20 Recent Horror Movies WAY Better Than Expected

2023's slasher film The Jester was largely panned by critics and audiences alike for both its extremely low production values and what many perceived as a blatant attempt to cash in on the success of the Terrifier films.

With a similarly mute, clown-adjacent antagonist, The Jester felt like a cynical gambit to ride Terrifier's coattails, and so there wasn't much reason to be excited about last year's sequel.

And while The Jester 2 certainly isn't a great movie, it is a significant improvement over the first in basically every way.

For one, The Jester's redesigned mask looks way better, the kills are more impressively elaborate, the lighting and overall filmmaking immensely more polished, and Kaitlyn Trentham gives a solid performance as our Final Girl, Max.

Whether it performs well enough on streaming to make The Jester 3 possible remains to be seen, but at least on its own terms it marks a solid step up from its quick-and-easy predecessor.