Editorials
Stay Home, Watch Horror: 5 More Standout Sequels to Stream This Week
Between The Conjuring 2 and Amityville II: The Possession’s recent additions to streaming, as well as casting updates on the upcoming Chucky TV series, now seems like a perfect time to explore more of horror’s best sequels on streaming. Instead of the usual suspects that include more popular fare like The Exorcist III or well-known franchise entries, this week’s picks aim for entries that don’t come up in genre conversations as often as they should.
These horror sequels thrillingly expand the mythology, take bold new directions, or altogether switch tones to bring the fun. Here’s where you can stream them this week.
28 Weeks Later – Hulu
Six months after the rage virus depleted Great Britain’s population, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to return to resume a post-apocalyptic life. After a carrier of the highly infectious pathogen gets brought in for testing, however, the virus takes root in the quarantined city and threatens to destroy them all. Taking on a whole new set of characters, 28 Weeks Later delivers non-stop action thrills while building a bit on the virus. Robert Carlyle makes an unnerving antagonist as a father whose guilt marks the impetus for this viral nightmare.
Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed – Roku, Tubi
Unleashed fearlessly takes a very different approach than expected, going for a unique continuation instead of a rehash. Picking up where the previous film left off, Brigitte (Emily Perkins) is trying to fend off her lycanthropy by injecting monkshood extract into her veins, increasing the dosage as it becomes harder to ward off her inner werewolf. It lands her in a rehab center, locking her in with another werewolf in pursuit. What Ginger Snaps did for puberty, Ginger Snaps 2 does for addiction. That means it’s much darker in both tone and subject matter.
Inferno – Kanopy, Shudder, Tubi, Vudu
The thematic sequel to Suspiria and second entry in the Three Mothers trilogy sees its protagonist square off against the Three Mothers’ youngest and cruelest. It’s a stunning follow-up, but between the more subdued score and understated (though no less beautiful) colors, it’s not as well-regarded as its predecessor. It likely doesn’t help that the showdown with Mater Tenebrarum isn’t nearly as intense as her sisters. Still, the atmosphere more than makes up for that, including one of the most exquisite underwater sequences. Inferno also boasts fantastic set pieces, gorgeous production design, and Mario Bava’s imprint is all over this one.
Psycho II – Peacock
Written by Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play), the sequel is set 22 years after the first film’s events where Norman Bates is released from the mental institution and resumes residence in the old house behind the motel. He gets a job at a nearby diner, where he meets co-worker Emma Spool and young diner Mary Samuels (Meg Tilly), a pretty girl in need of a place to stay. As Norman’s budding friendship with Mary grows, so does the body count. This highly underseen sequel toys with viewer expectations based on what we already know about Norman. It finds an innovative, new way to explore that unhealthy bond between mother and child. Unexpected reveals and more profound, more sympathetic layers to Norman make this one of horror’s all-time best sequels.
[REC] 3: Genesis – AMC+
[REC] and [REC] 2 remain at the forefront of found footage’s best offerings, but the third entry doesn’t get near as much love. Genesis overlaps with the first two films, set at a large church for the wedding of Clara (Leticia Dolera) and Koldo (Diego Martin). Among the hundreds attending is an uncle who happened to be the veterinarian of Jennifer’s infected pet dog referred to in [REC]. It turns out that infected dog bites take a little while to transform a human into a rabid monster, and Clara and Koldo are at least allowed to make it through their ceremony and well into their reception before all hell breaks loose. The most obvious shift in Genesis is from found footage to traditional film, which cleverly answers the most common found footage question of why its protagonists refuse to put the camera down during perilous situations. The tonal shift from abject terror to humorous polarizes, but it’s a thrilling entry nonetheless.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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