8 Most Criminally Unloved Slasher Movie Sequels
These shunned horror successors deserve way more...
Let's rewind back to that one great scene in Scream 2 when a class full of film students debate how often a sequel is superiorly better than the original. In the class, Randy claims that, "by definition alone they're inferior films." And for the most part, he's correct - a succeeding superior sequel is a pretty rare gem to find...especially within the horror genre.
How many horror sequels out there actually manage to surpass the excitement, innovation, and shock-horror of the first? What's more, how many of these sequels are known as actually being a great watch?
Most of all, it’s the slasher sub-genre that notoriously churns out sequel after sequel, and as a result, there’s a huge collection of incredible franchises full of duds with bad reputations and even worse IMDb scores - particularly within the holy trinity of horror (Jason, Michael, Freddy, and the rest of the top-tier blood brothers). So how many of these sequels have you truly taken to your heart? How many do you consider to be a well-crafted and highly entertaining instalment?
Ultimately, it’s not just the second sequel that's usually underrated, there's also the third instalment, the fourth, the fifth, and beyond that are wrongly labelled as pointless or repetitively stupid. But the truth is, if we skip past the typical horror triumphs of the original, there’s actually numerous under-appreciated sequels that haven’t been given the respect and attention they deserve.
So let’s give a long-awaited round of applause to these follow-ups that have unfortunately become the most misunderstood and unloved underdogs of their horror movie franchises.
8. Scream 3
Out of all the slasher franchises, the Scream series is the one story that falters the least - from the first’s ground-breaking rule-setting, all the way to Scream 4’s exuberant reboot of the original trio Sidney, Gale, and Dewey in a new smartphone-obsessed world. But somewhere in between, we have Scream 3, which in a lot of people’s eyes is the worst instalment by a long-stretch. And mostly, these criticisms are not entirely wrong.
By this third film, Wes Craven had taken all the right things about Scream being a somewhat light-hearted parody, and wrongfully made it far too goofy and corny. There’s some strange outfit choices, some cheesy sound effects in moments where they shouldn’t be, and the plot is centred around Stab 3 - the new movie adaptation of the Woodsboro murders that stars a bunch of thinly-developed lookalike actors.
Saying all that, despite all of its flaws, it’s still a greatly loveable watch, and that’s down to the genius craft of Wes Craven who once again proved that even when he’s not on best form he still knows how to take audiences on an amusing horror ride. There’s a lot of brilliant iconic moments that fans of the franchise won’t forget - including a bunch of funny cameos and a dramatic ending that’s executed just as finely as its two predecessors.
So despite its dodgy reputation, there’s nothing major in the end-product that is totally unforgivable. Actually, crap that... Courtney Cox’s short bangs…