Smart Ways Dumb Horror Sequels Improve On The Originals

In most Hannibal Lecter films, he acts demure, even while eating his enemy's face.ManhunterHe acts snide but not scary in Manhunter.The Silence of the LambsHe appears downright charming in The Silence of the Lambs.HannibalIn Hannibal, the villain does more than just recall food habits; he actually eats them.Jason LivesLecter films.

In Hannibal,HannibalThe villain in Hannibal does not just recall eating habits; he actually indulges in them. This movie is a pulpy horror film, far from as restrained as The Silence of the Lambs, yet it includes wild scenes where someone eats their own brain and a guy gets fed to man-eating boars.The Silence of the Lambs, but it has bizarre scenes: someone eats their own brain, and a guy is fed to man-eating boars.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:40%

Every Final Destination movie is dumb, which makes them good.Final DestinationFinal Destination 3 is where the franchise shows its lack of intelligence.Final Destination 3Characters haphazardly fire stapler guns and state they need to tan for a funeral."really tan". This movie is good.

Aside from the silly parts in Final Destination 3,Final Destination 3has two strengths: it stands alone as a sequel, allowing it to be its own thing. Though the second act gets stuck in the franchise's story, it offers the best death premonition in the whole series.

The premonition shows a roller coaster full of teens thrown to death in bad scenarios for anyone brave enough to ride a carnival.You can trust the Final Destination movies; they are dumb, bloody fun.but Final Destination 3 sufficiently argues for the whole series with its neck-mangling opening.Final Destination 3its neck-mangling opening sequence makes a case for the entire series.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:44%

House Of 1000 CorpsesThe Devil's Rejects may surprise with Rainn Wilson becoming a fish-man and young people dressed as rabbits being burned on a pyre.The Devil's RejectsRob Zombie's characters truly shine in The Devil's Rejects.

Zombie's favorite film cranks up violence from the first movie. The director wisely focuses on Captain Spaulding, Baby, and Otis as they bring pain to local authorities seeking to arrest them for crimes.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:55%

Rather than starting after the previous film,Child's Play 2, the third film jumps eight years forward, sending 16-year-old Andy to military school. This time jump might not excite, but it lets the audience follow a teenager instead of a whiny kid.

Alex Vincent (Andy in the first two films and later entries) is just an annoying kid, not a bad actor. The film itself is mediocre, but it gives the audience something new, which is good.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:23%

Hostel: Part IIThis sequel greatly improves the original. The first film made the audience feel for lame, homophobic guys. This sequel smartly gives you honest protagonists to root for. It gives the audience people to connect with. This film shows the making of the violence, something missing in the first film.

This gruesome film shows people betting on who they want to victimize. This is easily the most disturbing part of the series. The gore is also a major point.Hostel: Part IIThe film features an unforgettable bathtub blood-letting scene.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:44%

The original cannot be beaten.Return of the Living Dead. It is funny, scary, and nihilistic. It has a great soundtrack. The sequel tried to copy the first movie for the Goonies set. It fails, except for the cool version of Anthrax's "I'm the Man." That is why part three took a wild turn.GooniesThe sequel does not work in that setting. It fails except for the cool version of Anthrax's "I'm the Man." This forced part three into a very different direction.

This very '90sReturn of the Living Dead IIIThis is a mix of The Doom Generation and Repo Man, with zombies.The Doom GenerationandRepo Man, but with zombies. The acting is wooden, and the story is a bit weak.Romeo and Juliet, but this movie takes the zombie genre in a new direction. You must appreciate that.

The coolest thingReturn of the Living Dead IIIThe movie shows what it is like to become undead. Melinda Clarke plays a young woman. Her boyfriend reanimates her with Trioxin before they flee the military on Los Angeles streets. To handle the pain of being dead, she harms herself. She feeds on gang members who will not leave her and her boyfriend alone. It is a bit excessive, but it is a cult classic for a reason.It's a cult classic for a reason.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:55%

Silent Night, Deadly NightThis is not a triumph of cinema. It is a solid holiday slasher. Billy Chapman goes on a Christmas rampage. He suffers a bad break after seeing his parents murdered by a man dressed as Santa. The film plays out as you might expect.

The sequel, aptly namedSilent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, follows Billy's younger brother, Ricky, on his own rampage. Half the movie uses footage from the first film. That is fine because the sequel includes one of the greatest scenes ever filmed: the garbage day rampage.the garbage day rampage.

Ricky breaks completely. He grabs a handgun. Ricky shoots everyone in his neighborhood while laughing like a madman and making intense faces. What is this actor's Academy Award nomination?

