Virtual Nightmares: How 90s Sci-Fi Horror Explored Digital Worlds and Technology

Back in the early 1990s, everybody thought the world was on the cusp of a technological revolution that would make lives much better than ever. Well, they were not entirely wrong, but not exactly accurate either. Now, in the 21st century, many of the “future” technologies predicted by the 1990s are still out of reach. We still don’t have interstellar travel, flying cars, independent colonies on other planets, and definitely no hoverboards yet. In this article, we will dig deeper into how 90’s Sci-fi horror explored digital worlds and technology.

But at least one futuristic technology has materialized: virtual reality. Even in the old days, many people were much less optimistic about VR devices, seeing them as nothing but potential troubles. Hollywood was only happy to embrace that perspective, and transformed the sentiment into cautionary tales on the big screen, as you can see in the following sci-fi horror movies from the 1990s.

Dark City (1998)

Most scenes in Dark City barely show any kind of VR-devices, like massive headsets, haptic gloves, wires attached to somebody’s head, or any other apparatus typically seen in the ‘90s sci-fi. The tech isn’t exactly on display here, but after a few minutes of playback, you’ll come to realize that it still projects the same preoccupations as “The Matrix” (which is also technically a sci-fi horror, but there’s just too much cyberpunk in it, so we reluctantly omit it from the list).

Dark City is as sci-fi noir as “The Thirteenth Floor,” but with an intensive degree of nightmarish imagery and claustrophobic atmosphere – both aspects easily make it a standout feature. Our main character here is Murdoch, an amnesiac who wakes up in a grim hotel room, apparently having committed a murder. He flees the scene and is pursued by a group of pale-looking men known conveniently as the “Strangers.” As the story goes, the Strangers seem to understand the nature of Murdoch’s memory issues and hold the key to inner-workings of the city as well. Dark City came out just one year before The Matrix and has since become a cult classic; some consider it the more contemplative version of The Matrix.

Arcade (1993)

There’s no other way to say it: Arcade underwent the production with barely enough budget to cover a straight-to-video feature. Guaranteed, you can’t possibly unsee all the terrible visual effects used in the film. Instead of getting Jurassic Park quality, you were presented with something out of the Sega Genesis. But here’s something you should know: the film kicks off with a group of kids going on their way to try the latest VR technology, only to get trapped inside a game. It turns out that the game is powered by the brain cells of a deceased kid, whose ghost will torment anyone playing it. And with a premise like that, you can’t help but have a bit of an empathy for the film, despite the painful graphics and all.

ExistenZ (1999)

This paranoid sci-fi horror is dizzying, in a good way of course. It tells the story of a game designer named Allegra and a security guard called Ted, while on the run from a terrorist group trying to kill the former. Since the very beginning, ExistenZ delivers imagery of a strange world where everything just doesn’t look right. The actors have the wrong accents, devices look like fetuses, and all the places are marked with unnecessarily literal names. The characters soon escape into a VR game, which drives them further into simulated reality. Before long, you’ll lose track of what’s simulated and what’s real. David Cronenberg wrote and directed ExistenZ; some say it was one of his last true body horror films. It remains a Cronenberg’s masterpiece, but at the time of the release, the cinema was full of empty seats because everyone else watched The Matrix instead.

The Lawnmower Man (1992)

If you make a list of the most quintessential sci-fi horror movies from the 1990s, one of them has to be The Lawnmower Man. Giving you a wild ride from the get-go, the film opens with a scene shot from the perspective of a chimpanzee. It makes little sense until you realize that a mad scientist is conducting an experiment to see if human intelligence can be instantly improved by using a dangerous mixture of injections and VR. When the chimpanzee escapes, the scientist insists on pushing forward with the experiment, but this he’ll be using an intellectually impaired gardener as a test subject. And the sci-fi terror begins.

We think it truly is a good time to revisit the virtual nightmares of the 1990s. Since VR and AR have made headlines again thanks to their integrations with gaming consoles and social platforms, you might find that some old films make for some very interesting concepts that warrant further discussions. What was considered the future back then has now become the reality today. As for the CGI, there’s no way those films hold up to today’s standards, but the more interesting part is how they use clever practical effects or weird props as workarounds. CGI should be the least of your concern, as you’d want to shift your attention to the imaginative aspect of filmmaking, so you might see whether their creative high-tech sources of terrors actually make sense.

What real-life technologies are inspired by science fiction? Which 1990s film depicts today’s technologies in the most accurate way? We’d love to hear from you.

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