10 Horror Movies You Never Knew Spawned A Trilogy

Grindhouse is a special type of cinema. It's grimy, independent, and home of many peculiar delights. Towards the end of its heydey, a little movie called Maniac Cop hit the scene in 1988, likely hoping to cash in on the success of other slashers that were rampaging across the box office. It wasn't a financial success though, and failed to recoup its meager $1 million dollar budget. Despite this, Maniac Cop inexplicably went on a three-movie killing spree.

That's right, a little grindhouse movie that starred horror icons Tom Atkins and Bruce Campbell managed to stretch three full movies, largely thanks to the home video market. Maniac Cop 2 featured a stetson-wearing Robert Davi hunting down the hulking maniac cop and was a surprisingly decent watch (for the horror fans amongst us). The third movie on the other hand, subtitled Badge of Silence, was a complete and utter mess. One of the remarkable things about this low-budget trilogy is that it retained the original director, William Lustig, and writer, Larry Cohen, across all three movies. That is until Lustig walked off Maniac Cop 3 because of its numerous issues.