Movies & TV / Columns

A Bloody Good Time: Top 10 Horror Films of 1998

February 16, 2018 | Posted by Joseph Lee
Ring 1998


Opening Logo courtesy of Benjamin J. Colón (Soul Exodus)

Last week I broke down my picks for the worst horror films of 1998, some of which were among the worst of all time. Some of them were pointless sequels. One of them was a terrible, pointless remake. However, when making my list for this week, I came to a very simple conclusion about 1998.

1998 was a bad year for horror.

It was difficult putting together a list of top ten horror films for the year, and I’m still not completely confident in my list. I’m sure of the top three, and then everything else just kind of slots into place based on my current mood. Some of the lower entries I wouldn’t even call my favorites. It was just a weak year.

But it’s the only year we’ve got this week, so let’s see what managed to make it.

#10: Phantom of the Opera

This is considered by a lot of people to be the film where Dario Argento fell off the rails. It’s the perfect example of what I was talking about above because it’s not exactly a good movie and certainly not one of my favorites. That said, I still like it for how insane it is, even if the acting is laughably bad and the stuff with the rats seems more like Batman Returns than Phantom of the Opera. So yeah, a bad movie made my best of the year list. I told you 98 was weak.

On the other hand, there is something to be said for a movie that is as ambitious as this one, even if it does fail. And it’s Argento, so the movie still looks good. That’s something that he never really lost no matter how his career may or may not have fallen. Plus, if you can’t enjoy Julian Sands chewing the scenery, then you might take movies too seriously. That’s the whole reason Warlock is any good!

#9: Blade

Blade is the middle of its series. It’s not the best (that would be Blade II), but it’s not the awful Blade: Trinity either. It’s honestly a little important, as this was the film that let studios know that comic book movies could be hits again, which eventually led to X-Men and Spider-Man kicking off a boom that still hasn’t ended. Not that that means anything for horror, but it’s an important note to make.

It benefits from a committed Wesley Snipes in the lead role, as well as Kris Kristofferson as Whistler. It also benefits from that awesome sequence in the beginning. You know the one. Vampires feast on people in a club until Blade shows up and massacres every single one of them. That was as big a character establishing moment as you’re going to get for this franchise. Of course it’s also the best scene in the movie, but let’s not dwell on that.

#8: Whispering Corridors

In horror, it’s usually better for your movie if you with the philosophy of “nothing is better.” It’s an easy way to build suspense if you imply that the supernatural thing is there rather than show it and risk losing your audience. Whispering Corridors understands that, as for most of its run time the ghost is more in the background, killing people and occasionally making herself known, but otherwise it’s about the mystery of her and the circumstances that led to her death.

Whispering Corridors is more of a low-key horror movie from South Korea that kicked off an entire series of films. It’s slow and methodic in its pacing, but it has some good atmosphere and a few creepy moments, especially that opening sequence. That’s some fine ghost suspense right there. If the editing didn’t feel as choppy as it sometimes did, it might be even better.

#7: Vampires

I wouldn’t think this would be a huge surprise to regular readers, given my glowing praise of Vampires in the past. While I’ll admit it’s not John Carpenter’s best work, it is a lot of fun and something I enjoy watching. I love the take on vampire hunters as paid mercenaries for the church. I also love Jack Crow, a character that seems like James Woods was born to play. I mean that in a good way, as he really brings the guy to life in a way that makes him someone you can’t take your eyes off of.

The film has some unique takes on vampire hunting and while it loses steam in its second half, it’s still, again, a lot of fun. It has some great gore, some enjoyable special effects and a lot of quotable one-liners. There’s not a lot else I can say. It’s not exactly a good movie, but it’s the perfect kind of B-movie if you’re looking for a good time.

#6: Disturbing Behavior

During the heyday of teen-oriented horror films (in the wake of Scream), someone thought it would be a good idea to make a remake of The Stepford Wives. Only now it would be set in a high school and “problem teenagers” would become the “perfect” students. As it turns out, that idea is great and resulted in a movie that in my opinion really captured the way teens felt at the time, even if the box office didn’t reflect that.

The movie really works even though it went through a lot of problems in production. A lot of stuff was removed that shouldn’t have been and the story is kind of riddled with plotholes as a result. But in my opinion it’s the ideas and the performances that really sell it. Nick Stahl in particular is great, and made me a fan of him for a few years there. It’s a more than solid film that I feel is still a bit underrated today.

