90s Teen Horror Movies That Still Haunt Us Today

Teen horror was everywhere in the 90s. In the last decade of the millennium the slasher genre was revived, Twilight Zoney sci-fi horror made a big comeback, and gooey body horror hit young audiences hard with a new wave of terrifying films made just for teenagers. Supernatural forces, serial killers, and the scariest thing of all, high school drama, brought a fresh energy to the horror genre by blending jump scares with teenage angst. These cult classics and box office hits defined the era with iconic characters and unforgettable moments.

When you were a teen did you feel like everyone else was alien? Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty follows a group of high school students as they fight to save their school (and the world) from being completely overrun by alien parasites, which is the perfect analogy for going to high school in the 90s. Featuring a star-studded cast (Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Clea DuVall), awesome effects, and a killer soundtrack, The Faculty is easily one of the best genre films of the 90s. This is a movie that plays just as well today as it did on opening night in 1998.

Idle Hands may have been a huge bomb when it was released in 1999, but like its characters the film came back from the dead on home video. If you missed this Devon Sawa classic, Idle Hands revolves around a teen whose hand is possessed by a demon, leading him to murder his two best friends and nearly the love of his life (played by a very game Jessica Alba). If you’re a fan of Evil Dead II or the early Peter Jackson films you’ll love this teen horror-comedy set against a backdrop of a Halloween night gone wrong.

In the 90s there was nothing worse than the idea of conforming to the whim of society. 1998’s Disturbing Behavior takes this fear and pushes it to extremes as it examines a group of high school students who are brainwashed into the “perfect” versions of themselves. An underrated thriller that combines science fiction with plenty of super intense scares, and an earworm of a track with “Got You (Where I Want You) by The Flys, Disturbing Behavior is a blast to watch whenever you want to go down memory lane.

Following the massive success of Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer puts the basic makeup of Wes Craven’s classic (a group of hot young people are being stalked by a mysterious killer) over Lois Duncan’s thriller to create a southern murder mystery that’s heavy on atmosphere. Following the aforementioned group of hot young people as they’re stalked by a hook-wielding killer, this remains a staple of the slasher resurgence of the 90s.

Cherry Falls is a truly twisted slasher film. Originally slated to be released in 1999, this unique film had such a tortured production that it sat on the shelf until 2000 when it was released as a TV movie on the USA network. The unique thing about this film is that it subverts the classic horror trope of a killer offing people who have sex by flipping it so only virgins end up on the wrong side of the killer’s knife. Cherry Falls definitely isn’t a perfect movie (the twist is straight up offensive), but it’s worth checking out if you’ve never heard of this cult classic.

Halloween H20 is the first film in the forever running Halloween franchise that brings Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode face to face with the boogeyman, Michael Myers since John Carpenter’s original film in 1978. H20 rocks so hard that it revitalizes the series by blending old-school slasher tricks with the new wave of teen cinema. Aside from the excellent scares, this film has a killer cast. Josh Harnett, Michelle Williams, and Joseph Gordon Levitt all pop in this late 90s addition to the Halloween franchise, but Jamie Lee Curtis steals the show.

We would be absolutely insane if we didn’t include Scream on this list of 90s horror movies. Wes Craven’s meta-slasher redefined the slasher genre and brought horror back into the mainstream by playing on the audience’s knowledge of tropes, adding self-aware humor, and crafting some of the most genuinely intense and raw moments in horror history. With a peak 90s cast, and an iconic killer, Scream remains at the top of the mountain of 90s teen horror movies.

Pet Sematary Two is the goofier, gorier sequel to Mary Lambert’s legitimately upsetting film. But isn’t that what sequels in the 90s were all about? Starring Edward Furlong, the film follows a teen as he learns about the haunting powers that exist in his small Maine town as he tries to readjust to normal life following the tragic death of his mother. If you’ve been putting off Pet Sematary Two, it’s well worth your time specifically because of the unhinged ways it heightens the scares of the original.

Fear tells the story of every teen girl’s nightmare. The film follows a teen girl (Reese Witherspoon) as she enters into a relationship with a controlling and violent sociopath, played by Mark Wahlberg. This is one of the darkest teen thrillers of the decade, and once you see it you’ll never think about roller coasters the same way.

There are films that are influenced by the success of Scream, and then there’s Urban Legend, a film that so boldly bites Scream’s style that you have no choice but to be impressed. Urban Legend weaves together some of the most famous urban legends with the now classic trope of a mask killer terrorizing college students. The movie would be a dud if it weren’t so darn fun. Packed with stellar performances by actors like Tara Reid, Alica Witt, and Rebecca Gayheart, as well as a few genuinely gripping sequences, Urban Legend is a must-watch for your teen 90s horror-a-thon this year.