The ’90s have always been a tricky decade to define for horror, offering everything from cable and physical home releases to big budget horror. On the latter front, horror experimented with grand period pieces like Interview with the Vampire and Bram Stoker’s Dracula as much as it did with spectacle driven, action-heavy creature features.
The decade delivered no shortage of memorable monster movies that emphasized creature FX and entertainment, from theatrical releases to home video offerings.
This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to ’90s monster movies that delivered high-energy, fun, and inventive monster designs. Because it’s Monday, we can use more horror fun.
Here’s where to stream this week’s streaming picks.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
From Dusk Till Dawn – Hoopla, Pluto TV
With Sinners arriving in theaters this week, now is a great time to revisit this vampire classic by director Robert Rodriguez and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino. It’s a sly genre-bender that takes its time to unleash full throttle monster mayhem. The first act plays like a crime thriller, with the Gecko Brothers (George Clooney and Tarantino) taking a family hostage to get them across the border while running from the law. They wind up at an all-night truck stop, unaware that it’s home to a hive of vampires that use the place as their feeding ground. It’s the type of creature feature with it all: humor, action, and loads of viscera. The vampires may start human-like, but they quickly reveal their monstrous form once the blood starts spilling.
Phantoms – Pluto TV
Joanna Going and Rose McGowan star as sisters who arrive in the snowy ski resort town of Snowfield, Colorado, only to discover that the residents have mysteriously vanished save for a few corpses, indicating foul play. They team up with the local Sheriff (Ben Affleck) and surviving deputies to survive as they discover a harrowing supernatural threat. Of all the creature features on this list, Phantoms opts for a less-is-more approach to showing its monster and prefers psychological horror above all, though that doesn’t mean it skimps on monster encounters. It’s also one that works better when you know little about the plot and its unique monster mythology that comes courtesy of author Dean Koontz, who adapts his own novel here.
The Relic – MGM+
This big budget action-horror movie sees an enormous chimeric monster prowl a Chicago museum. The opening shows how the monster, the mythical Kothoga from the Amazon, wound up there. It’s up to a homicide detective and an anthropologist to stop it before the body count grows even higher. Peter Hyams directs this adaptation of Douglas Preston’s novel with spectacle, though most of it remains shrouded in darkness. Though that dampens the effect of many of its action sequences, the creature design and lore are fantastic. The Relic brings the fun all around.
Ticks – Fandango at Home, Fawesome TV, Pluto TV, Prime Video, Roku Channel, Tubi
Creepy crawlers get a spine-tingling upgrade thanks to steroids, ensuring an even bigger, squirmier threat than before. In this B-movie, common blood-sucking ticks become abnormally large and aggressive thanks to getting mixed up in a drug dealer’s quest to make his marijuana plants larger. The teens enrolled in an inner-city wilderness project find themselves in the path of these massive ticks when they set up camp in their territory. The highlight of this ’90s monster movie gem is the violent climax that goes full-blown creature feature. It’s goopy, gory, and totally cringe-inducing, with a cast led by Seth Green.
Waxwork II: Lost in Time – Fawesome TV
This sequel opens with a reenactment to bring viewers up to speed on the events from the first film, which is currently available to stream on Fandango at Home and Prime Video. Surviving heroes Mark (Zach Galligan) and Sarah (Monika Schnarre, taking over for Deborah Foreman) embark on an epic quest through alternate dimensions, space, and time to clear Sarah’s name of murder. They face off against Frankenstein and his monster, monstrous aliens from outer space, malevolent spirits, medieval tyrants, and so much more as they play “God’s video game.” In other words, if you’re in the mood for entertainment, this over-the-top sequel brings insane amounts of monster fun. Look for appearances and cameos by Bruce Campbell, David Carradine, Drew Barrymore, and Godzilla.