Editorials
5 Horror Sequels That Switched Genres
A sequel is a tough thing to pull off, especially in horror. It’s not easy trying to recapture what made audiences fall in love with a movie in the first place while simultaneously creating something that stands on its own. Typically, there are three central approaches a sequel will take; retread the original, expand the story and world, or take a complete left field turn into something wholly new. It’s always a risk no matter what approach a sequel takes, but none quite as risky as changing direction and tone. When the gamble works, it’s a stroke of genius. But when it fails, well, it’s a bummer.
Happy Death Day applied a comedic Groundhog Day time loop conceit to the slasher, giving audiences a fun lighthearted romp that bent the familiar rules and tropes of the subgenre. But its sequel, Happy Death Day 2U, is proving quite divisive as it left the horror elements behind. Instead, writer/director Christopher Landon wears his ‘80s movie influences on his sleeves in a more heartfelt sequel that digs in even harder to the comedy. It’s hardly the first time a horror sequel has switched genres, and won’t be the last either. Here are five sequels that abandoned the horror of its predecessor in favor of something completely different.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
Both Book of Shadows and The Blair Witch Project exist within the realm of horror. But they exist at the opposite ends of the spectrum, with Book of Shadows taking a drastically different approach. The faux documentary and “recovered footage” style of The Blair Witch Project came along at just the right time, leading many moviegoers to believe what they were seeing was real, and kickstarting the found footage craze in the process. Though kept mostly subtle while the three lead characters descended into panic, it was a film saturated in the supernatural.
Book of Shadows drops the found footage altogether, goes meta, and takes aim at psychological horror. Following a group of The Blair Witch Project fans that arrive in Burkittsville, Maryland to explore the Blair Witch phenomena, they find themselves confronted by lapses in time, their own neuroses, and maybe even the actual Blair Witch. The massive shift in style and tone meant that this sequel polarized many fans of the original film and still garners debate even today.
The Chronicles of Riddick
In 2000, David Twohy delivered a suspenseful survive-the-night style sci-fi horror film, Pitch Black. In it, a transport ship crash lands on a desolate planet inhabited by bloodthirsty creatures that only can come out in the dark. Unfortunately for the group of crash survivors, the planet is about to plummet into complete pitch-black darkness thanks to a month-long eclipse. Vin Diesel gave a breakthrough performance as Riddick, the dangerous prisoner turned antihero, so its no surprise that the sequel would once again focus on his character.
But, being that he managed to escape the planet, that made handling a follow up tricky. How do you get him back to the planet to battle the creatures once more without feeling contrived? Well, apparently you don’t. The Chronicles of Riddick left the horror behind and went full throttle big budget sci-fi adventure film that saw Riddick hopping planets, evading bounty hunters, and delving into his Furian ancestry. Pitch Black this was not, but it did well enough to earn another sequel.
The Devil’s Rejects
This sequel to House 1000 Corpses wasn’t just content to switch up the style and tone, but it turned its predecessor’s antagonists into the protagonists. Talk about an overachiever. Rob Zombie dropped the vivid colors, the house of horrors backbone, and the almost cartoonish aspect of the villainous Firefly clan in favor of a gritty, violent western with a road movie feel.
The Devil’s Rejects somehow makes you root for irredeemable characters as they flee from Sheriff Wydell and his unrelenting quest for revenge. Still, just as violent, vicious, and brutal as House of 1000 Corpses, Zombie turns some of that violence back on the Firefly clan in this go ‘round. While The Devil’s Rejects is a continuation of the story, it is capable of standing alone – you don’t need to have seen House 1000 Corpses first. A lot of that has to do with the major shift in genre.
Evil Dead 2
This sequel, with a much larger budget, rewrites the events of the first film before continuing Ash’s battle with the evil force unleashed by recited passages from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Right away, Evil Dead II erases three of the characters from the first film and instead sets up Ash’s trip to the cabin as a romantic weekend getaway turned horrifically awry, also changing the fate of his girlfriend Linda. But the biggest change came from the decision to not play the sequel as a straight horror film.
As such, co-writers Sam Raimi and Scott Spiegel started injecting their fondness of slapstick comedy in the script, drawing a major influence from The Three Stooges in particular. Visual gags, physical comedy, and even nods to Popeye or Hamburger Helper commercials found their way into Ash’s blood-soaked battle with deadites. Between the altered storyline and the massive head dive into comedy, Evil Dead 2 so successfully overshadowed its predecessor that some even forget the series’ serious horror roots. It irrevocably changed the series’ future, too.
Aliens
The sequel to 1979’s Alien had both a much bigger budget and a much bigger scope in story, shifting from the claustrophobic confines of the Nostromo to the maze-like colony on LV-426. This meant a lot more xenomorphs to contend with as well, building up to one epic battle between Ellen Ripley and the alien queen. The expansion in size and setting played a huge role in the shift in genres. Whereas Alien was a quiet haunted house chiller set in space, Aliens went full throttle war-style actioner.
Directed by James Cameron, who specializes in Blockbuster tent-poles, Aliens drew major inspiration from the Vietnam War as the space marines went into the colony with their guns blazing and very little strategy. Though thrilling, suspenseful, and full of horrific imagery, Aliens isn’t really horror at all. Alien very much is. Depending on tastes, Aliens was a big success.
Editorials
‘Bloodstone: Subspecies II’ Revisited: A Bigger, Bolder Follow-Up to Full Moon’s Vampire Cult Classic
Horror sequels are a peculiar thing. In most cases, follow-ups to scary movies tend to retread the same formula with different victims and more over-the-top scares. This is because audiences tend to be more interested in the antagonists of these pictures than anything else, with even main characters becoming disposable when the time comes to produce a sequel.
