10 Best B-Movies of the '90s, Ranked (2024)

If you're someone who likes films with low to moderate budgets that often belong to horror, action, or sci-fi genres, then there’s a good chance you're a fan of B-movies. A B-movie was once definable as something that was literally secondary to an “A movie,” often being a supporting film within a double feature. That definition became somewhat outdated, at a point, but the spirit of “B-grade” cinema lived on regardless.

The 1950s was when B-movies in their traditional form shone the most, and then the 1980s saw films of a B-flavor thrive again, with the following decade, the ‘90s, not having quite as many truly B-grade movies that also happened to be great. But it wasn’t devoid of such films, by any means, as the following titles will hopefully demonstrate. Some of these are true B-movies, while others (the better ones, predominantly), merely have a B-movie feel, but all can qualify for such a label either directly or in spirit.

10 'Samurai Cop' (1991)

Director: Amir Shervan

While Samurai Cop is not a good movie in the conventional sense, it’s also so ridiculously entertaining (and just plainly ridiculous) that it’s hard to overlook when talking about iconic B-movies. It was released in the early 1990s and feels like a leftover from the ‘80s, in a way, following a cop who’s also a skilled samurai (shock horror) as he takes down Yakuza gangs who’ve started operating in Los Angeles.

You could call Samurai Cop so-bad-it’s-good if you wanted, or you could celebrate it with more sincerity, because it is undoubtedly entertaining, and was trying to be entertaining. Whether it’s entertaining for the reasons the filmmakers wanted it to be entertaining is up for debate, but it almost doesn’t matter when a movie manages to be this much dumb fun.

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9 'Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky' (1991)

Director: Lam Ngai Kai

Another cult classic of the early 1990s, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky does admittedly feel a little more self-aware than Samurai Cop, and is overall a movie that seems proud of its trashy and explicitly violent qualities. Regarding the latter, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky makes a good many splatter horror movies look tame in comparison, being one of the most violent martial arts movies ever made.

It’s also a warped prison drama, taking place in a horrifically cruel futuristic jail that the titular Ricky must fight through to survive. Watching Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky kind of feels like watching someone play a supremely gruesome video game for 92 minutes, but seeing what the movie has in store next (it’s never easy to predict, that’s for sure) makes it largely entertaining throughout, even if there’s just a touch of repetition that comes from its premise and relentless action sequences.

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8 'Tromeo & Juliet' (1996)

Director: Lloyd Kaufman

The best-known take on Romeo and Juliet released in 1996 was the Baz Luhrmann movie Romeo + Juliet, but the runner-up would certainly be Troma’s take on the Shakespeare play, Tromeo & Juliet. It’s extremely low-budget and intentionally gross throughout, having some vague elements from the original text but updating it all to take place in Manhattan during the 1990s, and having excessive amounts of gross-out violence, humor, and sexual content.

It's offensive and crude, but also quite funny and creative; arguably much more so than your average Troma film. It’s also interesting to watch today, given that Tromeo & Juliet was co-written by James Gunn and features his brother, Sean Gunn, in a supporting role, as both have become more well-known for considerably less extreme movies in the years since 1996.

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7 'Showdown in Little Tokyo' (1991)

Director: Mark L. Lester

Brandon Lee was the son of Bruce Lee, and similarly had a promising acting career that was tragically cut short. His best film remains The Crow by far, but the more B-grade Showdown in Little Tokyo is also entertaining in its own way, and further evidence of Brandon Lee’s charisma, not to mention also showing how he could work well as one part of a buddy dynamic.

The other lead actor here is Dolph Lundgren, with both he and Lee playing police officers who are proficient in martial arts and are tasked, as a duo, with taking down criminals with ties to the Yakuza. It’s no-nonsense stuff, with Showdown in Little Tokyo clocking in at a remarkably slim 79 minutes and delivering the goods, as far as small-scale and grimy crime/action/comedy movies go.

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6 'Night of the Living Dead' (1990)

Director: Tom Savini

A faithful remake of a classic 1960s B-movie, Night of the Living Dead (1990) might not do anything particularly stronger than what was done in the original 1968 movie, but it’s still a compelling zombie movie in any event. Like before, Night of the Living Dead (1990) centers on a group of people confined to a farmhouse as they try to survive the early stages of a zombie outbreak.

