Sequels = good idea??

Do you find sequels to be a good idea? ESPECIALLY, the horror genre?
Because when I think about it, there really isn’t a good horror sequel. And please, correct me if you think I’m wrong. EXCEPTION: Evil Dead II. In fact it was better than the first one.

Now that’s really only horror.

Batman Returns is pretty good…

Dawn of the Dead (’78) bested the first IMO

I think Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was the best of that series.
Bride of Frankestein is in some ways superior to the original.
Romero’s first three Dead films are all worthwhile.
Friday the 13th Part 2 is really more the definitive film of that franchise than the original.

“Evil Dead II. In fact it was better than the first one.”

WROOOONG! The first Evil Dead is so much better – the second one tried way too hard to be funny and forgot about horror!

Dawn of the Dead is the only horror sequel I can think of that was worthwhile, and better than the original.

EDIT: Then again, I haven’t seen all that many horror sequels, and haven’t even started an attempt to get up to speed on all the 80’s slasher franchises.

I like Another 48 Hours better than the original.

Oh, and the Friday the 13th where Jason comes back from the grave was much more enjoyable on a meta level than the more earnest earlier ones, even if Matt is right about 2 compared to 1.

Wow greg, i think another 48 hours is really underrated but even i wouldn’t go that far!

New nightmare is clever but the original owns it aesthetically. As for friday series, i think the 3rd installment is where the series came into itd own. I hate the original.

Agree with batman returns. Scream 2 was decent but the absurd scooby doo reveal hurts it. Prefer the original Evil Dead too, although 2 is a riot

Empire strikes back is most obvious one. Possibly Godfather 2 as well.

Aliens wasn’t half bad, more of an action film that the horror-oriented one.

Dawn of the Dead is better in many ways than Night.

Some films call for a sequel and some don’t. If the film closes up the world nice and tidily, in such a way that the only way to have a sequel is to retcon the ending (TERMINATOR 3!), there shouldn’t be a sequel. A reboot might be called for, but don’t undo things done in the ending. Back To The Futures 2 and 3 were explicitly called for in there preceding films, but a Back To The Future 4 would be ridiculous.

But, some films really do call for a sequel. Before Sunset is a big example of this, or franchises that deliberately leave things open ended like the new Batmans.

Scream is a semi-parody of films that have excessive numbers of parodies, so any excessive number of sequels would be justified.

Oh, yeah, to me Godfather Part 2.

If we’re going outside horror, I’d also say the second Mad Max film (The Road Warrior), The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly, Superman 2, Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, the most recent X-Men film was better than any of Singer’s trilogy, Spider-Man 2.

Agree with all of those except superman. Rewatched 6 months ago and thought it was clumsy. I like the first star trek too, at least visually, but 2 is more entertaining

Eh … Evil Dead is an interesting collegiate exercise but Evil Dead 2 is Raimi really perfecting the concept he was working with. Yes, it contains absurd dark humour, but it still retains the wildly unsettling horror of the first and is simply a more technically proficient film. Army of Darkness … not half as good because it abandons the horror aspect altogether.

Aliens was an interesting and rather solid sequel, but Alien is, IMO, the best of the series. Road Warrior is, I think the best of the series. I really love Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, but I also like Night of the Living Dead a great deal; they’re very different films in a lot of ways and succeed on different levels. Escape from LA was an interesting sequel (similar approach as Evil Dead 2) but not Carpenter’s best. I’m not a huge fan of any of the Die Hard sequels but some people love them, so what do I know. The Predator sequels were pretty weak IMO, though Predator 2 was interesting. Clerks 2 was shit. Quantum of Solace was weak. 28 Weeks Later was also weak.

I mean, I’m not really a huge fan of sequels to be honest, but occasionally one comes along that’s actually interesting.

Lester’s or Donner’s cut? I like the first Star Trek OK, particularly visually—the split diopter stuff and all:

but story wise I think it’s kind of pointlessly meandering.

Before Sunset. I love both films but to me its the Experience to Before Sunrise’s Innocence.

Yeah the pace is really off too. Lesters cut, but donners has problems too, esp that continuity error near the end when superman turns back time.

Agree about la deckard and ive always drawn that comparison in my head. They are sequels, virtual remakes, and parodies rolled into one!

The first Star Trek was kind of CC, wasn’t it?

I actually thought about making that comment (semi-jokingingly), Brad. But, yeah, it kind of is.

There are way to many great sequels (Godfather 2, Terminator 2, Aliens, The Dark Knight, Empire Strikes Back, etc.) to dismiss it completely. But generally speaking, I think the horror genre is the one genre that works for sequels. Look at Saw!

Thats only because fans of horror have notoriously low standards santino.

The amount of crap they put up with is incredible’

Im a recovering addict myself hehe

lol.

Yes, I agree most horror movies are crap and fans love ‘em anyways. I actually really love a good horror movie – they’re just so hard to come by.

Horror-wise, I thought Shimizu’s Ju-On: The Grudge was better than Ju-On: The Curse and Ju-On 2: The Curse (and also better than the later entries in the series).

Santino, i agree they are hard to come by. most of the best ones are made outside of the U.S nowadays. Did you like The Orphanage? I know Den didn’t, but i really liked it. it was more old school atmosphere/suspense driven film with strong characters and a surprising level of emotional depth. It has a lot of derivative elements, but it puts them together in a fresh and interesting way.

The problem in the U.S is that the directors are ‘forced’ to dumb them down and pile on the gore. Glen Morgan said that is exactly what happened with his Black Xmas remake. Because his remake of Willard flopped—which i also liked, but was flawed—he wasn’t able to control the project in the way he wanted. I suspect that most directors in the business making horror are in a similar position.

I also liked Insidious too. It wasn’t great, but it had some interesting visual ideas i thought, and that was also made outside of the system, and picked up for distribution later.

I thought Insidious really died during it’s final third.

^^which is funny because that’s when the film was really throwing some pretty wild and creative ideas out there!! I thought that too at first, but changed my mind the second time.

yes, i actually did watch it again ;-)

although it seemed messy at first, like the film was going off the rails, and it sort of did. still, i admired the fact that they tried. haha

Possible I might feel the same a second time around. I did like The Orphanage. I kinda like some of Jaume Balagueró’s films too.