That’s why some of the most memorable horror sequels are the ones that actually manage to hold onto interesting survivors from previous films while also pushing the story forward instead of having the same thing happen again to a different group of people. From Scream 2 to Dream Warriors (and arguably even The Exorcist III: Legion), there are quite a few of these innovative sequels to go around.
However, if there’s one franchise that deserves more attention when discussing bigger and better continuations that make the most of episodic filmmaking, it has to be Ted Nicolaou’s Subspecies.
The Full Moon classic spawned an indie horror icon, but bizarre sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II is even more beloved than its predecessor.
Building a Bigger Vampire Saga
While the film itself takes place almost immediately after the events of the first movie, Bloodstone only entered production a couple of years after the release of the original as both Charles Band and Nicolaou weighed the pros and cons of returning to Romania to continue the series. In an effort to maximize efficiency, the team decided to invest in a trilogy where parts II and III, now fully written by Nicolaou, would be filmed simultaneously over the course of a single grueling shoot.
Much like the first Subspecies, Bloodstone’s low budget meant that the filmmakers once again had to cut corners and re-use as many of their resources as possible. Thankfully, the process was much easier this time around as Nicolaou, with the help of Romanian cinematographer Vlad Paunescu and his wife Oana, became more acquainted with local customs and made new friends. Shooting abroad still came with its own unique set of challenges due to a lack of translators and the occasional safety concerns, but the crew managed to make things work by filming things guerrilla-style and setting up shop in abandoned caves and real medieval ruins.
The director’s newfound contacts, coupled with the relative success of the first movie, meant that he was basically given free rein over an assortment of shooting locations usually considered off-limits for indie horror. That’s why Bloodstone features insanely ambitious lighting and effects work even during scenes shot in the middle of a bustling Bucharest. The filmmakers went so far as to project Radu’s Nosferatu-like shadows over local monuments as if he were a Romanian boogeyman, an idea that was actually encouraged by local cinephiles.
In fact, many of the more elaborate scenes here had originally been planned for the first movie before being discarded due to the lack of available resources. It was only with the support of Romanian fans and filmmakers that Bloodstone was able to give Radu a chance to be even more menacing the second time around.
Michelle’s Transformation Takes Center Stage
However, when it came to the American part of the crew, not everyone was able or willing to return for another round of Romanian adventuring. That’s why Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) is unceremoniously killed off at the beginning of the film while the role of Michelle had to be recast. Denice Duff took over for Laura Mae Tate, with the character now being joined by her sister, Rebecca, played by Melanie Shatner (yes, that Shatner).
In the finished film, we follow Michelle as she awakens to her new life as a vampire and discovers that Radu has murdered her lover. Struggling with grief and her newfound bloodlust, Michelle contacts her sister overseas, with Rebecca soon travelling to Romania on an ill-advised rescue mission. Meanwhile, Radu (Anders Hove) reaches out to his undead Mummy (Pamela Gordon, underneath heavy layers of impressive makeup effects) and promises to deliver her the coveted Bloodstone artifact while also making Michelle his eternal consort.
Revisiting the movie, I was impressed with how introspective this story is when compared to the original. The sequel assumes that you’re already familiar with the previously established characters, so the story wastes no time in exploring the immediate aftermath of the previous film’s events. From Michelle’s reluctant transformation into a creature of the night to Radu’s obvious mommy issues, Nicolaou is way more interested in pushing these characters into new and uncharted territory rather than recycling existing plot points.
Practical Effects and Gothic Atmosphere Still Impress
Yet, much like the first film, it’s Romania itself that makes the movie worth watching. The ruins of Castle Vladislav are even more majestic now, and visiting the moody streets of Bucharest with its surprisingly punk-rock nightlife made for a nice change of pace when compared to the original film’s quiet village setting. Once again, the abundance of interesting locations makes the movie feel much more expensive than it really is, with the filmmakers surrounding our characters with a living, breathing environment that would be impossible to recreate in a studio.
The increased freedom also allowed Nicolaou to flex his filmmaking muscles and tackle more ambitious blocking/composition in the sequel. The low budget and tropey script mean that the visuals don’t always work, but it’s consistently clear that this neo-expressionist style could only come from a passionate team attempting to pay homage to the shadowy horror classics of yesteryear. If the retro atmosphere isn’t enough for you, there’s enough practical gore here to satisfy even the most demanding of horror hounds!
Radu himself is also far more interesting now that Hove is more comfortable working alongside an international crew, with the actor having gone on record explaining that, while he spent more time drinking vodka than working while shooting the first movie, the sequel was a much more creatively satisfying experience for everyone involved. The character’s relationship with his abusive Mummy is also a highlight of the expanded mythology, especially since the practical effects that bring her to life are just as freaky now as they were back in ’93.
My only real gripe with the horror elements of the picture comes from the glaring absence of the diminutive stop-motion minions from the first film, though I guess the surprisingly entertaining addition of Professor Popescu (Michael Denish) and his archeological antics mostly make up for that.
Bloodstone: Subspecies II is obviously the middle chapter of a trilogy, with the ending feeling a lot less definitive than its predecessor as several plot threads are left to dangle in the wind, but I appreciate how the flick explores new ground while remaining faithful to nearly all the ideas that made the original such a good time. While I don’t think it’s as big of an improvement over the first movie as some fans make it out to be, Bloodstone is definitely worth revisiting if you’re a fan of old-fashioned vampire yarns.
Tune in next time for the thrilling conclusion to this initial trilogy, Bloodlust: Subspecies III!
You must be logged in to post a comment.