Sequels are always a crap shoot when it comes to quality, and that’s never more true than with horror movies. Particularly those that end up as a franchise, where you have a set of (usually) diminishing returns. For this list, we’re (mostly) sticking with direct sequels, Part II’s and the like. When a sequel works out, it’s like catching lightning in a bottle. Again. When it doesn’t, it’s like licking a car battery. With this list, we’re hoping to give you bottles full of lightning. Either way, you’re probably going to get shocked. I… I’m sorry, that metaphor got away from me a bit. ANYWAY, here are the terrifying double-dips that ended up working out.
Here are the 50 Greatest Horror Sequels of All Time.
50. Critters 2: The Main Course (1988)
The second film in the Critters franchise (5 films and a TV show!) doesn’t really stray too far from the formula that made the original successful – some small town social interactions as the thread tying together attacks from the titular extraterrestrial monsters (AKA Crites). Scott Grimes returns as Brad from the original film and Mick Garris steps into the director’s chair for his first film. The script (by Davide Twohy, also his first) ups the humor and the amount of Critter attacks, with both mostly succeeding. Special effects by The Chiodo Brothers are great, offering plenty of opportunities for different kinds of monsters, some good gore gags (love the ball of Crites rolling over a guy, leaving a bloody skeleton behind) and plenty of Gremlins-inspired mayhem. It’s not a great film, but like the Hungry Heifer burgers (and theme song) in the film, it absolutely satisfies.
–Bob Cram
49. Candyman (2021)
While certainly not the only Candyman sequel, to me it’s the best. Nia DaCosta has become one to watch over the years, and she’s really flexing with this incredible sequel that honors the original while being very much its own thing. I remember this came out right before Nope, and it feels reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s style of elevated horror with a solid mix of dread and humor. I haven’t rewatched it recently, but I was really happy with it overall. A bit slow at moments, but overall a really fun and scary sequel.
–Valerie Morreale
48. Unfriended: Dark Web (2018)
The “sequel” to Unfriended ditches everything but the whole screencast concept from the original film. No ghosts out for revenge this time, instead it’s a slightly more grounded threat – a cabal of hacker/murders intent on making a group of friends play a deadly game of survival. While the concept is similar to the 2019 film Escape Room, Dark Web makes use of the webcam setup rather than big budget set pieces, lending everything a sense of reality and immediacy. The film also centers its action on themes that were relevant at the time, like swatting, deep fakes and cryptocurrency. (I guess they’re all still relevant.) The characters are all likeable enough that you’re invested in their fate, but at times it feels like the bad guys are so ubiquitous and omnipotent that there’s no chance for the protagonists to win, much less survive. Way more effective and enjoyable than the original film, Dark Web has some interesting and occasionally gripping moments.
–Bob Cram
47. Hostel: Part II (2007)
Based on an interaction Harry Knowles (of Ain’t It Cool News fame) had with Eli Roth about the worst website either of them had come across, the Hostel series is the fear of the Deep Web made real. The films work as well as they do because deep down, all of us believe that somewhere lurking within the bowels of the internet, there’s a website that offers exactly what this film promises: the ability to pay money to torture and kill someone. This makes the villains that much more insidious and horrifying because you cannot reason or negotiate with them. They paid to do this. They saved up money just to be in that room with you. It’s chilling.
But beyond the torture porn aspect, the films also offer a clever commentary on the price of life in other countries. The foreigners (i.e., Americans) go over there and pay exorbitant amounts of money, while the natives (here depicted as children) will kill you for a bag of candy. The first one worked because of the Psycho twist (it kills off what the audience believes is the main character about halfway through), while the sequel surpasses it by getting into the minutiae of how this evil organization works. We don’t just follow soon-to-be victims in Hostel 2, we also follow the assholes who paid to carve them up.
Since torture porn is no longer in vogue, movies like the Hostel series are left out of the conversation as being important to the genre. Beyond just pushing everything to the extreme, they offered commentary that movies with a PG-13 rating could never. You can’t talk about our obsession with violence, the price of human life, or the true nature of power if you’re not willing to actually show the ugly outcome.
–Sailor Monsoon
46. Maniac Cop 2 (1991)
Maniac Cop was a fun, if sometimes silly, horror flick that – in 1988 – decided that what the slasher genre really needed was a dose of 70’s cop action. And Bruce Campbell. The sequel ramps up everything fun about the first one (except Bruce Campbell), with more gore, more deaths, and more insane action sequences. Zombie cop Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar) returns to wage war on… uh, I’m never really clear on that. Corrupt officials (again), but he also seems more intent on just killing cops in general.
Z’Dar is always effective as a hulking, silent killer, and his Terminator-style run through a police station is a standout scene. It’s great seeing Robert Davi and Claudia Christian as well, but it’s really the action scenes that make this film enjoyable. One sequence with Christian’s police psychologist handcuffed to the steering wheel of a runaway car is amazing, the kind of scene that makes you wonder how they did it in the pre-CGI age. Another sequence features what has to be one of the longest “guy on fire” scenes in movie history, and includes two characters, on fire, exploding out of a concrete wall five stories up. It’s freaking amazing.
Maniac Cop 2 is a film very much in the “more is more” school of sequels, and it succeeds. It’s still a b-movie, but damn is it a fun one.
–Bob Cram
45. Terrifier 2 (2022)
Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick might have broken box office records, but the true success story of 2022 was Terrifier 2. With only word of mouth to help it, the horror sequel made over ten times its budget back and launched a new genre, at least according to horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan, dubbed the MegaSlasher. Not since the days of Sam Raimi has something this gleefully grotesque struck a nerve with everyone in the horror-loving community… but even Raimi didn’t go this far. How Terrifier 2 manages to get people excited for the worst thing they’ve ever seen is a minor miracle. I guess it comes down to the fact that it only grosses them out enough to look away, not leave.
