Today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema continued this month’s Halloween theme with a look at horror sequels. This program looked at a few long running series and well as some newer installments.
Universal Monsters
Universal Studios established itself with its horror titles of the 1930s and 40s. In 1931 the studio released two classics: Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, and Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff. The movies were a success and Universal set about making more of them including The Invisible Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Wolf Man, and The Mummy. The studio’s first monster sequel was 1935’s The Bride of Frankenstein which is generally considered to be the best entry in the entire Universal Monsters catalog. It featured better production values, more interesting characters, and deepened the ideas of the original film. And just as the original Frankenstein created one of horror cinema’s most indelible images with Boris Karloff’s monster, the sequel did the same with Elsa Lanchester’s bride.
Today Hollywood makes sequels to just about anything and major studios vie for “cinematic universes” in which characters inhabit a shared world and appear in each other’s films. While this is done more often now, it isn’t entirely new. The classic Universal Monster films were the original cinematic universe as they created sequels and spinoff films and eventually brought the characters together in titles like House of Dracula and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. The series culminated in self-parody with crossover movies starring Abbott and Costello.
Doctor Sleep
1980’s The Shining was based on Stephen King’s novel. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick used King’s book as a basis but made his own story which is frequently cited as one of the great horror films. King was upset with the changes and to this day he will take any opportunity to voice his disappointment. King wrote the sequel novel Doctor Sleep which was made into a 2019 movie. Directed by Mike Flanagan, Doctor Sleep combined King’s sequel story with unused elements from the novel The Shining and the result was one of the best horror sequels and one of the best Stephen King adaptations.
Halloween
The Halloween franchise has one of the most convoluted legacies in the horror genre. The original film is the classic that introduced Michael Myers, a silent killer in a white mask who stalks a babysitter played by Jamie Lee Curtis. 1981’s Halloween II continued the story of the first film. It was made by many of the same people but it’s a clumsier and nastier film. Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a standalone story about a cult. Season of the Witch was hated at the time but fans have come around to it. Halloween 4, 5, and 6 brought back Michael Myers and focused on his relationship to his niece. Halloween 4 is one of the best sequels in the series but Halloween 6 was not and the decision was made to abandon that storyline. Timed to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the original film, 1998’s Halloween H20 was a direct sequel to Halloween II with Jamie Lee Curtis returning. This was followed by Halloween: Resurrection which brought Michael Myers into a House on Haunted Hill scenario. And then for the fortieth anniversary of the original film came 2018’s Halloween which was a direct sequel to the original film and ignored everything else. This retcon sequel was followed by Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. Rob Zombie directed a 2007 remake of Halloween and a 2009 sequel that were conceptually and stylistically a radical departure from the other movies.
Read more about the Halloween series here.
Friday the 13th
The Friday the 13th series epitomizes the 1980s slasher film. The movies were a touch sleezy, emphasized the lurid thrills of sex and violence, and featured the hockey masked killer Jason Voorhees. The original Friday the 13th opened in 1980 and made a lot of money, especially relative to its budget. Its success inspired Hollywood to get into the slasher business and Paramount began releasing sequels on an almost yearly basis, turning out eight movies before the end of the decade. The Paramount films were very formulaic with teenagers introduced and then knocked off. Most fans point to 1984’s Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and 1986’s Jason Lives as the best of this lot. In the 1990s the rights to Friday the 13th went to New Line Cinema which turned out three uneven but ambitious films including Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X, and finally Freddy vs. Jason. A Friday the 13th remake produced by Platinum Dunes was released in 2009.
Smile
A lot of horror films of the late 2010s and 2020 have been interested in trauma. One of the best examples of that is the Smile series. The films are about a demon that takes over a victim’s body and forces them to commit suicide. Witnesses to those deaths have the curse transferred to them. The first movie was about the way childhood trauma festers and manifests itself. The second film used the concept to address substance abuse and toxic behavior.
Saw
The Saw movies are about victims trapped in elaborate torture devices and their only hope of escape usually requires self-mutilation. The original Saw set the tone for the series but the sequels fundamentally changed the meaning of the story. Building on the foundation of the original picture, Saw II brought the audience up close and personal with Jigsaw and made him into one of the most interesting and unique horror villains. The torture scenarios weren’t just gratuitous violence but an expression of a twisted ideology and the Saw series gave that ideology a personal touch with Jigsaw’s relationship with his protégé Amanda. The ideological and personal aspects of the Saw series were revisited in 2023’s Saw X which was set between the first two Saw films.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was released in 1974, a few years ahead of the slasher boom. The original picture was gritty and nasty but despite its title The Texas Chainsaw Massacre contained very little on-screen gore. The rights were subsequently tied up for years and director Tobe Hooper didn’t get to make a sequel until 1986, at which point the slasher genre was overdone and in decline. Hooper took the sequel in the direction of a gory satire. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was a critical and commercial disaster in 1986 and it remains one of the most divisive horror sequels. But the movie has tremendous energy and a grotesque sense of humor that made it a unique film.
Since the divisive reception of Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, the series was caught up in a cycle of standalone sequels. Different filmmakers vied to create the true heir to the original classic starting with 1990’s Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III which starred Ken Forre and Viggo Mortensen and then 1995’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation starring Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey. Two more retcon sequels tried to be the true follow up including 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D and 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In between, a prequel to the original film titled Leatherface was released in 2017. The series was also subject to a remake in 2003, directed by Marcus Nispel and produced by Michael Bay, and a prequel to said remake was released in 2006.
