Editorials
Six Underrated Horror Prequels to Watch Ahead of ‘The First Omen’
Even outside of Star Wars, prequels tend to get a bad rap. From answering questions that didn’t need answering (and destroying the mysteries of the original in the process) to repeating established formulas ad nauseum, it’s deceptively easy for these blasts from the past to trip over their previously established lore. After all, it’s kind of hard to tell an engaging story when audiences already know what happens next.
Thankfully, the horror genre seems to be especially blessed with filmmakers that see prequels as an opportunity to tell original stories within an established world. I mean, some folks even thought that last year’s Pearl was even better than X, and the trailer for Arkasha Stevenson’s upcoming The First Omen looks like it kicks all kinds of ass – and that’s precisely why we’ve decided to come up with a list highlighting six underrated horror prequels for your viewing pleasure!
While we’ll be shying away from acclaimed prequels like Prey and Orphan: First Kill in order to focus on films that deserve a bit more love, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorites if you think we missed a particularly fun one.
Now, onto the list…
6. Cube Zero (2004)
While none of its follow-ups could quite match the quality of the original, I’d still argue that there are no bad Cube movies. Finding creative ways to get around their limited budgets and extract tension from what basically amounts to a single location, all four of these movies have their unique merits – which is why Cube Zero makes it onto the list.
Sure, it’s guilty of the cardinal sin of explaining things that were better left unknown in the original, but dividing our focus between the victims of the titular cube and its voyeuristic operators makes this a refreshingly unique experience. Zero may lack some of the mystery of its predecessors, but I love how the ending ties in with the original film, and you can still enjoy this one even if you haven’t seen the others.
5. Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)
A&E’s Bates Motel is now known as the definitive Psycho prequel (which makes sense, given the show’s iconic performances by both Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore), but it wasn’t the first attempt at fleshing out Norman Bates’ twisted backstory. Back in 1990, genre filmmaker Mick Garris teamed up with the original screenwriter of Hitchcock’s horror classic (Joseph Stefano) to bring us an extremely underappreciated made-for-TV movie concerning the origins of one of cinema’s most iconic killers.
Told through a series of flashbacks as Anthony Perkins reprises his role as a seemingly rehabilitated killer and calls into a radio show in order to share his life story, Psycho IV dives into the disturbing details of Norman’s upbringing and his eventual homicidal tendencies. It doesn’t quite live up to the original (and how could it?), but there’s no denying that this is one hell of a fun time despite its network limitations.
4. Leatherface (2017)
I’ve stated numerous times that I think every single Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel is worth watching for one reason or another, and that’s why I’ve always found it surprising how many people dislike the 2016 prequel Leatherface. From the family secretly working for the illuminati to Alexandra Daddario adopting her flesh-eating cousin like an elderly guard-dog, this franchise is versatile enough to tell nearly any kind of story – so I don’t understand why so many fans draw the line at a down-to-earth tale about troubled youths fleeing a mental institution.
Yes, the film borrows freely from The Devil’s Rejects and could have used some more genuine scares (which were present in the original script but ended up being toned down during production), but I really appreciate the flick’s character work and how it gets around the predictable prequel issue by playing with our expectations regarding which one of these runaways will grow up to be the titular Leatherface. It may not be a masterpiece, but it’s a guaranteed good time for fans of neo-exploitation.
3. Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)
Shot back-to-back with Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, Grant Harvey’s Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning is a curious case of a prequel set so far into the past that it only tangentially relates to the original. Telling a peculiar story about the 19th century incarnations of the Fitzgerald sisters who find themselves trapped in Fort Bailey while being hunted by werewolves, you really don’t need to have seen the other films in order to enjoy this low-budget period piece.
And while you could spend hours debating about how exactly Ginger Snaps 3 ties into the modern-day timeline of the series (I mean, are Brigitte and Ginger destined to reincarnate indefinitely due to the Werewolf curse or is this meant to be a “what if” situation?), I enjoy this schlocky prequel due to its impeccable atmosphere and practical werewolf effects.
2. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
Multiple different versions of films have existed since the dawn of cinema (especially when producers began to meddle in the affairs of directors in order to appeal to broader audiences), but there are very few cases of conflicting versions of the same project being released as completely different movies. Case in point, the heavily reworked Exorcist: The Beginning may have been a messy schlock-fest that cheapened an iconic franchise, but its restored counterpart is a much better experience that even managed to impress William Peter Blatty.
This 2005 release still isn’t quite Paul Shrader’s original vision, as the studio refused to give him enough money to properly finalize post-production, but it’s much better than what they put out in 2004 and worth a watch if you’re a fan of slow-burn faith-based terror.
1. Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)
The idea of a found footage prequel sounds silly on paper, but Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman knocked it out of the park when it came time to bring Paranormal Activity into the 1980s with their unexpectedly fun threequel.
Sure, the flick doesn’t re-invent the wheel when it comes to found footage frights and it’s a lot harder to justify the excessive amount of recordings (and high-definition widescreen video) in the days of VHS, but this lo-fi prequel boasts some of the most memorable scares in the franchise – not to mention an ending that ties up the original trilogy’s mythology with a neat little bow.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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