The 10 Best Horror Sequels Ever Made, Ranked
A New York native, Joe graduated from an avant-garde theater school upstate, where he was obsessed with sketch comedy. There, he and his lunatic friends founded The Sketchies — which still lives on at Skidmore College today. Living in New York City, a screenwriter friend of his then taught him how to write for film. This awakened a new passion in Joe. Since then his scripts have garnered over 200 festival selections, nominations, and wins all over the globe (including the BlueCat Best Feature award). Several of his screenplays have been made into feature films — some of them not that bad! Overall, he loves to create unique, hilarious, touching, and bizarre stories.
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They’re baaaacckk. So gruesomely good, you had to come back for more. Yes, the highly polarizing horror sequel is here. Over the years, many scary movies have hit it big, resonating with audiences in profound ways. Some of these frightening flicks have inspired sequels, and an elite few have given rise to long-running franchises. Alas, many sequels have a hard time replicating the magic of the first successful film (in fact, most fall quite short). And then, there are the rare follow-up films that have equaled, and in some creepy cases, even improved upon the original.
Here are the ten best sequels in horror history. A sequel is considered not just a second film, but could be any subsequent movie after the first. Ergo, some franchises have stellar sequels that come long after several other films have been made (and, often, fell flat on their faces). From hilariously haunting horror-comedy to pure slasher savagery, these are the grandest sequels in the realm of scary film.
10 'Scream 2' (1997)
The best parody film of slashers ever made is also a bona fide stand-alone horror film, too. That, of course, is Wes Craven’s Scream. So, when the sequel was conceived (which began a 30-year-spanning franchise), audiences knew they were going to get a scathing satire that skewered the concept of sequels while also delivering genuine thrills and knife-based scares.
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) survived Ghostface in the first film (the old two-killers trope, her bf, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and his doofus buddy, Stuart (Matthew Lillard)), and wanted nothing more than to forget the whole ordeal. Unfortunately for her, the masked killer is back, only with a whole new identity. Basically, all the main (surviving) characters returned from the first film — namely, Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) — as Craven and his esteemed teen scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson leaned heavily into all the fun and deadly aspects of sequel-life.
9 '10 Cloverfield Lane' (2016)
This is a sequel that masquerades as a stand-alone film for almost the entirety of its duration. That’s the genius behind this claustrophobic hit; instead of focusing on a world where a giant sea monster wreaks havoc over New York City, the main characters are trapped in a confined space, as what appears to be a lunatic keeps them as prisoners. There’s no immediate correlation to the first film, other than the similarity of the title. Also, Cloverfield is a found footage epic, whereas 10 Cloverfield Lane is an intimate, normal narrative film.
Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) are held hostage by Howard (John Goodman, in a rare, terrifying role), a burly man who believes that there is either a nuclear meltdown or alien invasion happening, and no one is safe aboveground. Naturally, Michelle and Emmett think he’s nuts, and do everything they can to try to escape. When director Dan Trachtenberg finally reveals what’s really going down in the film’s finale, it’s as shocking as it is satisfying. See, this was not really a sequel at all; this was a film that happened in an alternate dimension than Cloverfield, but still maintained the same otherworldly weirdness. With great performances from the small cast, this is one sequel that totally changed the dynamic of the first film in a very cool way.
8 'Terrifier 2' (2022)
Now, let’s be real: the Terrifier films are not for everyone. But, for those who love gratuitous, cleverly devised gore and disgusting-mouthed, smiling clowns from hell, this splatter-fest trilogy is a winner. The primary film introduced the horror world to Art the Clown, for better or for worse. Auteur writer-director Damien Leone used a special film technique to make the digital output look like grainy B-horror flicks of yore. It’s a remarkably effective method that created the perfect mood for this revolting throwback to gorier times. The story is decent, and has a fun (if disturbing) ending. Now, the sequel…this is the prime example of a second film that outdoes (in terms of revolting kills, storyline, and character development) the first movie by quite a solid margin.
Terrifier 2 finds Art (David Howard Thornton), and his brand-new gal pal, The Little Pale Girl (Amelie McLain), back again on Halloween, killing and thrilling with horrific, reckless abandon. Art's new main target is Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) and her lil’ bro Jonathan (Elliott Fullam). Sienna is a cosplayer who not only dresses up like a badass warrior woman, but also has a magic Game of Thrones-like sword that she uses to fend off Art and his special friend. Again, the kills are even more creative and disgusting in this film, brutal, really, and the characters are way more interesting.
7 'Halloween' (2018)
While its title is initially a bit confusing (is it a remake or a reboot?), once one understands what this film is all about, it makes perfect sense. While there have been a few decent flicks in the nearly 50-year-long Halloween franchise, amidst the countless flops, the 2018 film is possibly the best sequel in the bunch. That is probably because it acts as a direct sequel to the 1978 original — where, magically, all the other uninspiring Halloween films have been erased (like Michael Meyers’s corpse whenever you think he’s dead).
