Worst Horror Sequels (And Why?)

I actually enjoyed Leatherface: TCM 3. Not stellar by any means, but it's got Ken Foree and (Lord) Viggo in it, and the "redesigned" Leatherface doesn't look THAT bad.

And yeah, Blood Wings is a great big piece of shit. Seriously, ROGER FUCKING CLINTON!?! Pumpkinhead, the embodyment of vengeance, the spirit of evil, a towering mass of claws, teeth, and hate was originally a retarded kid? Punky Brewster? God damn I hate that movie...

I will add my two cents and comment on the one franchise I followed from beginning to (God I hope it's the) end.

'The Howling'.

For me, growing up, the first film was a mile stone in my formative years as a horror fan. I'd probably seen it three dozen times before I hit the age of 16. I also, however, saw each and every one of it's "sequels", and I'm going to have to say that franchise takes the cake as worst.

First off, you have a fairly original idea in the first film that numerous sequels could've spawned from, showing the expansion of the "rebel" werewolves into human society or whatnot, but instead you get crap like werewolves down under and werewolves in big scary mansions.

Ugh. Utter ass. And a personal insult to me, one of the biggest werewolf fans I know.

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You're still here? You should really leave Mr. Winthrop.

No?

Then perish with us...

I'm totally with you on these. Although I find myself able to watch and enjoy the second Werewolf film, it's crap when compared to the first (and nothing of a sequel, other than having a werewolf in a European city).
I've gotta add my disagreement about H2. I thought it was decent, and continued the first movie rather nicely (and given the scripting by Carpenter, I assume that the Michael/Laurie thing was planned from the outset, and certainly doesn't ruin the first flick for me).

As for the F13 series, I'd disagree, mainly because the sequels didn't have a classic original to devalue. Hell, the things the series are known for didn't originate until the second and third films (Jason as the killer, and the hockey mask, respectively)! And #4 had Crispin Glover getting a corkscrew through the hand! No movie with such a scene can be all bad! Seriously, by cheesy slasher flick standards, I enjoy the first two and the fourth, and can watch most of the others, other than the awful attempt to reinvent Jason in the last one (haven't seen Jason X, but since I enjoy Andromeda, I'll have to check it out for the female co-stars).

As for my own nomination, how about:

Slumber Party Massacre 2
SPM1 was a minor little classic, one of the first slasher flicks written and directed by females, and it was a thoroughly entertaining movie. Had the sequel been just a bad slasher flick, it would already have disappointed, but they went out of their way to make a pile of bloated nonsense (a drill/guitar! guys poppping out of dreams! Crystal Bernard!). Just unwatchable dreck, even by bad movie standards.

--Adam

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA - now I know who you are Mr. TheInspector! HAHAHAHAHA.

Okay, I'll send you a weird bit of interview transcription someday on the Candyman 2 thing, but I do want to check with our mutual friend as I could totally have my facts wrong.

How could you even DO this topic and not have:

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps the worst horror sequel EVER because you get to see all the fun that came in the other sequels. What a wrong-headed move that was.

I also hate the idea that "it wasn't really Jason" in "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning," but the kills are so good in that film that I kind of dig parts of it.

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"You do not have to be a gun."

True. Very true. But it did have that awesome scene where Freddie rips his way out of schmuckboy's body. And an exploding canary. Exploding canaries make any movie better.
Yeah, that's the reason I'll probably see Jason X (even knowing how bad it'll be, Inspector). I didn't mind the non-Jason status of the killer (I've always preferred my killers to be mortal but hard to kill, as opposed to the resurrected Jason we got later), but the movie seemed to have no purpose other than setting up dozens of kills. But they were doozies. I'll never go to the bathroom in a crappy outhouse in a trailer park again.

--Adam

There is no value in The Blair Witch Project. Unless you were retarded enough to actually be scared by it or believed it to be real that is.

Book of Shadows is a misunderstood minor classic. Which is more reflective on the sad state or horror than anything.

