The horror genre hasnt exactly been the breeding ground of great sequels over the years. Its a quantity over quality situation; studios know that they can make an easy profit by making cheap follow-ups to never ending franchises, so less and less thought goes into the sequels as the series goes on. The logic is actually (sadly) sound, as many low quality horror sequels reap enough financial revenue to justify their existence, at least to the studios. But once in a while we get a horror sequel that isnt completely braindead. A film that isnt just going through the motions, but actually has something to say and do thats original and exciting. Sometimes they branch off of straight horror into other genres; other times they take a new spin or approach to traditional genre structure. They dont come around often, but when they do, theyre much appreciated by fans jaded on the rehashed, dumbed down plots of most horror sequels. Here are 5 horror movie sequels that are actually worth your time...
5. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
Of all the directors that have made their living in the horror genre, Wes Craven may be the most creative. His final installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, 1994s New Nightmare, is a meta-horror film that keeps us suspended between dreams, reality, and film, never sure which one were actually seeing. The story involves an attempt at making one more Nightmare movie, with Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, and Craven all playing themselves. But soon Langenkamp and her young son receive ominious signs that this movie may be more than just a film, and that Freddie may actually be escaping the realm of the celluloid and entering reality. New Nightmare isnt the scariest film on this list, but it may be the most interesting. Cravens film examines what horror means to the people that make and participate in it off screen, how it follows them home and stays a part of them after the films have wrapped and the sets are packed up. This is a dark genre, and that darkness leaves a mark. New Nightmare uses a creative, fearless plot structure to explore that effect. Of all the endless slasher franchises and the films that comprise them, New Nightmare is the best of all the sequels. Craven, of course, would later expand on the meta-horror he dabbled in here to make Scream, one of the biggest horror hits of all time.