10 Movie "Sequels" That Were Really Just Remakes

If 2015 taught us anything about movies, it's that audiences love nostalgia, and studios have quickly cottoned onto that fact.

The term "remakequel" has become popular in recent years, describing a movie that touts itself as a canonical sequel to a beloved movie...but basically resembling a remake of the original's core plot and themes, albeit with a new cast and slicker production.

It's an extremely cynical practise albeit one that's proven undeniably successful with audiences, so it likely won't be going away anytime soon. Though it's becoming increasingly widespread these days, no movies were quite so brazen about pilfering from their own franchises as these 10 films.

With Hollywood realising they can dine out on old ideas forever more, expect the remakequel to become only more prevalent over the coming years. Good or bad, here are 10 movie "sequels" that were really just remakes...

The "Sequel": Positioned as a direct sequel to 1999's The Blair Witch Project while ignoring 2000's risible follow-up Book of Shadows, Blair Witch finds the brother of the original movie's protagonist, Heather Donahue, heading out into the woods near Burkittsville to try and find out what happened to her.

Why It's Just A Remake: Though the motivation for entering the woods is totally different in both movies (in the original it was merely to film a documentary about the Blair Witch), this belated third film recycles the formula and tropes of the original movie to a woefully lazy extent: the group hears weird noises outside their tents, they find piles of rocks and twig statues littered around the forest, they go around in circles, and the movie even ends up back in Rustin Parr's cabin with the same "camera drops to the floor" finale.

It might try and pretend to be something more by acknowledging the existence of the first film and throwing drones and ear-cams into the mix, but the spine of the story is almost exactly the same. How disappointing.