Halloween H20 is the worst Halloween movie, which considering that includes numero-five is saying a lot.

Even the one with the druids was better.

I would say that the Children of the Corn sequels blow, except that the original blew more.

Same with The Puppet Master and Subspecies films.

Wait, I know.

Hellraiser: Inferno

The Goth chick was Kim.

THAT'S A BAD RYAN!

And I do hate BWP as much as Berlinger does.

When I first heard about it on IFC's Split Second, I was underwelmed. Sounded like the publicity stunt that it was.

BWP was not innovative as it ripped off Cannibal Holocast and The Last Broadcast.

BWP was not scary. People making spooky sounds and screaming in pitch darkness is only scary when you're five and still green enough to be freaked out during Disney films and sleep with the light on.

BWP was not well acted. I don't think we were supposed to be rooting for the witch to scrag Heather and company.

BWP was not well crafted, and certainly not well directed. Handing your three person cast camcorders and saying "go shoot stuff while we run around the woods and go tent bangin'" is not direction.

If anything it's well edited. A well cut student film.

I'll stand by my claim that those who are freaked out by the "horror" of BWP are chowderheads. As will I stand by my stance that BOS is the better film.

Hey...watch what you say about my baby's momma...

THANK YOU for mentioning 'The Last Broadcast'! I saw this on one of the Direct TV stations (I can't for the life of me remember which, it may have been IFC) almost a YEAR before BWP. I spent months trying to convince people of that VERY thing.

Unfortunately, money was spent promoting BWP.

TLB had a much better ending though...

Oh and BTW, Django, I stand with you about BoS. It was, indeed, a better film than BWP.

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"In my tortured ears there sounds unceasingly a nightmare whirring and flapping, and a faint distant baying as of some gigantic hound. It is not dream - it is not, I fear, even madness - for too much has already happened to give me these merciful doubts." - H.P. Lovecraft

[This message has been edited by Tindalos (edited 01-04-2002).]

speaking about Jaws, I read somewhere that just like Spielberg's CGI-rape of ET, he was also thinking of re-doing Jaws with CGI replacing the big rubber shark? I hope not... Deep Blue Sea kinda filled that niche for me perfectly (I LOVE that film), and Jaws still works despite Bruce the rubber Shark.

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Paprika Chicken, Baby!

Sean
Sean's Horror Art

I admit, Nightmare on Elmstreet 2 did sorta suck the big one. But you gotta admit,all those subtle (and not so subtle)homosexual metaphors they kept weaving throughout the story were inspired. It's one of the few Nightmare sequels that actually had something else going on underneath the usual slice and dice antics. "New Nightmare" is my second favorite, after the original, though

Guilty admission -- I thought both movies sucked, just in different ways.
I'm with you there. The murder by fax has to be the low point -- the entire fucking point of the scene is that the power is out (causing the schmuck to light a lighter), but the fax machine still works!?! Yes, I know if can be no-prized (we never saw the UPS that only supported the fax, or somesuch), but it epitomizes how little thought went into that movie. And don't even get me started on the ending.
I'll give it the benefit of the doubt, mainly because it's no worse than any horror anythology post-1980 other than CS1 itself, and certainly better than most (I'd sit through ten Creepshow 2s before one more showing of BodyBags). And it's hard to think of an anthology as a sequel, anyway, since they're essentially collections of short films. And CS2 was crippled from the begining -- a worse director, and a much lamer cast make it hard to do much good. Scream 3 still had the same cast and director (if a vastly inferior screenwriter) as its predecessors, and was just miserable.

--Adam

Please don't throw shade on the great Creepshow 2. My affection for that flick almost matches my love for the first one. Favorite episode: "Thanks for the ride, lady!"
Favorite line: "This hair's gonna get me paid n' laid."

My vote for worst sequel goes easily to Alien 4. And first runner up, Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Alien Resurrection is the greatest rip-off of The Black Hole ever made and is the biggest reason I scoff at the 'Whedon Is A Genius' claims.

