10 Horror Movie Sequels That Took Risks... And Failed

10. I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025)

Kicking off with the most recent film on the list, we have I Know What You Did Last Summer, the 2025 sequel to the 1997 slasher of the same name. It's a legacy sequel no one asked for - these days, the original is best remembered for being parodied in Scary Movie, and it was never a particularly great movie to begin with - but to be fair, that first film was perfectly alright in many departments. Nevertheless, a certain creative decision really didn't go down well. 

Namely, one of the two killers in this instalment is none other than Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.), one of the lead characters in the first two pictures. This was a bold choice, for sure, but it didn't really feel earned. In his past appearances, Ray never came off as someone who could ever become a murderer, and his motivations made even less sense. He wants to get revenge for the devastation inflicted upon his life by... re-enacting the killings that destroyed his life in the first place? Really? There's a way to subvert expectations in a clever way that feels earned, and this most definitely wasn't it. 

Fans of the earlier films have savaged this plot turn, and that's not surprising in the least. This is one of those cases where the backlash was so foreseeable that it's a mystery as to why the filmmakers went in this direction to begin with.