Rotten Tomatoes Score:29%

There is no argument forFreddy's Deadis the absolute lowest of theNightmare on Elm StreetThe film sets a world where Freddy Krueger has wiped out every teenager in Springwood, OH. Any young person in Springwood has a target. Adults in Springwood live with the trauma of seeing their kids destroyed.

The concept is cool. However, there is no follow-through on the weirdness. For instance, a sequence shows young people driving through Springwood in a conversion van, stuck driving in circles around town. That lost-in-Springwood sequence is good, but the film fails to build on that.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:22%

One could claim thatBride of Chuckyis where theChild's Playfranchise goes off track in a good way. After all,Brideintroduces Chucky's ex, Tiffany, a magic amulet, and Chucky's power to put victims' souls into plasticine bodies. But it needs a lot of set dressing to explain what happened.Child's Play 3andBride of Chucky, and everyone knows set dressing is boring.

Seed of Chuckyavoids the issue of connecting the first trilogy to the new one, jumping into camp nonsense. Focusing on Glen/Glenda, Chucky and Tiffany's nonbinary doll child, the film attacks Hollywood, on-screen violence, and anything blocking its fun. The story also covers a young queer person coming out to their parents and being accepted. It is beautiful, it is wild, and it fits a Chucky movie.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:34%

Nothing beats the gut-wrenching horror ofThe Strangers, a film that puts the audience through a grim Manson Family-inspired home invasion, butPrey at Nightgives it a try. In the sequel, The Strangers follow a family from a trailer park to a motel to a hospital. They change from regular killers into overpowered killers like Jason Voorhees. The movie works, but in the dumbest way.

The standout scene fromPrey at Nightis a full fight in a motel pool set to "Total Eclipse of the Heart." This setting feels far from the original's realism. If it failed, it would have failed badly. The scene remains one of the most memorable horror moments of the 2010s. So, what if this movie isn't as good as the original? It is carving its own path.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:40%

The tagline forHalloween: ResurrectionReads, "Evil finds its way home," but it could read, "Evil is really, really dumb." It appears in the list 'Smart Ways Dumb Horror Sequels Improve On The Originals'.HalloweenFans argue about the best to worst of this long-running franchise. This film is the unquestionable low point. Busta Rhymes does karate; there is an extended sequence.Pulp FictionThe film uses a reference, and we enter "bands who don't exist" territory.The soundtrack is noted.This movie also has a cool trick up its sleeve.

The film's basic premise puts Busta Rhymes producing a reality show inside the old Myers house. The house is allegedly haunted by the bodies Michael stacked during his holiday killing spree.

The film adds many silly things to a simple premise. Yet, if they had just left things alone, they could have made a good movie. That said,Halloween: ResurrectionThis movie came out in 2002. No movie from the early 2000s is good. Hell House LLC revisited and simplified the reality show filmed in a haunted house nearly 20 years later.Hell House LLCandGrave EncountersThese two films contain zero karate.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:12%

Jason Takes ManhattanThis title is great. It is a shame audiences did not spend money on the movie in 1989. Jason spends most time on a boat traveling from a New Jersey lake to the Big Apple. Still, seeing Jason Voorhees away from Crystal Lake is great.

Most ofJason Takes ManhattanThe scenes where Jason is actually in New York City (or Vancouver, where it filmed) are cool. This makes you wonder what aFriday the 13thmovie would look like if Jason ran around a major city. Maybe we will getJason Goes Hollywoodand see if the idea works.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:12%

Blair WitchThis direct sequel cranks up the supernatural elements. It continues the mythology from the first film and its shorts. Where the original film hid supernatural forces in the Burkittsville woods, the sequel shows the Blair Witch's power fully.

The haunted woods make this movie. It is unfortunate it never reaches the quality that made the original so strong. Maybe a sequel in ten years will fix the gap between this film and the original.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:38%

Halloween III: Season of the WitchThis film tried to be different by moving away from Michael Myers and Haddonfield, IL. Audiences were not ready for a movie about an evil Irish cult using Halloween masks to fill people's heads with bugs and snakes.

No Michael Myers and no Laurie Strode.Halloween IIIHalloween III: Season of the Witch offers audiences a break from the slasher genre. It presents a tense science-fiction story that remains very dumb, but it is super fun.

If we had a time machine, we would only change this movie's box office. Imagine living in a world where theHalloweenThe Halloween franchise used anthology entries instead of directors telling the same story about Michael Myers every few years?