Cause whatever you say, his script is worse than the Jenuet film.

Waxwork 2 blows because it has no Debbie Foreman. You CAN'T replace Debbie Foreman.

And I forgot about the dog having that flashback in Hills 2...

Whedon's work goes from the well-crafted to meandering pap quicklu and with great frequency. While he is capable of telling decent stories from time to time, his shows on the whole not only are vastly overrated but also grow desperate the older they get.

The only thing "Hush" did was remind me of how the rabid youth who plague the genre today have no sense of the past nor any working knowledge of it. The episode was a fine tribute to silent era shockers I suppose, but nothing to wet me kecks over.

As for "The Body," it would have worked better if he had the balls to kill off a major character, one the fans had an invested interest in. Killing Buffy's mom did nothing but save the writer's asses from having to us their brains for once and come up with something interesting for the character.

Instead, we got the "Tonight on a very special Buffy..." where a third string recurring character died of a brain cloud. It was nothing more than a grandstanding attempt on their part to once again beg attention from the Emmy voters.

There is a reason the show never gets nominated. Entertaining doesn't equal award caliber.

Joss Whedon is many things. Brilliant is not one of them.

However if we play by your rules, I'm inclined to ask the following:

Have you read Whedon's original Alien Resurrection draft? The one he claims was fantastic and was fucked up by Jenuet?

It had ONE SCENE in it that was classic and that was the failed clone encounter.

Otherwise we had:

- Copies of all the classic character archtypes seen in Alien and Aliens...

- A bunch of lame jokes and so-called witty comebacks like "Eat my fuck..."

- Chow Yun Fat's character from A Better Tomorrow included just for the hell of it...

- People dying for no reason with no logic...

- A six page sequence directly lifted from The Black Hole where our heroes journey across the hydroponics section on a little cart only to be attacked by aliens resulting in a hull breach...

- Juvenile sexual situations between Ripley and various aliens...

- no sense of danger or excitement...

- A laughable ending where Ripley and Call chase down the newborn in a flying crop harvester...

- And an final scene where said survivors sit around a campfire with the burning skull of the newborn crackling in the fire...

In short, Peter Briggs' Alien Versus Predator script was better. A lot better.

Do I hate things because they are popular? No. I get accused of this a lot around here and everytime I always say the same thing.

Don't jump down my throat just because you love pap...

http://www.script-o-rama.com/snazzy/dircut.html

It's off the net, meaning it doesn't have the cover page.

But believe me, that's the same one I bought at a convention back in 1996 that had his name on it...

Oh, go to film scripts under the bar menu at the bottom.

It's the one listed as Alien Resurrection shooting draft...

I have moments.

Thanks, Coop...

as far as Alien sequels go, I truly loved Alien3, a pic many people despise. of course, it helped that the first time I saw it was during a triple bill with the two earlier films, with an audience shouting "DIE BITCH!" when Ripley jumps into the fire. it was quite an experience.

But, what I really wanted to say is that even though Alien 3 rules in my book, I can't help but think that the Aliens Graphic Novel trilogy (BEFORE They changed everything to fit in with Alien 3)by Dark Horse would have made a much better pack of sequels.....

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Paprika Chicken, Baby!

Sean
Sean's Horror Art

Wow, Django...I have a new found respect for you, man. I thought I was stuck in a Universe all alone where Blair Witch was thought of as innovative and frightening (and anyone who went to film school...even for five minutes...knows this same exact thing...whether its theYeti, Big Foot, The Jersey Devil or the ghost of some prom slut...has been done a billiion times.) And your outspoken views on Buffy warm my chilled-over heart too. I cannot believe that any self-respecting horror fan is buying into that crap. When did the genre die exactly? With the advent of Freddie Krueger? I digress...

As far as the most disappointing sequels, I vote for...

CREEPSHOW 2: Look out! There's a floating Glad bag in the lake!! My love for the original runs deep. I think it is a major classic. And this...man was disappointed with this thing.

