20 Sequels That Brilliantly Fixed Past Mistakes

The first Hostel was a cautionary tale in how unlikable characters can sink a movie. It was headlined by a trio of loathsome, misogynistic frat-boys who were damn-near impossible to care for, meaning that audience investment was heavily undermined. Not even their terrible ordeal at the hands of Elite Hunting, a torture society, was enough to make viewers care for them.

While that initial movie wasn't very good, its stonking financial success meant that another Hostel was all but guaranteed, yet this wasn't the bad news it sounds like. 2007's Hostel: Part II ended up being a rock-solid sequel that significantly improved on its predecessor in more ways than one. As well as expanding the scope and including more world-building regarding Elite Hunting, it avoided the biggest issue with the first movie by having a trio of leads who, you know, were actually likable. 

The sequel's lead character is Beth (Lauren German), and she's an engaging Final Girl who makes many smart decisions that ultimately save her life. As for her companions, Whitney (Bijou Phillips) and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), they can be annoying but in a way that's quite amusing, and both are fundamentally decent people, so their gruesome deaths certainly won't make most viewers cheer. 

Hostel: Part II isn't a great flick, but it's still that rare horror sequel that totally outdoes the original, not to mention one of the most noteworthy and satisfying examples of such a film fixing its predecessor's biggest problem.