Read more about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series here.
Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is about Norman Bates, a disturbed man who runs a motel and has a complicated relationship with his mother. Hitchcock’s film was in many ways the godfather of the slasher film and when Friday the 13th and Halloween set off the slasher sequel craze of the 1980s, a series of Psycho follow ups were produced. The Psycho sequels turned out much better than expected. Most notable is Psycho II written by Tom Holland and directed by Richard Franklin with Anthony Perkins returning as Norman Bates. Psycho III was directed by Anthony Perkins and Psycho IV: The Beginning is a made for TV prequel starring Henry Thomas that dramatized Norman’s backstory. There was also the 1987 television film Bates Motel which is a direct sequel to Hitchcock’s Psycho and ignores the other films. Bates Motel has become virtually impossible to find. There was also a popular television show by that name which was a modern reimagining of Norman Bates and his relationship with his mother.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Nightmare on Elm Street series was one of the most popular franchises of the 1980s and introduced the world to Freddy Krueger, a disfigured killer who stalks teenagers in their dreams. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is frequently cited as the best film in the series proper. Dream Warriors took the Nightmare on Elm Street series in fantastic and surrealistic directions while filling in the backstory of Freddy Krueger and creating interesting characters. The subsequent Nightmare films had more to do with the tone and style of Dream Warriors than with the original film.
Nightmare on Elm Street creator Wes Craven had little to do with the series after Dream Warriors. The franchise went off the rails with the sixth installment, 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Craven responded by making 1994’s New Nightmare. Not so much a sequel but a companion piece, New Nightmare takes place in the real world and imagines an evil spirit has taken the form of Freddy Krueger and haunts the people who made the films. It plays best for Nightmare on Elm Street fans but New Nightmare is one of Craven’s best films and a smart and fun riff on horror stories.
Read more about the A Nightmare on Elm Street series here.
Terrifier
The character of Art the Clown is a murderous supernatural clown who was first featured in short films and the 2013 anthology All Hallows’ Eve. Art the Clown started to gain mainstream traction with 2016’s The Terrifier, about women stalked by Art the Clown on Halloween night. The franchise broke out with 2022’s The Terrifier 2 which explored the background of Art the Clown and introduced the heroine Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera). The second film played in mainstream theaters and Art the Clown, played brilliantly by David Howard Thornton, became a horror icon. 2024’s Terrifier 3 debuted at the top of the box office while being distributed in an unrated version, which was a breakthrough that could have long term consequences for the horror genre and the movie industry.
Scream
The original Scream was the defining horror movie of the 1990s. Sequels followed and while some of them were good they didn’t quite recapture the surprise or the edge of the original picture until
the fifth installment, released in 2022 and also titled Scream. Both a reboot and a sequel, 2022’s Scream paid homage to the original film and reinvented the material for the era of toxic fan culture.
Witchcraft
The Witchcraft series is one of the longest running fantasy and horror franchises that you’ve probably never heard of. A lot of these movies were very cheaply produced and they’re not well regarded. Many of them involve a man with a supernatural heritage enlisted to fight the forces of darkness and who is tempted by a sexy witch. The first installment debuted in theaters in 1988 and found an audience on home video. The first sequel was released direct to video in 1990 and the Witchcraft series now spans sixteen installments. The last three Witchcraft films were released in 2016 and form a contained storyline that takes place outside of the world of the previous films and pokes some fun at them.
Full Moon Franchises
Full Moon Features is an independent production company that has produced numerous direct-to-video films with cult followings. One of their popular titles is the Subspecies series. This is a vampire franchise with the first installment released in 1991 and the fifth installment in 2023. The movies were shot in Romania and leaned into folklore and the history of Vlad the Impaler. The Subspecies films are B-pictures but they are an impressive series with a gothic style reminiscent of the Hammer films of the 1950s and 60s.
Full Moon Features’ signature franchise is the Puppet Master series. These films are about small puppets created by André Toulon in the 1930s. The puppets are imbued with spirits and many of the stories intersect with Nazism; villainous characters try to uncover the secrets of immortality. The puppets are morally ambiguous and often act as assassins on behalf of their master. The third film is a prequel that tells Toulon’s backstory as he and his research are targeted by Nazi officials. The original Puppet Master debuted in 1989 and it became a cult title. To date the Puppet Master series spans fifteen films, the most recent released in 2022.
Return of the Satanic Blockbusters
In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s Hollywood produced a lot of films with demonic themes, the biggest and most successful of these being Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen. Rosemary’s Baby had a 1976 made-for-television sequel titled Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby. This film was not an adaptation of Ira Levin’s sequel novel Son of Rosemary. The 2024 prequel Apartment 7A told a story set immediately before the events of Rosemary’s Baby.
The Exorcist inspired several sequels and a spinoff television show. In 2023 The Exorcist: Believer was released. It wasn’t very successful and plans are moving forward for a new sequel with Doctor Sleep filmmaker Mike Flanagan directing.
The Omen had two immediate sequels. The original film was about a couple who realize their adopted son might be the Antichrist. Damien: Omen II caught up with the demonic child as a teenager and The Final Conflict saw Damien as an adult trying to secure his power. Omen IV: The Awakening was a made-for-television reboot sequel. There was also a remake of the original film released in 2006. The First Omen, a prequel to the original film, was released in 2024 and it was the best of these films since the 1976 picture.
Other Horror Sequels of 2024
This year has seen no shortage of horror sequels. Follow the link to read full review of the following titles.