Zombie snowmen.
Giant snakes.
And the worst CGI you've ever seen.
Think you loved these movies?
Think again.
Washington Irving's classic horror story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has been adapted to
the screen numerous times.
One of the most notable iterations is Tim Burton's 1999 film Sleepy Hollow, starring
the director's most frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, as Ichabod Crane.
Fans of Burton who grew up familiar with this revered gothic style were eager to see him
try his hand at an R-rated horror film — and he certainly delivered upon the movie's tagline:
"Heads Will Roll."
"Lopped off?"
"Clean as dandelion heads, apparently."
Despite triumph at the box office, generally positive reviews from critics, and three Academy
Award nominations, the movie seemed to disappear into the fog following its release.
Sleepy Hollow remains a visually stunning achievement, and it certainly has its fans,
but it has failed to garner any kind of enduring fandom.
Nowadays, it has mostly been forgotten.
From the tornadoes of Twister to the eruptions of Dante's Peak, planet Earth seemed to be
under constant assault in 1990s cinema.
The disaster genre is rife with unforgettable scenes of nature's fury and destruction, but
Mimi Leder's comet-based action thriller Deep Impact sadly imploded before it could really
get going.
Deep Impact actually enjoyed some early success at the start of the summer of '98, but then,
a month later, the unthinkable happened: Armageddon.
Although critics were harsher on Michael Bay's movie, it outshined Deep Impact in two key
ways: it had more consistent action set pieces with stronger production value, and it featured
stronger, more memorable characters.
The only enduring action in Deep Impact arrives late in the final act when a comet strikes
the Atlantic Ocean and triggers an enormous tidal wave.
This leads to the movie's most famous sequence, in which New York City is swallowed by the
terrifying tsunami.
Unfortunately, everything before the comet's arrival is a bit of a slog.
Deep Impact features an unnecessarily large ensemble cast occupying fractured storylines,
and none of them are really compelling enough to stand on their own.
The recipient of six Razzie nominations, including worst couple for Jon Voight and an animatronic
snake, Anaconda is something of a notorious legend in Hollywood history.
Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and Owen Wilson star as members of a film crew shooting a
documentary about a lost tribe in the Amazon.
They cross paths with a snake hunter who offers to help them, but instead takes them hostage
and hoodwinks them into helping him track down a legendary, enormous green anaconda
that lives deep in the jungle.
Dismal reviews from critics didn't hinder the film's performance at the box office,
likely fueled by word of mouth regarding its status as a so-bad-it's-good classic.
And it's a laugh at times: The comically large, sometimes animatronic, sometimes CGI anaconda
is vindictive to the point of pettiness, screeching like a pterodactyl as it plucks off the crew
one by one.
While these scenes are genuinely hilarious, however, the remainder of the movie is a snooze.
Voight is the only actor who seems to have understood the assignment, whereas the rest
of the cast plays the bonkers script way too seriously.
"There's a devil inside everyone."
Everyone waited with bated breath to see how Alicia Silverstone would follow up her performance
in Clueless, arguably one of the best high school movies of all time.
As such, It was no surprise that Excess Baggage caved under these unreasonably high expectations.
Although the movie notoriously bombed at the box office and in critics' estimations, it
remained popular among Silverstone diehards who were thrilled to see the actor try her
hand at a more dramatic turn.
Still, not even that could prevent this tonally uneven, formulaic crime-comedy from becoming
a forgotten relic of the 1990s.
The Christmas genre is chock full of movies that viewers come back to year after year.
Unfortunately, Troy Miller's 1998 family fantasy Jack Frost failed to secure a spot in the
pantheon of holiday movies.
Perhaps the movie's fatal flaw is that Jack Frost begins with the grim death of a semi-absent
father, setting a fairly morbid, somber tone from the start that only suffocates the story
as it trudges on.
The father's spirit returns in the form of a live, speaking snowman and tries to reconnect
with his troubled son.
Things just keep getting creepier from there, as the movie spirals into a mess of forced
sentimentalism and dated CGI.
Ravaged by critics and considered a box office dud, Jack Frost is a movie many teens enjoyed
in the 1990s with their families — and then wisely consigned it to the history books.
Bronwen Hughes' 1999 rom-com Forces of Nature was poised for success, even after it was
met with harsh reviews from critics.
The movie follows writer Ben Holmes as he treks back to his hometown of Savannah, Georgia
for his wedding.
Ben's travel plans are upended when he crosses paths with free-spirited, offbeat Sarah on
his flight — before a seagull flies into their plane's jet engine, grounding them.
When a brewing hurricane leads all other flights to be canceled, Ben and Sarah are forced to
team up and find an alternate path south, leading to a screwball journey that leaves
Ben questioning his commitment to his fiancée.
Even when Ben and Sarah's hijinks veer into the cartoonish, Forces of Nature was a pleasant
watch in the late 1990s, mostly due to Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock's sheer star power.
But the movie is rarely discussed this side of the 21st century, likely due to a forgettable
plot and Sarah's passé manic pixie dream girl characterization.
This is a film that was simply never destined to leave the '90s.
Following in the colossal footsteps of Jurassic Park and Godzilla, Lake Placid took a stab
at the monster genre and, by most accounts, missed by a long shot.
Still, the bizarre concept of an enormous 30-foot saltwater crocodile terrorizing a
lake in upstate New York managed to drive curious audiences to the theaters.
Despite a wickedly hilarious supporting performance delivered by the late, great Betty White,
this creature feature's goofy thrills wore off quickly.
