Movies
5 Disgraceful Horror Sequels!!!
Last week I wrote a post called 5 Reasons Gremlins 2 Is A Masterpiece, and I often talk about my love for some of the Friday The 13th, Halloween and NOES sequels, so you know I’m not a hater when it comes to franchises. Not only do I have few hangups about sequels, I’m even looking forward to the NEXT Friday The 13th film – which is a sequel to a remake. I’m no snob when it comes to this stuff, I’ll take it when I can get it.
But the fact remains that a good deal of horror sequels (and sequels in general) are pretty terrible. So here I’m going to get started on what will surely be an ongoing and easily updated series of lists regarding secondary installments that betray key elements of what made the originals so great. I’m going to try to avoid stuff that’s merely disappointing and focus on films that really twist the knife into the back of the fans.
Head below for 5 Disgraceful Horror Sequels!!!
We’re talking a fairly precipitous drop in quality when you compare Poltergiest III to even Poltergeist II, much less the original film. While the cast tries their best with what they’re given – there’s no rescuing this high-rise bound tale of horror. Even if the conceptual well hadn’t already run dry, this type of story works much better in suburbia.
I remember liking this as a kid (I was a big Daphne Zuniga fan so there was a “moment” here that was revelatory for me) and it’s actually not a terrible film (according to a revisit I made about 5 years ago). Of course, it’s not a good movie either but the actual insult is that it was made AT ALL. Cronenberg’s film is the most singular, classic piece of body horror I can think of – why f*ck with it by trying to tell a needless story about Brundle’s son? As much as I dig the fact that the bad guy is thrown in the pit at the end (instead of those poor Golden Retrievers), I don’t see how you can watch The Fly II and think it compares in any way, shape or form to the 1986 film.
This one is tough (no matter which title you’re using – it’s also called American Psycho II: All American Girl). On the one hand, it’s horrible and completely spits in the face of the original Mary Harron film. On the other hand, it wasn’t actually meant to be a sequel or have anything to do with Amercian Psycho. Do we give it a pass on that account? Hell no. It has the title, it has to bear the cross. Plus, they added a scene at the beginning that shows the aftermath of what appears to be an 8 year old Mila Kunis killing Patrick Bateman. Kunis is actually okay in the film and, as a fan of hers, I’m glad she survived this trainwreck.
I almost didn’t include this one because it’s discussed so often it’s like shooting fish in a barrel (not proud of that pun either), but the fact is that it’s such a disrespectful assault on the original Jaws (not to mention the Brody family) I had to bring it up. We can talk until the cows come home about the fact that the shark follows Ellen to Jamaica, roars, stands up in the water and seems to spontaneously explode. I could make further mention of the vast amount of technical goofs as well. But the main insult is just that the spirit of the thing is so poisonous. When you’re jumping through such ridiculous hoops just to fabricate enough story to make a sequel, you know you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
I know, I know. I actually caught a lot of flak for placing this so low on my “Elm Street Rankings,” but I just can’t get past how far the tone of this film drifts away from Craven’s original intent. I know it was an “in the family” old school New Line production and that a lot of people involved with the film, including writer/director Rachel Talalay, truly felt an affinity for Krueger and the franchise. But I can’t help myself, when I see Freddy flying around like a witch, rushing spikes into frame a la Wile E.Coyote or wearing a Nintendo Power Glove – I check out. The film has a lot of interesting ideas, I’ll give it credit for that. But I can’t even begin to figure out how you’d make an Elm Street movie with its heart further removed from the original than this one.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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