This Overlooked 90s Sci-Fi Available on Prime Video Deserves a Rewatch

Apart from Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and The Matrix ( 1999) that were absolute bangers at the time and are still considered cult classics, we can’t really say that the decade of 1990s was fruitful in terms of worth-watching sci-fi movies that left a mark on history.

We’re going to talk about a movie that was forgotten just like hundreds of 90s science fiction flicks. It deserves much more attention as it brings surrealism to the genre and breaks its canons: here, it is a person who does most of the evil, not an alien or a robot.

The intricate plot of the film revolves around Bill, a disgraced writer struggling through a creative crisis, severe drug addiction and failed relationship. His wife Joan gets used to stealing his supplies and messing around with reckless Beat poets.

The apotheosis of Bill’s troubles is reached when he kills Joan. The world around him starts to blur, with his typewriter turning into a talking cockroach, his body undergoing mutations and the whole reality getting mixed up with the images from his novels.

This synopsis doesn’t obviously seem like everyone's cup of tea, but let’s be honest: weird plots and complicated narration with lots of hidden meanings surround us everywhere now. For example, if we take Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, the most hyped sci-fi hit of the decade, we bet you didn’t understand all the events depicted there.

The same goes for the 1991 movie: it was intentionally made surreal to make you step in the protagonist’s shoes and to feel the impact of his previous deeds on his current state and mental health. The film is certainly spectacular and captivating in this regard.

Titled Naked Lunch, it appears to be one of David Cronenberg’s movies, who is famous for his sophisticated sci-fi stories. Cinema lovers may have seen his adaptation of Stephen King ’s The Dead Zone and one of the best sci-fi horrors of the 1980s, Videodrome (both 1983). It’s also an adaptation of William S. Burroughs's 1959 novel.

“Such a weird and great movie,” admits Redditor @val913 about Naked Lunch.

Yes, it’s weird, and that’s the point here, so check out this 90s hidden gem, as it’s available for streaming on Prime.