10 Underrated Movies From 1996 You Probably Missed

We know it’s hard to believe that 1996 was already 30 years ago, but we can’t let that devastation distract us from celebrating the anniversaries of some of the most underrated movies of that year.

These 10 titles were overshadowed by the likes of Scream, Fargo, and Jerry Maguire, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve recognition any less than those stone-cold classics.

10. Waiting for Guffman

Christopher Guest’s improv-forward ensemble mockumentary Waiting for Guffman is not ranked the lowest on the list because of its quality relative to the other titles. After all, it is beloved in its own right. However, it is often overshadowed by the later mockumentary films that Guest made with much of the same cast, including 2000’s Best in Show and 2003’s A Mighty Wind. However, Guffman deserves to be given more space to stand among them as one of the titans of film comedy, thanks to its incisive satirical take on the types of people who populate community theater productions, brought to life by perfect performances from Parker Posey, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, and more.

9. Bound

Bound is another one that is ranked low on this list because it is only underrated relative to other titles from its directors, the Wachowskis. Three years after it came out, they brought The Matrix into the world and rewrote the zeitgeist. Because of that, it’s easy to forget what a dazzling film Bound is. It doesn’t have the expansive sci-fi world-building of The Matrix, but what it does have is a visually electric, effortlessly compelling crime drama blended with one of the sweetest and most erotic LGBTQ+ romances of the 1990s. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon have perhaps never been better.

8. Barb Wire

This Razzie-winning comic book adaptation is well worth a revisit in the wake of star Pamela Anderson finally finding the respect she deserves thanks to performances in recent movies, including The Last Showgirl and The Naked Gun. It is a hyper-stylized action movie that is begging to be rediscovered as a cult film, to the point that the Criterion Channel (rightly) ran it alongside titles like Showgirls, Cruising, Querelle, and Xanadu as part of a Razzies retrospective in March 2024.

7. The Celluloid Closet

This documentary, which traces LGBTQ+ representation in film, is an adaptation and update of Vito Russo’s 1981 book of the same name. While it is well known within the queer community, it deserves a place in the broader pantheon of the great essay documentaries about representation in cinema, which is a roster that includes 2019’s Horror Noire and 2020’s Disclosure.

6. Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering

Any Children of the Corn sequel is an acquired taste, but cult film aficionados should be drawn to The Gathering like a tractor beam. The story it tells is far afield from the original Stephen King short story, but that allows it to spread its wings and become something more visceral and unusual than yet another copycat sequel about a cult of killer kids. This installment, which stars Naomi Watts in an early role, is a chilling, supernaturally-tinged small town epidemic thriller that packs plenty of unexpected punches.

5. The Dentist

Although it is often lumped in with the wave of mediocre pre-Scream slashers from the early and mid-1990s, The Dentist has an ace up its sleeve in the form of Brian Yuzna, the grossout satirist behind the 1989 cult classic Society. Ultimately, the movie, which follows a dentist (Corbin Bernsen) having a mental break after discovering his wife’s infidelity, is an intriguing - and viscerally upsetting - fantasia on the theme of decay, both moral and dental. Plus, it features a performance from a baby-faced 27-year-old Mark Ruffalo!

4. Hotel de Love

This sweet rom-com arrived from Australia shortly after the time that the U.S. was most rabid for imports from Down Under. Even though it popped up just four years after Romper Stomper and two years after Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, it was slightly too late to the party. However, it’s a charming romp that features a soundtrack of wall-to-wall bangers, including The Grass Roots’ “Sooner or Later” and 10cc’s “I'm Not in Love” (which was later featured on the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy).

3. Prisoner of the Mountains

This Russian film is one of the best features helmed by Sergei Bodrov, who was himself one of the best directors working during the time when restrictions on Russian cinema were beginning to lift in the mid-1980s, allowing filmmakers to explore political topics with more frankness.

Prisoner of the Mountains is a tender but uncompromising look at the relations between Russia and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the First Chechen War, which play out in microcosm when Chechens capture two Russian soldiers (one of whom is played by the director’s son, Sergei Bodrov, Jr., who swiftly became a major player in Russian cinema between this and his role in 1997’s Brother before his untimely death via avalanche in 2002).

2. Life and Death on the A-List

This harrowing documentary by Jay Corcoran, which is available in full right here, follows the final days of former screen hunk Tom McBride (Friday the 13th: Part 2) as he slowly perishes from AIDS-related complications. It’s an explosive and heartbreaking look at a single life that was eroded by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, using this specific story as a window into the way gay men were treated in the U.S. during the height of the AIDS crisis, by America at large and by one another.

1. Killer Condom

Not only is Killer Condom the most underrated movie of 1996, it might be the most underrated movie of the entire 1990s. Based on the Ralf König comic book of the same name, this German horror-comedy tackles the AIDS crisis in a very different way from Life and Death on the A-List. The allegory it uses seems goofy on the surface: it follows a sentient condom with teeth wreaking havoc in a New York City brothel.

However, there is a surging undercurrent of rage and sadness beneath the B-movie thrills. It’s a trenchant satire, following the way the killer condom is callously ignored by the government until it’s far too late. This is because it is at first only impacting gay men and sex workers, who are viewed as subhuman.

Additionally, Killer Condom features the second-best LGBTQ+ romance of the 1990s - between hardboiled detective Luigi Mackeroni (Udo Samel) and gigolo Billy (Marc Richter) - and an exquisite-looking titular monster (which was designed by Alien’s H.R. Giger).

So what are your most underrated movies of 1996, and did any of them make the list? Sound off in the comments below!