It’s 40 years after the fateful, tragic night of All Hallow’s Eve. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, with her best reprisal of the role yet) lives a tranquil life now that’s about to be rocked once again. Michael Meyers has been in a mental institution all this time, but when a bus transfer goes awry, he escapes. Just as in the original, he’s pretty single-track-minded. He wants to kill Laurie, the last babysitter alive. This film works very well because director David Gordon Green maintains the integrity of John Carpenter’s Halloween, where Michael wasn’t some supernatural, indestructible ghoul, but rather a hate-filled, evil human who just happens to be incredibly resilient. There’s something comforting about this movie, as if it’s the first time we, as a collective audience, get to witness these true characters once again.
6 'The Bride of Frankenstein' (1935)
The 1930s ushered in a new era in horror, with Dracula, The Invisible Man, and Frankenstein drawing massive audiences. With the widespread success of everybody's favorite mad scientist story Frankenstein, a sequel was inevitable — especially since one crucial element of the source material novel by Mary Shelley was omitted: that of The Monster’s blushing bride.
The Bride of Frankenstein, directed once again by James Whale, took this tidbit of key info from the book and greatly expanded upon it. Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), after surviving the inferno that ended the first film, has renounced reanimating the dead, but another doctor, Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger), now pushes him — along with The Monster (Boris Karloff) — to build the perfect mate for the sometimes gentle, sometimes lethal giant. The result is the birth of the titular character, played with fantastic fierceness by Elsa Lanchester. Many cite this sequel as being superior to the first movie, for its more intricate and detailed handling of the material — but that electric fright wig alone is worth the price of a ticket.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes What Is Your Biggest Horror Nightmare? Elm Street · Chucky · Scream · The Conjuring
Four horror franchises. Four completely different ways of scaring you. One waits until you fall asleep. One makes sure nobody believes you. One is already in your group of friends. And one is in the house with your family. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually watch horror, and find out which nightmare was built for you.
😴Elm Street(Freddy Krueger)
🧸Chucky(Child's Play)
📞Scream(Ghostface)
🕯️The Conjuring(The Warren Files)
01
Which horror scene makes you cover your eyes? Four classic images. One of them is worse than the others for you.
02
You are home alone and you hear a noise. First thought? Everybody has one. It arrives before you have decided anything.
03
Which horror movie rule would you break first? Everybody thinks they would survive. Almost nobody actually does.
04
Something genuinely frightening happens. What do you do? Not in a film. In your actual living room, tonight.
05
How do you actually watch a horror film? Be honest about this one. Nobody is checking.
06
Somebody offers you serious money. Which do you still refuse? The amount does not matter. There is one on this list you are not doing.
07
Which feeling stays with you a week after the film? Good horror does not stop when the credits do.
08
Something wakes you at 3am. What is the worst possibility? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your nightmare.
The Lights Just Went Out Your Nightmare Is…
Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what it would leave behind.
Elm Street
Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever won that particular argument.
- Freddy is horror's cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
- You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your own head is where this does its damage.
- These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
- You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.
Chucky
Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.
- Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
- You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You know that feeling from real life too.
- The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you have met those adults.
- By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.
Scream
Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.
- Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be somebody who was at the party.
- You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the same way you watch films.
- The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
- Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.
The Conjuring
Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.
- The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
- Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
- This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
- Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one standing in the hallway.
5 'Smile 2' (2024)
With one of the creepier movies of modern horror, Smile, it was going to take a real winner of a sequel to equal (or, as some posit, eclipse) the original. Writer-director Parker Finn accomplished this, and then some. The first film was simply a somewhat contained tale about how a demon was able to leap around bodies, causing the afflicted to kill themselves — always with a witness, who then was besieged by the grinning specters. The sequel takes this same concept, but only now, the victim is an international pop star (who’s had quite a rough year, before all the smiling shenanigans even began).
Skye Riley (Naomi Scott, with the most intense performance of her career), is a Gaga-esque pop diva. She’s had to endure a battle with drugs that ended in a car crash that took the life of her boyfriend, Paul Hudson (Ray Nicholson). So, as she tries to get her life back on track and prepare for a new tour, she needs some “meds” to help with her chronic back pain. She goes to the apartment of her former dealer, Lewis (Lukas Gage, in a brief but great turn), and the smile demon is transferred to her. Uh oh. She’s now got a very limited number of days to try to find a reverse to this curse, before she ends up as another suicide figure. The cinematography in this film is stunningly beautiful at times and terror-inducing at others (the one-shot opening sequence is a real jaw-dropper). A high energy, wildly engaging film throughout, it concludes with one of the more deliciously devious endings in the entire horror cannon.