The big difference here is the fact the 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead was shot in color, and something else that jumps out early on is the fact that this one’s a good deal bloodier, too. It was overall well-executed and tastefully done, with Tom Savini – who worked on other George A. Romero zombie movies like Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead – paying respect to the original and handling the task at hand effectively.

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5 'Tremors' (1990)

Director: Ron Underwood

Tremors is a little more of a B-movie homage than a full-on B-movie, given it had a decent budget to work with and some well-established actors in leading roles, including Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward. But it’s also broad and simple in a way that feels spiritually like a B-movie in all the right ways, essentially being about giant underground monsters in the desert that need to be stopped.

With simple yet fun characters and mostly well-executed special effects, Tremors works as a no-nonsense horror flick that’s also quite funny and reasonably action-packed, too. It’s a good time overall, and hard to resist, clearly feeling like it was made with a certain amount of love for old-school monster movies; the kind that have continually remained popular for decades (and will hopefully stay as such for years to come).

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4 'El Mariachi' (1992)

Director: Robert Rodriguez

A movie that made Robert Rodriguez a sensation within the world of independent cinema overnight, El Mariachi has a famously low budget but tons of creativity and clever filmmaking, all of which distract from any signs of real cheapness. It’s also a movie that proves money isn't the most necessary thing in the world when it comes to staging and filming enjoyable action sequences.

El Mariachi is a lean film and moves lightning fast throughout, centering on a man who comes into a town and is mistaken for a dangerous criminal who’s recently at large within the same area. The chaos builds and things escalate in a thrilling fashion, with El Mariachi being Rodriguez’s smallest and possibly most charming movie to date, and a deserved cult classic for its decade (a notably great one for independent cinema overall).

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3 'From Dusk Till Dawn' (1996)

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Another Robert Rodriguez movie worth highlighting is From Dusk Till Dawn, which saw the director teaming with Quentin Tarantino – another darling of independent cinema in the ‘90s – who wrote the screenplay and acted in the film, too. This one has a higher budget than El Mariachi for sure, but feels like it has more B-movie sensibilities.

It begins as a crime flick sort of in line with those Rodriguez and Tarantino had helmed earlier in the decade, but has a famously bold switch-up halfway through, at which point From Dusk Til Dawn becomes an entirely different sort of movie. The whole thing is messy and not particularly consistent, but it offers ridiculous thrills, surprising ultra-violence, and a good deal of action, alongside having a great cast that includes Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, and Danny Trejo.

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2 'Army of Darkness' (1992)

Director: Sam Raimi

There might not be a better antihero in the history of B-movies than Ash Williams from the Evil Dead trilogy (even if the original movie, from 1981, is the only truly B-grade film in the traditional sense). Watching the three Sam Raimi-directed movies in the series is a trip in the best possible way, with the first Evil Dead being a horror movie, the second being a horror-comedy, and the third, Army of Darkness, being a full-blown slapstick comedy with a fantasy spin.

There’s very little horror to be found in the 1992 movie, but it’s hard to complain when it’s so consistently funny and packed to the brim with wild set pieces. Army of Darkness is about as big as you can get with a movie while still retaining a certain B-movie quality to the whole thing, and that’s more than enough to make it an undisputed cult classic.

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1 'Braindead' (1992)

Director: Peter Jackson

A ludicrously violent movie that was gruesome enough to be banned or edited down in various territories, Braindead (AKA Dead Alive) saw Peter Jackson pushing the comedy-horror genre to its absolute limits. The set-up is familiar stuff for anyone who’s seen their fair share of movies about outbreaks turning people into zombies, but the execution is what makes Braindead soar and feel unique.

It has such a warped sense of humor while proving increasingly unafraid to get horrendously bloody, with the shock eventually wearing off and the over-the-top qualities becoming more and more hilarious, rather than anything else. It feels borderline obscene at times, but you have to respect the extremeness of it all, and few B-movies – from either the 1990s or any decade, really – can hold a candle to what Braindead has to offer.

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NEXT: The Best B-Movies of the 1950s, Ranked