Horror movies, especially slashers are incredibly well-known for having some of the most god-awful sequels imaginable. Two of the biggest offenders might be A Nightmare On Elm Street Part II, or maybe Halloween II. Then again, you’ll find people who are apologists for both of these films. Either way you slice it (pun intended) pretty much every franchise there is has someone arguing that any individual sequel is better than the original, or at the very least the best of the sequels.
Why shouldn’t they? With the film studios pumping out movie after movie to cash in on the face of Freddy Kreuger or Jason Voorhees, there’s really no reason one of the 20 sequels might not better. Anyway, let’s take a look at some films that are better than the first entry in their respective horror franchise, and some that most definitely aren’t.
Better: Hellraiser II
The cool thing about Hellraiser II in comparison to the original is that it takes a deep dive into the world of the Cenobites themselves, and even though the original based on The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker is wonderful, we really didn’t focus enough on Frank after the Cenobites showed him what suffering really was. “We have such sights to show you” exclaimed Pinhead during the first one when the true horror that was the Lament Configuration finally decided to show its face, but we were too busy focusing on Frank gaslighting his way back into the flesh to figure out exactly what it was that Frank had seen. Luckily with Hellraiser II, not only are we pulled into our worst nightmares, but we see what it’s like when someone else is too.
Flop: Halloween II
We’re sorry John Carpenter. We love you, we promise. It’s just that after the formative slasher hit that was the original film Halloween, we expected just a little bit more. Fortunately with Halloween III: Season Of The Witch we saw what your vision would have been if the studio hadn’t essentially forced you to make another Michael Myers film, but 2 just doesn’t do what it needs to do nearly as well as the first one does. While it’s decent and we shouldn’t be complaining, we are. There was so much potential here, and you really just ended up setting the tone for the awful sequels instead of keeping Michael the unfeeling Shape that he deserved to be. Instead, we end up treading familiar ground inside of a hospital that for some reason has a jacuzzi inside of it? Thanks, but no thanks.
Better: Dawn Of The Dead
Dawn Of The Dead is just hands-down an incredible film. This isn’t to say that Night Of The Living Dead isn’t a great film and we’re sorry for buying so many knock-off copies of it since it isn’t copywritten, but there’s just something timeless and perfect about Dawn Of The Dead. Honestly, it’s your prototypical zombie film.
While Night Of The Living Dead set a more than perfect groundwork for what would happen to zombie films throughout the 90s and what’s still happening today, there’s something about a zombie film that’s set in a mall that just works so well, even influencing things as diverse as video games like Dead Rising, one of the most perfect zombie games ever to hit gaming other than maybe Left 4 Dead and its sequels. Oh wait, this film seems to have influenced them too. Well, carry on, George A. Romero. Job well done.
Flop: Texas Chainsaw Massacre II
Texas Chainsaw Massacre II is the beginning of Tobe Hooper’s descent into “Umm… excuse me? What the hell are you doing?”. While tons of people love the sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it’s really unclear what they’re seeking to do. Are you attempting to expand on the tone of the first one? According to interviews, not enough people understood that apparently the first film is supposed to be a comedy. Oh you didn’t laugh when a woman is thrown onto a meat hook in a film that’s supposed to be based on true events? The issue for both the viewer and the filmmakers is that no one did. While they say it’s supposed to be a black comedy, one could argue that it is after investigating the southern gothic themes and the critiques of capitalism which are admittedly quite poignant. The only issue is that they don’t land the way they’re supposed to, and at the end of the day, we’re just watching flesh-hungry hillbillies catch dinner.
Better: Devil’s Rejects
The issue here might be with the directing in Rob Zombie’s debut. No one is arguing that House Of 1000 Corpses isn’t fun, the issue is that it may be too fun. It’s essentially a Rob Zombie music video that lasts over an hour, even if you only pull out the narrative bits and leave in the interstitials.
What The Devil’s Rejects does so well is make you realize that the Firefly family doesn’t live in a vacuum. Even if you haven’t seen the film before, you understand that the cop is going to die, and Otis and Sherri Moon Zombie (who is very weirdly done in this movie as a kind of cannibalistic Harley Quinn) are going to get off scot-free with absolutely no repercussions for what they’re doing. While The Devil’s Rejects is dark and hard to watch, it’s much more real than anything that came before it.
Flop: Nightmare On Elm Street II
The original Nightmare On Elm Street is a classic and for this particular film, Wes Craven is an absolute genius. No one is arguing that that isn’t true. The only issue is that when the studio picked it up for a sequel, they really had no sense of suspense when attempting to make what is to come. While Freddy Kreuger isn’t quite “Welcome to prime-time bitch!” Freddy just yet, it’s obvious that he’s well on his way there. There’s also the intentional gay overtones that no one on the film was aware of other than the writer, set designer, and lead actor, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that if you go into it unaware, you might not get what you’re expecting.
Better: Evil Dead II
Sam Raimi really outdoes himself with The Evil Dead II. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the first one, in fact it’s very nearly on-par with the second. The thing is that the story of the first one was so good that it only could have done with a bigger budget, and despite Sam Raimi being a fledgling director, he knew exactly how to put that to use. He made the movie funnier, more gory, more violent, and let Bruce Campbell really show the world what he could do. Also for those of you who don’t know, Bruce Campbell is incredibly charming.
Flop: The Howling II
The Howling II is only the start of a series of missteps in a franchise that’s almost completely missteps anyway unfortunately. While it does its best to be fun even though it’s a direct sequel to the original that just doesn’t work, it still falls apart anyway. The author of the books didn’t even like the first one, and after the second maybe he’s not wrong. And that’s not even to mention the Ausploitation travesty that was The Howling IV: The Marsupials. It’s exactly what it sounds like.
Better: VHS 2
VHS 2 does everything the initial entry does in the series, but much, much better. While not every small vignette hits precisely the way it needs to, when this film is good, it’s incredibly good.
We’d hate to say that this entry is on the list for only one piece of the anthology, because it isn’t, but there’s definitely a little snippet in this film about a cult that still stands today as one of the greatest pieces of media about what happens when a cult goes wrong.
Flop: Exorcist II: The Heretic
If you were a fan of William Peter Blatty and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, otherwise known as one of the greatest films of all time, let alone horror, we’re profoundly sorry for The Exorcist II: The Heretic. The film decides that it still wants to follow a 16-year-old Regan who is somehow still suffering from demonic possession after all of the events of the first film. We promise, just don’t watch it.
