10 Awesome Horror Movies With Disappointing Sequels

Japanese horror cinema has proved to be some of the most influential in the world, with roots in traditional folklore that tap into fears that are both uniquely Japanese and universally human. Director Gore Verbinski brought these fears to the unsuspecting American public with The Ring, a remake of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (1998).

Though squarely of its time, The Ring has one of the great horror concepts; a cursed video tape that kills you seven days after viewing. The spirit possessing the tape, Samara (renamed from Sadako) soon became a modern horror icon.

But when Nakata took over directorial duties from Verbinski for the US sequel, which should have led to an even more seamless marriage of Japanese and American horror, 2005’s The Ring Two took a nosedive in quality, fear factor, and coherence, in perhaps the biggest disappointment on this list. Critics and audiences were left wondering what the hell the point of it all was.

2017’s Rings then proved that the concept only really worked in a certain time period; updating the cursed video tape idea to the digital world made the threat seem less real, as it wasn’t contained in a solid, tangible object. Like the VHS format, this franchise wasn’t built to last.