10 Movie Sequels That Completely Flipped The Original
5. Aliens Dropped The Haunted House Horror For Heavy Artillery
Released in 1979, Ridley Scott’s “Jaws in space” sci-fi horror Alien leaned hard into the horror half of that genre classification, borrowing all manner of haunted house aesthetics from the genre for its gloomy settings and dark, moody cinematography. With a sparse cast and a tense, slasher movie style plot, the first film of the now iconic long-running franchise was an intense claustrophobic horror which owed more to Halloween than Star Wars in its execution.
Fans were left waiting a few years before Terminator helmer James Cameron took up the directorial reins for the sequel, and despite their almost identical names punters visiting the cineplex to see Aliens soon discovered that the one letter change meant a big difference onscreen. Aliens dropped the small-scale monster movie vibe in favour of a far larger military-based action set up, with hardened space marines taking on legions of the titular xenomorphs with all manner of heavy artillery.
The genre switch from self-contained horror to bigger action movie heroics was a success with audiences and critics alike, but unfortunately the same could not be said for debut director David Fincher’s return to the bleak claustrophobia of the original film a few years later in the widely derided Alien 3.