How do you know that you’ve stepped into the realm of 1990s movies? Other than looking at the release date on IMDB, there are plenty of signs that you’re consuming a film from this great era. Here are but six signs that you’ve encountered a ’90s flick:

That undeniable ’90s cool factor

The late ’90s and early 2000s was obsessed with looking as edgy and cool as possible, and that meant a lot of very flashy fashion and indicators. Sunglasses (especially at night and indoors). Black leather. Black trenchcoats. Loud industrial techno music. Dual pistols and katanas. Nightclub scenes. Brooding antiheroes. Martial arts. Urban grunge. It was everywhere, and you know what? It was kind of awesome.

Head-over-heels love for computer gimmicks

First there was morphing. Then a rapid proliferation of (usually not-very-great) CGI. And then in the waning hours of the decade, bullet time. Thanks to advances in computer technology and the ability to throw fun effects onto the scene, we got seriously wowed any time one of these tricks was used — even if they’ve aged pretty badly.

An embrace of indie flicks

Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and Miramax (among others), the indie film scene exploded in popularity. These low-budget flicks were made by younger, daring filmmakers more in love with dialogue, characters, and clever concepts than high-budget flash. Almost all of these featured stories on the fringes of civilization and delivered lines that we quoted for decades afterward.

(Mostly bad) sequels

The ’90s never met a sequel it didn’t like… to run into the ground. I’m talking your RoboCop 3s, your Alien³s, your Batman and Robins, your Highlander 2s, your Home Alone 3s, your Mannequin 2s, your Mortal Kombat Annihilations, your NeverEnding Story IIIs, your Police Academy: Mission to Moscows, your Rocky Vs, your Star Trek Vs, your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IIIs, your Weekend at Bernie’s IIs, and so on. Oh, it wasn’t all bad, but there were so many corpses of sequels littering the ground that you couldn’t take a step without falling into a theater starring one.

Those X-files vibes

Scifi was everywhere in the ’90s — and so was a fascination with conspiracy theories. The confluence of these was the X-Files and its many relatives. These were movies with aliens, global or national cover-ups, abductions, imminent invasions, mass experimentations, worries about the future, and sometimes teens saving the day using pens jammed up with illegal drugs. I really feel like constructing a monument to how amazing The Faculty was, in retrospect.

Leaning heavily into the dark

Hey, ’90s movies? I’m concerned about you. You’ve got a lighter side, to be sure, but there’s also this bleak, super-dark bent you have to several of your films. This was the decade of the serial killer film, gory slashers, goth superheroes, nihilism, depressing time travel, and whatever the heck Natural Born Killers was supposed to be. You need a time out and a good cuddle.