#5: Ring

Before the American remake essentially kicked off the huge remake boom in the horror genre, there was the Japanese original. It’s one of the essential Japanese horror films of the 90s, and probably the most important. That said, there are elements I don’t enjoy and I tend to think in some ways the remake is more polished of the two. That doesn’t mean this is a bad movie, far from it, but that’s why it’s not as high on this list as you might think.

Ring works, even though technology has moved on, because of the sense of dread that comes from the story. Something always feels off once the heroine has watched the tape (and the tape itself feels like something you shouldn’t see, which is a credit to the director). The visuals are suitably creepy, the story is great outside of some minor hiccups and it still has an overall chilling vibe. One thing it gets right is that Sadako is way scarier than Samara ever was.

#4: The Last Broadcast

A year before The Blair Witch Project, this movie came out and similarly had a found footage format. In a lot of ways, it does the things that Blair Witch tried to do better, although it didn’t have a marketing machine by it. The Last Broadcast is a faux-documentary about the attempts to locate and capture footage of the infamous Jersey Devil. However as the crew goes into the woods for a live broadcast, they’re eventually killed off. The rest of the film then shifts into a murder mystery of sorts.

It’s an interesting mix of genres and whether or not it works all the way through depends on your personal taste. I think it mostly works until the final scene, when there’s a massive shift in perspective. But that’s just me. The rest is low-budget, but it knows it is and uses that to its advantage. It’s got a good sense of mood and the story is interesting enough to keep you engaged. If nothing else, it’s interesting to watch one of the earliest examples of found footage.

#3: Bride of Chucky

I can’t believe that Bride of Chucky is twenty years old. I remember seeing TV spots for this and getting really excited, because this was just after I started watching horror full time. So naturally I had already seen the other Chucky movies on TV. Of course, I didn’t see this one until it hit home video, but I have fond memories of how excited I was to finally see a new Chucky movie. Bride tends to get some hate online these days, mostly from people who think a killer doll should definitely not be turned into a joke. As if the concept of a killer doll is scary to anyone but children.

Bride is a smartly-written horror movie that takes some liberties with the established mythology and makes a lot of jokes at Chucky’s expense. Yet Chucky himself is always a threat and giving him a partner-in-crime keeps things from geting stale. The franchise was a decade old at this point and like her or not, Tiffany gave the Good Guy more longevity than his trip to a military school did. While this did set the stage for the dumb Seed, it deftly combined laughs with some nasty kills for an overall fun time. I still quote this one on occasion.

#2: The Faculty

Of all the films that came out in the wake of Scream, I think The Faculty holds up the best. It’s a really fun, smartly-written teen-horror take on movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and it completely works. The cast is full of people that would either go one to be big stars or already were relatively famous at the time, and they’re clearly having a lot of fun in their roles. Any time Piper Laurie gets to play evil is a win in my book. Plus you’ve got Robert Patrick, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Salma Hayek, Usher, Bebe Neuwirth, Famke Janssen and even Jon Stewart!

I love the way the story is written and I love the fact that drugs are the key to avoiding alien possession. I also enjoy the way the characters play off each other and the attempts at suspense are obvious nods to The Thing. The film just works for me on every level and while movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Teaching Mrs. Tingle don’t hold up at all, this one still does and is still one of my favorites of the decade.

#1: Strangeland

I guess we’re never going to get that sequel. Which is a shame, because Strangeland is one of those movies that could have been a big horror series if they didn’t drag their feet on it. The film arrived at just the right time, when the internet was relatively new and people were worried about who they were talking to on chat rooms. Enter Dee Snider’s Captain Howdy, a deranged killer who uses those same chat rooms to capture innocent teenage girls.

The movie is gritty and dark, with a demented performance from Snider that I don’t think anyone saw coming. It gets under your skin at times and others it makes you laugh from some of the more bizarre characters (like Robert Englund). It’s funny that this movie got almost universally negative reviews at the time of its release, but I think time has been very kind to it. It’s a cult classic these days and there are still plenty of fans who want to see a follow-up. Unfortunately, it’s been twenty years so that’s incredibly unlikely.

Ending Notes:

That’s it for me. Leave some comments here, on my Twitter or my Facebook.


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