Sequels – They did what?

Horror sequels (despite the tens of thousands of them) are a tricky business. Most are made to capitalise on the name or notoriety of the original. Sometimes the sequels work and become part of the lore of that particular film series. What about when sequels go rogue or turn the premise around? What then? Here is a list of some of the bizarre or inspired choices depending on where you land, that horror sequels have made over the years…

Texas ChainSaw Massacre 2

Tobe, what did you do?
Ok, so Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the all-time greatest horror films to ever grace the screen and trying to remotely match that would be foolish (turns and looks at Mr Bay). Part 2 veers of the tracks laid by the first film and then embraces the 1980s, adds a hell of a lot of black comedy, shoehorns in a new previously undiscovered family member and then goes mental – 80s mental. Dennis Hopper chews the scenery, Caroline Williams becomes the super charged final girl and the Sawyer family hideout looks like a set from a Scooby Doo cartoon. It’s not scary, occasionally funny and persistently bizarre.

Wolf Creek 2

Woo boy. Didn’t this film cop some heat for the entirely different atmosphere and tone. Greg McLean went down the black comedy road as well – with varying success. Sometimes it was a perfect satire, sometimes it was trying to be upsetting…just because it could be. The first film was about the victims so it was dark and scary, the sequel is about Mick and he loves his work. Mick Taylor is no longer the scary boogie man now he is out in the sunlight, cracking jokes and killing folks. It says something about the lack of menace in Wolf Creek 2 that the most upsetting thing in the film is the kangaroo road cull.

Halloween 2 (Rob Zombie)

Perhaps the most polarizing remake series in a long time, love it or hate it Zombie’s Halloween 2 went wild and introduced a whole lot of things not seen in previous Halloween films. The first film concentrated more on the back story of Myers, whilst the second film was concerned with the family aspect. Zombie whether by choice, accident or poor writing made almost everyone in the film a total a-hole, which changed a lot of the dynamics – the only sympathetic character was Sheriff Brackett. This lead to Laurie being a nutcase, unsympathetic friends and Dr Loomis being the biggest A-hole seen in a film in quite a while! A crazy mess made a whole lot messier with the inclusion of a ghost mother, I’m not against ghost mothers but this was way out there and was one of the many reasons the film didn’t fare very well with audiences.

Did I miss anything glaring? Let us know via the comments section or on twitter!

Ryan Morrissey-Smith