POLTERGEIST 2: Nothing happens. Scariest thing in this flick is the boredom.

JAWS 2: Best of the shark sequels, but come on, should there really have been a sequel? ANOTHER giant shark comes to the SAME resort town? And he eats a fucking helicopter??? A helicopter for christsakes?? Grown men wrote this???

EXORCIST 2: Again, who green-lighted this? It's like they never bothered to watch the original. But then, maybe they should never have tried to sequelize it to begin with...

HALLOWEEN 2: While watchable...its just so damned dull and needless. Nothing really happens...and what does happen, seems to happen for no reason. Of course, Donald Pleasence screaming: "I SHOT HIM SIX TIMES! I SHOT HIM IN THE HEART! THIS GUY...HE'S NOT HUMAN!" as only Donald can is fun. Why oh why did he have to whore out to the rest of the sequels? The rest of the Halloween sequels don't even warrant mentioning.

FRIGHT NIGHT 2: So bad, I don't remember it.

THE FLY 2: So bad I REFUSE to remember it.

I'd also have to say that all of The HOWLING and ELM STREET sequels where terrible ideas...and I'm probably in the minority here, but I thought TERMINATOR 2 was an abyssmal film "I know now why you cry"

One man's opinion...

I have long said that T2 sucks because it lacks the heart and soul which made the original such a powerful film.

Cause Terminator is a love story after all you know.

And it's not just that Mikey Biehn isn't back in the saddle that makes T2 a bad movie. It's how they removed any sympathy we had for Sarah Connor by turning her into a damn killing machine. Like the true theme of Blade Runner before all this revisionist crap. Sarah, like Deckard, is more machine like than the machines they've vowed to stop.

Well that and how Cameron and Wisher wrote the script in seven days and it shows. Then there's the whole angle that Jimmy hasn't written a good script since he split with Gale Anne Hurd, but we won't go there.

In the end, we lose heart for a bunch of cool explosions. I watch that movie and root for Liquid Metal. Everyone bitches that Cameron isn't doing T3. I say at least now it has a chance.

So you're not alone, kid.

The Fly 2 had one good scene which was the finally with the Top Brass guy having been reduced to a hideous pile of gooey crud and has to limp for the food dish of Stoltz' dead dog who he killed. That was pretty cool. And Daphine Zuniga is always a pleasure. But no, you're right that one pretty much sucks.

Fright Night 2 I actually like. Course I'm a card carrying member of The Traci Lin Fan Club. And Julie Carmen is one hot mamma too.

The Jaws Sequels are just so craptacular that they compell me to watch. Whether it's Lea Thompson barely surviving in 3-D or Lance Guest out for vengence for the death of Mario Van Peeples, I like 'em.

And I actually rebought Halloween 2 on DVD just for the trailer and the line: "I SHOT HIM SIX TIMES! I SHOT HIM IN THE HEART! THIS GUY...HE'S NOT HUMAN!"

Up there with "YOU'RE THE DUKE! YOU'RE THE DUKE!" in my book...

You know...I actually bought the Halloween II dvd for the same exact reasons. And the Cameron-sans-Hurd theory is as good as any. Infact, I feel Hurd has a more impressive track record.

And oh yeah, I just remember the WORST sequel of all time. GHOSTBUSTERS 2.

You know...I actually bought the Halloween II dvd for the same exact reasons. And the Cameron-sans-Hurd theory is as good as any. Infact, I feel Hurd has a more impressive track record.

And oh yeah, I just remember the WORST sequel of all time. GHOSTBUSTERS 2.

Busters 2 was pretty damn bad actually.

And Gremlins 2 is a funny movie on its own. But as a sequel to the original, it's not so hot. Can't believe that the Rick Baker effects look as bad as they do...

Yep. Proof T3 can't possible be as bad as everyone says it is. Especially seeing as how all that the so-called "fans" respond to in T2 is the explosions and effects.

And dude, The Relic is the best Spam in the House movie of the 90's.

If you wanna sling shit on my Annie, do it with Armageddon...