite horror films, including "Night of the Creeps," "In the Mouth of Madness," Lord of Illusions," and more. He brings that same enthusiasm as a director to the supernatural horror film "Wishmaster," making it a must-see for fans of wildly imaginative practical effects.

The story focuses on an evil djinn hoping to coerce greedy humans with three wishes so that he can bring more of his kind to rule the Earth. It's a goofy good time, and the premise means kills go well beyond mere hack and slash style slaughters. Skeletons break free of their fleshy prisons, jaws are torn asunder, people are turned into glass and mannequins, heads are sliced off with piano wires, faces are pummeled — the carnage is creative and plentiful.

The other big draw here is Kurtzman calling in some favors from other genre legends in the form of cameos from Robert Englund, Angus Scrimm (as the opening narrator), Ted Raimi, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Tom Savini, and more. It's a film designed to have horror fans smiling throughout, whether from nods to other films and franchises or from cool effects gags, and it succeeds. (The sequels? Not so much.)