It is virtually impossible to recall anything that happened in the movie, apart from the
infamous scene in which White leads a blindfolded cow to be consumed in a single, vicious chomp.
"Wow."
"Disgusting."
This is due to a heavy reliance on flat, B-movie characterization, aimless plotting, and a
cheesy script that was inexplicably written by David E. Kelley, one of the most celebrated
writers in television.
Drive Me Crazy is a prime example of how a movie can be forgotten when another one does
the same plot, but better.
Named after the 1999 Britney Spears song featured on its soundtrack, this Melissa Joan Hart
and Adrian Grenier-starring romantic comedy was released eight months after She's All
That — a movie that was much better and more successful.
Drive Me Crazy never escaped its competitor's shadow.
Hart was at the height of her popularity, right in the middle of her run on Sabrina
the Teenage Witch, but this was Grenier's mainstream breakthrough, having only starred
in a handful of small independent films.
Although Drive Me Crazy fared worse with critics, She's All That was never exactly bound for
the Criterion Collection.
The latter employs the same trite ugly-duckling-gets-a-makeover conceit as Drive Me Crazy, but with better
chemistry between the leads — which really makes or breaks these kinds of movies.
She's All That basically obliterated Drive Me Crazy from the 1990s teen rom-com canon,
and even went on to inspire a gender-flipped Netflix remake in 2021.
James Foley's 1996 stalker drama Fear was a provocative must-see among teens at the
time, but today its cringe-inducing dialogue and nonsensical plot reeks of unintended camp.
Characterized by one of its producers as "Fatal Attraction for teens," the psychological thriller
stars Mark Wahlberg as mysterious bad boy David and depicts the toxic relationship he
pursues with his younger girlfriend, Nicole.
Once Nicole's father digs into David's past and discovers David is not the person he claims
to be, he tries to persuade his daughter to end things, only stoking David's troubling
temper.
In fairness, Wahlberg delivers a truly chilling performance as David develops his unhealthy
obsession with Nicole, and his character's volatility was amusing to watch as a teenager.
Today, though, it is difficult to enjoy Fear, even as a hate-watch, mostly due to its glib
portrayal of psychological and physical abuse.
Saturday Night Live movie spin-offs do not have the strongest track record, Bruce McCulloch's
[muh-KUH-luck] 1999 movie Superstar included.
Molly Shannon's Catholic schoolgirl, Mary Katherine Gallagher, remains one of SNL's
most beloved recurring characters.
Short comedy sketches proved to be the ideal forum for Shannon to play Mary Katherine,
giving her the space to tap into the character's unpredictable intensity, off-putting social
awkwardness, and physical comedy.
"I guess that's a Catholic thing."
Expanding Shannon's character into a full-length feature heroine movie proved challenging,
however, forcing Superstar to rely on long, drawn-out sight-gags that often suffocate
the movie's pacing.
Teenagers in the 1990s often mimicked Mary Katherine's shticks and catchphrases, but
these are all prime examples of things that are best left in the late 1990s… along with
the movie itself.
After writing the screenplays for some of the most popular teen slasher movies from
the 1990s, Kevin Williamson was riding a huge wave of acclaim and expectation.
For his directorial debut, Williamson returned to a screenplay he had written prior to his
rapid ascent to fame: Teaching Mrs. Tingle.
This black comedy follows high school student Leigh Ann as she enlists her friends to hold
reviled teacher Mrs. Tingle hostage, after she gave Leigh Ann a poor grade on a project
and threatened to dethrone her status as class valedictorian.
The dark premise piqued the interest of every teenager who dreamt of seeking revenge on
a mean teacher from high school, but considering the rise in school violence since its release,
Teaching Mrs. Tingle now feels in poor taste.
There was also an undeniable novelty in seeing a revered actress like Helen Mirren partake
in something so low-brow.
But, saddled with a schlocky script and ghastly reviews, Teaching Mrs. Tingle was always doomed
to be a one-and-done.
Based on two stories by the science-fiction literary master Isaac Asimov, Chris Columbus'
1999 fantasy drama Bicentennial Man stars the late Robin Williams — who truly disappears
into his role as Andrew Martin, a robotic domestic worker who yearns to become a human
being.
However, what starts out as a charming fish-out-of-water story quickly dissolves into maudlin existentialism
as Andrew discovers the limits of his ability to emulate human feelings.
The movie struggles to understand what it wants to communicate to its audience, employing
increasingly emotionally manipulative tactics to entertain children and emotionally stir
adults.
Critics were mostly mixed on the film and the box office numbers were not encouraging.
Few actors have enjoyed as much consistent success as Williams in the 1990s.
But Bicentennial Man is too much of a bummer to deserve a second viewing, which is why,
when it comes to Williams' best work, it is perennially absent from the conversation.
Inspired by the classic fairytale "Little Red Riding Hood," writer and director Matthew
Bright's Freeway featured a breakthrough performance from Reese Witherspoon, one that kicked off
her long and successful career.
Witherspoon stars as Vanessa, a troubled teenager and Little Red Riding Hood surrogate who is
left alone to fend for herself after her mother is arrested.
She evades a social worker trying to help her and goes on the run to track down her
elusive grandmother, unwittingly hitching a ride with a wanted serial killer.
The trip quickly descends into chaos, leading Vanessa to commit heinous acts of violence
in order to survive.
Freeway was favored by critics and audiences alike, but never garnered the level of fandom
needed to catapult it into cult movie territory.
The gritty road comedy thriller felt edgy and audacious when it debuted at the 1996
Sundance Film Festival, but feels antiquated by today's standards and has since virtually
disappeared from public consciousness.