MOVIES | The best teen movies of the 90s

Recently, I found myself flicking through the channels on TV, waiting for another movie to start that my brother had recommended to me. I wasn’t much looking forward to it because apparently said horror movie didn’t make much sense, so when I caught Jeepers Creepers just starting, I couldn’t help but settle down to watch that instead for about the thousandth time. It was a film I’d seen plenty of times growing up but not so much in recent years, so I just had to watch it. I found myself surprised to find that it’s still scary and creepy now, fifteen years on! It got me thinking of the best teen movies of the 90s…

…and all the other movies I’d grown to love as a teenager, even the ones that weren’t so good compared to these days standards but were constantly on TV nonetheless. These were the films that fuelled my desire for horror movies, building me up to the gorier stuff and making me braver with each movie. They were the movies that tapped into my innocent lust-filled side – the couples like Violet & Kevin (Coyote Ugly) that I shipped way before shipping was a thing, hoping that at the end of the movie they’d just kiss – no sex, no problems, just a simple kiss and happy after (a sure reflection for something I hoped for myself at that age). I loved the relationships formed in the horror/action movies, the small romance side storylines that saw two people who clearly dug each other go on some epic adventure or survive a zombie apocalypse to fall in love at the end.

Forgive me if I think not many movies are like that these days! So here’s to those movies, the ones I’d watch with butter popcorn late on a Friday night when I was too young to go clubbing, happy and content snuggled beneath a blanket and hoping that one day I might grow up to star in my own similar movie, fighting off ghosts and living happily ever after…

SAVE THE LAST DANCE

Save The Last Dance made me want to learn how to dance – properly and, more importantly, in a cool way, and helped open my eyes to some issues of racism that I hadn’t quite understood at that age. I felt this film was a tad different from the other typical teen movies because it tackled some really interesting issues, like how Sara and Derek’s peers reacted when they became a couple.

SCREAM

Who didn’t love Scream as a teenager?! Ghostface was one of the most iconic villains when I was a teenager, and also one of the most popular Halloween outfits. The Scream series are still hands down some of the best slasher movies I’ve ever seen. This is the type of film that will always remind me of getting lots of popcorn and WKD and watching with my friends one night, gossiping and getting scared. And, bonus, there’s recently been an announcement of another Scream movie coming to our screens soon!

COYOTE UGLY

Another movie that made me want to dance! This total girl-power movie made me want to work in a cool themed bar with little to no rules, where I could dance about wildly on tabletops and spray water at pervy men. As it goes, I later learned that working in a far in real life is far from how it’s portrayed in this movie (but there are bars like the one in Coyote Ugly that exist in real life – in fact the movie is actually based on the bar and filmed there!). Also, who didn’t get weak at the knees at Adam Garcia’s accent? Still, as romantic as it may have been portrayed at the time, I don’t think the scene where his character followed Violet home at night would go down too well these days!

NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE

Despite being one of the biggest teen movies ever, I never remember much of this film. This is the type of film I’d always catch clips of when flicking through channels and to this day I don’t think I’ve ever seen it all the way through. But I am WELL aware of that whipped cream scene involving Chris Evans..

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

Although this movie didn’t come out until 2004, it’s still a favourite of mine so I have to include it on this list – even though most people I speak to haven’t even heard of it. This is another movie that has so many great messages behind it – basically to enjoy your life and stop panicking about the future, to not work too hard and that actually it’s kind of okay to f*ck up sometimes and, my personal favourite, always know if the juice is worth the squeeze.

AMERICAN PIE

Of course American Pie is on this list. It’s still one of my favourite teen movies and made me want to have a group of friends like the ones from these films – they were crazy, sure, and a little sex obsessed, but they had some great adventures together and were always there for each other too. As it goes, I did grow up to have the best friends ever, although our adventures were a bit more PC then the ones in these movies. Sort of. For the most part. The older I am when I watch this movie, the more I resonate with the characters and the themes within this movie, all about growing up and enjoying your life before it passes you by.

SHE’S ALL THAT

This was one of the best teen movies ever, even though it’s ever so corny, who can honestly say they didn’t fall in love with Freddie Prince Jr after seeing this or start listening to Kiss Me? This film was the typical storyline of a plain-looking girl who no one ever looks twice at getting the boy, and was probably most realistic to me on a personal level because I used to always feel like the ugly girl or plain-looking girl, wishing I could have an amazing makeover and make the hottest boy in school fall in love with me. This film is also one of the most famous examples of a girl not only changing her looks to please a guy/her peers but going from invisible to super pretty, just by, y’know, removing her classes. I can’t be mad though, because everyone loves a makeover scene. I still strongly attest that she looked absolutely amazing pre-makeover though.

DATE MOVIE

Finally, Date Movie is actually a movie that I saw on my first ever first date! We arrived late and had to watch the second half of the movie, staying in the screening to watch the first half afterwards which was fun. So, ironically, Date Movie really was a date movie for me. This probably isn’t the best of teen movies, but it’s certainly up there with the top parody ones!

Read more: 5 crazy experiences I’ve had with online dating

Isn’t there just something about teen movies? As soon as the first scene airs, you can’t help but be transported back to how old you were at the time of watching the movie, back when life had no quarantines and your biggest issue at the time was probably deciding on what alcopop to drink with the movie!

What’s your favourite teen movie from the 90s/2000s? Let me know!