10 Overlooked Movies of 1991

1991 was a huge year for movies, so it makes sense that there are a lot of overlooked titles left on the table. Who could pay attention to every movie coming out in between all-timer titles like The Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, Boyz n the Hood, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Home Alone, and Thelma & Louise? We’re only human. We simply don’t have the bandwidth.

However, as these movies all celebrate their 35th anniversary, let’s take a look at 10 underappreciated 1991 gems that deserve more attention.

10. Sleeping with the Enemy

This Julia Roberts thriller is the lowest on the list because it was actually a huge hit in 1991, ultimately becoming the seventh highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office that year. However, over time, it has been overshadowed by the other 1990s Julia Roberts classics that came both before (Pretty Woman) and after it (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, 2000’s Erin Brockovich).

Regardless of its reputation relative to her overall filmography, Sleeping with the Enemy is a winner, blending small town romance with slasher-thriller tropes in a delicious way that many a Lifetime movie has tried to replicate over the years.

9. The People Under the Stairs

The People Under the Stairs is a Wes Craven classic that deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore of his filmography alongside A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, and The Last House on the Left. In addition to boasting trenchant subtext about white landlords abusing tenants of color, the movie is a wild thrill ride that features two exquisitely twisted villain performances from Twin Peaks alumni Wendy Robie and Everett McGill.

8. Poison

Poison, which is the debut feature of Todd Haynes (Carol, May December), interweaves three stories adapted from Jean Genet novels. The gauzy, experimental movie was instrumental in the development of the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, leading to landmark LGBTQ+ independent films which have ultimately overshadowed it, including The Living End, The Watermelon Woman, The Doom Generation, and Todd Haynes’ own Velvet Goldmine.

7. Body Parts

This 1991 horror movie follows a psychologist who becomes one of three patients to receive transplant limbs from a serial killer, which obviously goes horribly wrong. In addition to boasting a fun genre premise, it unites horror royalty both behind the scenes - in the form of director Eric Red (The Hitcher), co-writer Norman Snider (Dead Ringers), and producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. (the Friday the 13th franchise, April Fool’s Day) - and on-screen, featuring actors including Jeff Fahey (Psycho III) and Brad Dourif (Child’s Play, The Exorcist III).

6. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah

Although it’s suspiciously missing from most people’s lists of their favorite Godzilla movies, this Heisei-era installment is pure popcorn fun. It’s a grab bag of every possible subgenre, finding inspiration in everything from Back to the Future to World War II dramas (as Godzilla Minus One would do so successfully 32 years later) to the Terminator franchise to Gremlins.

5. The Hours and Times

It is downright strange how much Christopher Münch’s The Hours and Times has been forgotten. The movie, which was making the film festival circuit in 1991 (it played at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, among others), is part of the canon of biopics exploring the legacy of the legendary British Invasion band The Beatles. It provides a window into what might have happened during a vacation that John Lennon (Ian Hart) took with the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein (David Angus), a gay man who had a relationship with Lennon that the musician later told Playboy was “almost a love affair, but not quite.”

4. High Heels

Just like Sleeping with the Enemy, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, and Poison, Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels suffers more from comparison with other similar features than any failure of its own. Look, it’s hard to be an Almodóvar movie that comes a few years after Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and a few years before All About My Mother.

However, this murderous melodrama about a mother who reunites with her estranged daughter, only to find that she’s dating her ex, is still a compelling romp. It also doesn’t skimp on the hyperstylization that the Spanish filmmaker is known for. In fact, it features his first and only dance sequence set at a prison, which is a must-see.

3. Silent Night, Deadly Night 5: The Toy Maker

This direct-to-video sequel to the controversial 1984 Christmas slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night is a deeply bizarre movie. In addition to blending a Pinocchio allegory with a family drama and a bloody horror movie, it features screen legend Mickey Rooney in a major role. In addition to being a full-on camp classic, The Toy Maker was directed by Martin Kitrosser, who was just one year away from becoming Quentin Tarantino’s go-to script supervisor, going on to work with him on everything from Reservoir Dogs to Pulp Fiction to Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

2. Vegas in Space

Speaking of camp classics… The drag queen sci-fi comedy Vegas in Space is a handmade labor of love full of puns and visually inventive design. You can draw a direct line between 1968’s Barbarella and this movie, connecting everything from Flash Gordon to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the process. Without Vegas in Space, you simply don’t get something like the new RuPaul disaster movie parody Stop! That! Train!, and it absolutely deserves wider recognition.

1. Fast Getaway

This Corey Haim action-comedy, in which he plays his criminal father’s (Leo Rossi) getaway driver, was indifferently received in 1991, playing in just a few test markets before being pulled from theaters. This is a huge shame, because it’s a solidly constructed genre movie, providing a sweet family story alongside gonzo stuntwork and a heaping helping of gorgeous location photography that takes its viewers on a tour of some of the most beautiful places across Utah and Colorado.

Fast Getaway also does genre fans a favor by giving a major role to martial arts icon Cynthia Rothrock, who most famously starred opposite Michelle Yeoh in 1985’s Yes, Madam.

So what titles do you consider to be the most overlooked movies of 1991, and did any of them make the list? Sound off in the comments below!