10 Underappreciated 90s Horror Movies
3. Hardware
Not long ago we mentioned the great misfortune of Richard Stanley, whose career collapsed after only two films. Before Dust Devil, Stanley made Hardware - and 26 years later, the 1990 cyberpunk sci-fi horror remains one of the most dazzling directorial debuts ever made in the genre.
Written down, it doesn't sound like much: a killer robot runs amok in an inner city apartment. But what makes Hardware so striking is the broader world Stanley builds around the story, and the wonderfully evocative manner in which he brings this dystopian vision to life, with surprisingly spiritual overtones.
In an irradiated wasteland of a near future, solider Mo (Dylan McDermott) returns from his latest tour of duty in space to his girlfriend Jill (Stacey Travis), a sculptress who barely leaves her apartment. Mo gives her a deactivated robot head he's found as a gift, thinking she can use it in her art; but it turns out this particular robot head is a MARK 13, a new model of advanced military killing machine. Naturally, it's not as inactive as it seems; and when it comes to life, it's not going to be Short Circuit all over again.
Stanley got in trouble years later for plagiarism, having claimed the story as his own when in fact it was heavily based on Shok!, a 2000AD comic strip. A very bad move on his part - but not enough to keep Hardware from being a hugely atmospheric, engrossing piece of work.