13 Frustratingly Underrated Horror Movie Sequels
They don't always suck.
There is no genre reviewers get wrong more than horror. In some cases certain horror movies get undue praise but what happens more often is that horror movies are underrated and dismissed by reviewers. The number of overlooked gems in horror cinema is worryingly large.
So, why are reviewers so mean to horror films? It generally comes down to everyone expecting horror films to be high art, rather than just light genre films and thus anything that is just designed to be fun gets dismissed. There's also a strong element of those who aren't into horror films not giving horror flicks a fair chance. Make no mistake, it's a big problem.
The main casualties of this unfair criticism are horror sequels, which are usually only judged in comparison to the original film and not as a standalone product. While most reviewers would have you believe that you should stop watching any horror franchise after the first film (and to be fair that is sometimes true) you'll often find that if you do you'll be missing out on some really enjoyable horror films.
It's time to start judging horror sequels more fairly and these following 13 sequels (and prequels) are testament to that.
13. Jaws 2
Original Film:
Jaws, which is, of course, Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, the godfather of summer blockbusters and one of the greatest movies ever made in any genre ever.
Plot:
Some years after the original film, Chief Martin Brody faces off against yet another Great White terrorizing the Amity Island locals, including his two sons.
Jaws 2 is best-remembered for its tagline "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water..." but the sequel is usually dismissed as an inferior follow-up to the classic original. To be fair, it is inferior but is it bad? It's actually decent.
The film lacks the amazing dialogue that made the original so brilliant and it shows the shark incredibly early on, so it completely disregards one of the things that made the first film scary, but it is a good thriller and a hell of a lot better than most killer shark movies.
As the only one of the first film's trio to return, Roy Scheider is still excellent as Martin Brody despite the unhappy time he had making this sequel (he actually had a fistfight with the director at one point) and the film still offers plenty of fun thrills with a higher body-count than the first film. In particular, the finale is highly enjoyable.
Jaws 2 is, at the very least, miles ahead of the atrocious sequels Jaws 3D and Jaws: The Revenge, with Revenge being one of the worst films ever made.