You can never have too much of a good thing. That appears to be the prevalent attitude in the movie business, with Hollywood all too eager to churn out umpteen sequels, remakes, and reboots of its biggest successes. Further down the food chain, you get a trend that's even more interesting - and twice as cynical. Producers love to leap on any trend in films, cashing in with their own inferior knock-offs. Just look at the amount of creature features that hit after Jaws' success, copying the blockbuster's structure and characters. Then there are the films that go even further. Those that don't just rip off the basic DNA of Jaws, but sell themselves as unofficial sequels, from Jaws In Japan to Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws (made in Italy) - none of which were authorised by Universal Pictures, none of which were screened in US cinemas, and none of which were sold under that name in the States when they were released on video. None of which are really worth watching, either. It's a step further that the sort of thing the infamous Asylum does - the studio behind Sharknado et al, who also produce mockbuster rip-offs of films designed to hit DVD when their inspirations are in cinemas - because these films have the bare-faced cheek to pretend to be official follows-ups to your favourite movies. When they're so clearly not. Most of them happen with the trashier end of the quality spectrum, and they're usually cheap genre fodder, but there's a whole world of unauthorised follow ups out there. Some even try (and fail) at copying prestige dramas. From the continuing story of Jake LaMotta (that nobody asked for) to the original Terminator 2, here are ten unofficial sequels to your favourite movies.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