4 'Pearl' (2022)
Once it was revealed that Mia Goth played not only the ambitious, aspiring adult film actress Maxine in Ti West’s X, but also the elderly woman, Pearl (in grotesque make-up), audiences were eager for a follow-up — simply to see what Goth could do next. When Pearl, the period piece origin story of the eponymous character, came out, nobody was really expecting the sheer ferocity of Goth’s performance. Laden with gore galore, this movie is one disturbing journey into the mind of a lovable loon (and her pet gator).
Pearl is a girl living a pastoral life in Texas during WWI. Her husband is away in Europe fighting, and so she’s stuck at home with her domineering German mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright), and immobile, stroke-victim father. Pearl has big ambitions though (just like Maxine). She wants to be a dancer, and when an opportunity arises to audition for a traveling theater company, Pearl is over the moon. Only problem is, she’s too average to be accepted…and everyone else in Pearl’s path pays the price. It’s a vicious film, with graphic murder scenes to spare, but there’s something just so captivating about Goth’s unhinged performance. We feel simultaneously bad for her, while also being scared witless of this gleaming psychopath.
3 'Evil Dead II' (1987)
Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II does everything that a horror sequel really should. It takes the original film and amps things up in just about every respect (actually, it’s almost a reboot, as it reimagines the opening sequence). Raimi knew that Bruce Campbell was a big horror comedy star in the making, and so he smartly elected to give him a script where not only his comedic chops could flourish, but where Campbell could shine as a horror-action icon as well.
The cursed tale takes Ash (Campbell) back to the very cabin where all the demonic fun occurred in the original. Only now, he’s only accompanied by his girlfriend, Linda (Denise Bixler). Instead of a cozy romantic weekend, Ash plays an audio tape of some old professor reading from the “Book of the Dead.” A vile demonic entity is freed, and promptly takes over Linda’s body. As Ash battles the demon to the death (well, Linda’s death), the comedic tone takes over. Ash ends up fighting with his own body, losing a hand, gaining a chainsaw-hand, and a “boomstick” (a trusty shotgun). With The Three Stooges antics abounding, this is one horror comedy that hits all the right bloody beats.
2 'Dawn of the Dead' (1978)
Commerce. That’s the theme at the heart of the sequel to Night of the Living Dead, George A. Romero's aptly titled Dawn of the Dead. While the first black and white classic film focused on mob mentality in general, the second installment centers on a specific form of zombie-like behavior: American consumerism. Set in a shopping mall, this incisive film is lush with metaphors, but also has some of the cooler undead special FX of the late 70s.
As a zombie plague descends upon America, survivors scramble to escape the roving undead. A crew of these people make it to a mall, to ostensibly wait out the madness in a Sunglass Hut or whatever. Unfortunately for Stephen (David Emge), Peter (Ken Foree), Francine (Gaylen Ross), and the rest, the zombies, desperate for brains and retail, find their way in and cause chaos. With an even more scathing take on the American mentality of consumer culture (we do love shopping) and capitalism at large, plus a deluge of even cooler FX makeup than the original, this satirical gem is one classic (and not brainless) sequel.
1 'Aliens' (1986)
With Alien, Ridley Scott crafted probably the best space-bound film in the sci-fi horror genre. Attempting a follow-up to this masterpiece, without Scott at the helm, seemed like a foolhardy endeavor. Yet, when James Cameron signed on to take the reins, it was pretty much guaranteed that the film would be an exhilarating good ride. This proved to be quite true, as Cameron exchanged Scott’s slow-burn moodiness for hyper-jet-fueled action, and the franchise didn’t miss a beat.
Representing (timeless) corporate greed, an emissary from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, Burke (Paul Reiser), resurrects Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from her 57-year-long hyper sleep and entreats her to lead another voyage in search of a lost colony of “terraformers” on a remote planet. Obviously, the Ripper is quite reluctant since the last mission nearly got her eviscerated by a massive monster alien life form. Yet, Ripley heads back into hyperspace to lead a new crew to the incommunicado world. Here, you guessed it, her team encounters an even fiercer mother alien than before (which “the corporation” was really after, for its bioweapon potential). This movie is so good because it pits two maternal figures against one another (Ripley essentially adopts an orphan named Newt (Carrie Henn), and the Xenomorph has her unholy brood of crab-egg-critter babies), and there is no force stronger than that of a miffed mother. Alien may be a classic, but Aliens delivers even more…well, aliens…and also, non-stop horror-action.
Aliens
8 10
- Release Date
- July 18, 1986
- Runtime
- 137 minutes
- Director
- James Cameron
- Writers
- James Cameron
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