I honestly believe that the horror genre is the biggest provider of sequels. By percentage, the superhero genre might have it beat but nothing beats the sheer number of horror sequels that get churned out year after year. Some of these sequels are solid, a ton are, admit it, crap, and then there are the ones that make us scratch out head because they went so far from the original that it’s absolutely batshit to take in.
Below are several examples of sequels that felt almost like a complete 180 from the original film. And yet they have some pretty amazing merits to them, each offering something that the original didn’t have but then going in a totally different direction.
Check out my recommendations and then leave a few of your favorites in the comments!
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
The original had two or three important locations while the sequel went into the bowels of Hell. Seriously, that right there should tell you all you need to know about how insane things got in the Hellraiser universe.
In a weird way, I honestly think this is why the rest of the films didn’t work out so well. When you go balls to the wall so early on, it’s hard to make anything feel as important or epic.
Evil Dead 2
Evil Dead was actually rather scary at points and the humor felt almost incidental. But the humor in Evil Dead II was overt, it was on point, and it was utterly over-the-top. After all, a wall that shoots geysers of fake blood after a disembodied hand that has a love of flipping the bird gets “shot”? Or how about a spinning vortex that sucks in a car, a tree, and a chainsaw-armed stud?
Yup, we went from 0-60 REAL fast!
Gremlins 2
From being a fun, cute, and surprisingly scary Christmas horror/adventure (for a young child) to an insanely energetic film, Gremlins 2 cranked everything to the max. Seriously, that Key & Peele sketch absolutely nailed it. Just watch that and you’ll understand how absurd yet hilariously awesome things got.
Aliens
From one alien to hundreds. From not understanding how the eggs got to the ship to a Queen. From a crew of miners to a squadron of space marines. From a sci-fi/horror masterpiece to a sci-fi/horror/action masterpiece, emphasis absolutely on the “action” part of that ménage à trois. Both films are prime examples of the very best that can be offered by cinema but both are also sharply different in their feel and attitude.