Terrifier 2 wants you to gasp and laugh along with its horrible over-the-topness, not be offended and sickened. Since Art the Clown feels like a cartoon character, all of his violence, no matter how gruesome or realistic, always feels like Looney Tunes damage. You can’t see an image of him dissecting an arm like it’s sushi and not think that’s a gag straight out of a Daffy Duck short. It’s these set pieces, along with Art, that are the reason to see this movie. The pace is off since it’s way too long, the acting is just fine, and the characters are instantly forgettable, but there’s a funny, murderous clown and a bunch of great practical kills. That’s what Terrifier 2 offers; the rest is just a bonus.
–Sailor Monsoon
44. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
You don’t need to have seen Prom Night to enjoy Prom Night 2. The film has zero connection to the 1981 Jamie Lee Curtis original, and started out development as a film called The Haunting of Hamilton High before producers decided to cash in on the Prom Night name. The original made some money at the box office, after all, despite being a fairly standard (and sometimes boring) slasher flick.
Hello Mary Lou retains some slasher elements, but it’s really a possession flick by way of Carrie, with a stop on Elm Street. It starts with Mary Lou Maloney (Lisa Schrage) dying on prom night when her jealous boyfriend accidentally sets her on fire. In present day (1987), good girl Vicki Carpenter (Wendy Lyon) finds Mary Lou’s cape and crown in an old trunk, and releases the dead girl’s spirit. Which then goes on a killing spree while slowly taking over Vicki.
Vicki’s visions are pure Nightmare on Elm Street rubber-reality nightmares, and the slasher elements have some spark (sorry) to them. It’s also fun to see Michael Ironside as an adult Billy trying to deal with the return of his old flame (sorry again). It’s all building up to Prom Night, with Mary Lou fully resurrected and on a poltergeist/Carrie rampage. Prom Night 2 is ridiculous trash, but it’s the fun sort of trash that has you yelling at the screen and waiting breathlessly to see how the next person is going to die.
–Bob Cram
43. The Conjuring 2 (2016)
The Conjuring was one of my favorite movies in 2013, so of course, I was stoked when a sequel was announced. But with the excitement always comes a bit of trepidation. I wasn’t sure they would be able to maintain what made the first film so memorable, balancing emotional character drama with legitimately effective scares. To my relief, The Conjuring 2 not only lived up to the original but surpassed my expectations. Set in 1970s London and inspired by the infamous Enfield haunting, the film expands the Warrens’ story while introducing new nightmare fuel in the form of Valak (The Nun) and the Crooked Man. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson once again ground the story with powerful performances, and the rest of the cast brings real depth to the haunted family. With its chilling atmosphere and emotional core, The Conjuring 2 avoids the dreaded “sequel slump“, delivering a movie just as intense and unsettling as the first.
–Romona Comet
42. When a Stranger Calls Back (1993)
When a Stranger Calls has, in my opinion, the greatest opening to any horror film ever. It packs more white-knuckle suspense in its first fifteen minutes than most films can pull off within their entire running time. It assaults the viewer with weaponized terror, a feat only two other films have accomplished: Them and the underseen sequel to When a Stranger Calls.
When a Stranger Calls Back feels like a precursor to the 2018 Halloween in that it’s a reboot as much as it is a sequel. Like David Gordon Green’s film, it takes the best elements of the last film and tries to improve upon them, such as adding levels of complexity to the female lead, dialing up the creepiness, and outdoing its iconic beginning. However, unlike Halloween, When a Stranger Calls Back actually succeeds. It’s heads and shoulders above its predecessor in every way. The opening is just as impactful, it doesn’t drag in the middle, has a far more memorable villain, and the ending, while not as scary, is satisfying in its own way. Oh, and Kevin Williamson should have cut this film a royalty check for stealing its beginning for Scream.
–Sailor Monsoon
41. Dracula’s Daughter (1936)
Every Universal monster (with the exception of the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera) received multiple sequels, which all varied in quality. Frankenstein somehow got all the great ones, while the rest got at least one good one if they were lucky. Almost all of them were conventional monster fare except for one: Dracula’s Daughter, arguably the most unique film the studio released at the time. Dracula ended with a stake through the heart and a scream in the dark. The monster was dead, the nightmare was over, and audiences were left to go home satisfied. But Universal, like a vampire sniffing fresh blood, couldn’t resist another bite.
So, five years later, they cracked open the coffin and drained what was left of the Count’s legacy with Dracula’s Daughter — a film that doesn’t so much continue the story as it quietly mourns it. It opens on the same night Dracula ends. His corpse still lies sprawled in the crypt, Van Helsing caught red-handed with the murder weapon. Enter Countess Marya Zaleska (Gloria Holden), the titular daughter who wants nothing more than to be free of her father’s curse.
She burns his body in a desperate act of liberation, but her newfound freedom lasts about as long as DJ Khaled did on Hot Ones. This isn’t a monster movie in the traditional Universal sense. There are no rampaging creatures or torch-wielding mobs here. Instead, Dracula’s Daughter is a sad, slow, and surprisingly elegant mood piece about addiction, repression, and the impossibility of escape. In addition to its tone, the thing that sets it apart from the rest of the Universal monster movies is its subtext. The Countess’s thirst for blood doubles as an unspoken desire for female flesh, most famously in the scene where she seduces a young model. If Dracula is about the thrill of surrendering to temptation, Dracula’s Daughter is about the quiet horror of trying to live with it. The film is a melancholic epilogue to one of horror’s greatest monsters, told from the perspective of the one he cursed most: his own blood.
–Sailor Monsoon
Greatest Horror Movies | 40-31
What are some of your favorite horror sequels of all time? Maybe they will show up later in this list!