Rotten Tomatoes Score:41%

Slumber Party Massacre IIThis movie is wild. Other horror movies from that time play checkers; this movie plays mini-golf on a moon orbiting Saturn. Still, it introduces concepts normal horror sequels should use.

The film shows a teen girl questioning if she should lose her virginity while dealing with trauma from seeing the Driller Killer carve through her sister's friends' house. She tries to hook up with a boy, but a reincarnated Driller Killer—now a '50s rock-and-roll greaser with a killer guitar—shows up and kills her friends whenever things get intense.

Why don't horror franchises make their villains greasers? Imagine Leatherface suddenly liking the Big Bopper. Or if Michael Myers always had a comb sticking out of his back pocket. He learned to drive in Smith's Grove; give him an evil version of "Greased Lightnin'?"

Aside from making the villain a greaser,Slumber Party Massacre IIThis film mixes comedy and mind-bending horror. This approach would not be accepted for another twenty years or more. This shows being ahead of the curve.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:N/A

The LeprechaunLeprechaun films never scare. They blend comedy and sexual weirdness, creating an off-kilter viewing experience in the best way. This third film in the series unleashes the Leprechaun in Las Vegas, where he attacks a casino owner, a magician, and a genuine idiot who starts turning into a were-leprechaun (seriously).

Leprechaun 3Leprechaun 3 may not be the dumbest sequel in the franchise (that would beLeprechaun in Space. No,Leprechaun in the Hood. Wait, maybe it isLeprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood, but it tries everything to lead the series into the madness. You must see this movie. Watch Warwick Davis's great Elvis impression, see a sex robot kill a casino owner, and watch a magician get cut in half by a chainsaw.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:N/A

If The MummyThe Mummy franchise started and ended with the 1990 film starring Brendan Fraser. It is a super-fun ride that blends horror, comedy, and action. If there is a fly in the wine, it is Imhotep.

Imhotep is a weak villain. Adding the Scorpion King—with his bad CGI—makes the franchise great. In the first film, Imhotep just wants to resurrect his girlfriend. The Scorpion King wants to cause chaos. He has an army of followers ready to fight when he commands it. This is the villain the franchise needs.

The movie is not as good as the original. However, it has a super cool villain. The character became his own franchise. You cannot say the same for Imhotep.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 47%

Scream 3It is a mess. Some parts of the movie play like the best episodes of Scooby-Doo.Scooby-DooThe rest of the movie changes the motivations of every killer in the first two films. This movie does one thing well: it sets up a painful backstory for Maureen Prescott.

The film shows that before Maureen moved to Woodsboro, CA, she tried acting in Los Angeles. Sadly, Maureen faced the same treatment as many young women in the industry. Business chewed her up and spit her out. Executives used their power for bad reasons. This harsh backstory gives context for a character audiences never meet.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:40%

The Ghost DimensionThis is far from the subtle scares of the first three films. It shows the ghosts. Filmmakers made an A+ choice. They did not skip showing the demons because the other films failed to. It was time for ghosts to appear in a movie.

Still, we will watch the first three movies over this one any day.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:14%

Saw 3D(also known asSaw: The Final Chapter(also known as Saw: The Final Chapter) is not the best entry in the franchise. We can argue any of the first three films are best. After that, the films get too complex and bogged down in their own stories. As the seventh film, it...Saw 3DSaw 3D uses a gimmick, which most films avoid.

TheSawThe Saw movies are always fun for an audience.Opening weekend, the 3D element makes it seriously scary. The added dimension makes the audience feel trapped with the characters. Every horror franchise cannot pull off this theatrical gimmick, but it works for Jigsaw and his small minions.The 3D element of this entry takes it over the top in a seriously scary way. The added dimension makes the audience feel like they're stuck in the trap with the characters. It's not the kind of thing that every horror franchise can pull off, but this kind of theatrical gimmick is perfect for Jigsaw and all of his little pig-faced minions.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:10%

If one franchise is dumber than Final Destination, it is The Butterfly Effect.Final DestinationThe series is The Butterfly Effect.The Butterfly Effect trilogy.The Butterfly Effect trilogy. While the Final Destination...Final DestinationMovies embrace stupidity.Butterfly EffectMovies commit the sin of acting smart. The third film in this silly trilogy attempts something new with its gritty time travel nonsense: solving a murder mystery.

A guy travels through time in his own body. He seeks to prove his deceased ex-girlfriend's father is innocent of her murder. The story features confusing time-travel antics until the silly finale and the incredibly dumb post-script. Read a book after watching.

Rotten Tomatoes Score:N/A