“Insidious: Chapter 2” is surprisingly a really good horror sequel that manages to not only live up to its predecessor, but exceed it. It’s no secret that most horror sequels are just cheap low budget thrills meant to make a few dollars more than they cost, but this is not always the case. Here a few other sequels that managed to live up to its predecessor.
“Freddy/Jason”: Let’s be honest, these movies are not meant to be more than a guilty pleasure. The Nightmare on Elm Street series only made one good sequel, which was Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. The rest were so bad they are not even worth mentioning. The first Friday the 13th was really nothing special, but some of its sequels managed to be better. The 2009 reboot was perhaps the best as it embraced the B-movie status the series had achieved and satirized it while delivering gory deaths. The whole series is more or less good for B-movie thrills and good old fashioned slasher-horror entertainment with the exception of Jason X and Jason Goes to Hell. Freddy vs. Jason also manages to be a good time if you don’t take it too seriously. While Nightmare only had a few brief good moments as a franchise, Jason managed to give us a lot more.
“Evil Dead 2”: Evil Dead 2 takes the thrills and shocks from its predecessor and adds in a lot of comic relief to lighten the mood. It certainly worked and I would go as far to say was the main inspiration for The Cabin in the Woods. Bruce Campbell overacts in a way you don’t usually see in the genre and managed to turn what could have been just another horror film victim into an iconic hero.
“Halloween 2”: I know that John Carpenter’s Halloween is a classic horror movie and I see how it was revolutionary for its time, but frankly it felt a bit empty for me. I am not particularly a fan of Rob Zombie films as I feel they are too over the top with gore, dialogue and just about everything to a distasteful level, but I preferred his Halloween reimagining and actually found it to have a lot more substance and much more thrilling. However, the director’s cut cuts out a good action scene for a brutal and unnecessary rape so I would avoid that if I were you. Going back to the original series, I enjoyed Halloween 2 much more than its predecessor. It delivered a lot more gore, suspense and the kinds of things you’d expect from a slasher film. While not all of the Halloween sequels lived up to the first one and Rob Zombie’s sequel to his reimagining was absurdly awful, the second film was a very good sequel and while it simplified the plot, it kept me on the edge of my seat and that’s what really counts.
“Day of the Dead”/”Dawn of the Dead”: Night of the Living Dead is a classic, but we cannot honestly say that its sequels didn’t blow it out of the water. Part of this is due to the heightened budgets, although still cheap, and the advances in filmmaking due to their times, but they really stepped things up and gave us much more than just zombie films. Dawn of the Dead is actually an allegory for capitalism and American society, but even if you want to just have a good time it’s a really entertaining thriller. Day of the Dead is my favorite of the series. Here we find a society of survivors living underground hiding from the zombies. In this claustrophobic environment we find a lot of conflict and tension. While they’re adapting to their lifestyles, things are not so great. The zombies are also learning and eventually we see some interesting take on zombie action. There is a reason George Romero is a horror icon and while the rest of his living dead series was nothing too special, these two films stand out as great zombie movies.
“Insidious: Chapter 2” is surprisingly a really good horror sequel that manages to not only live up to its predecessor, but exceed it. It’s no secret that most horror sequels are just cheap low budget thrills meant to make a few dollars more than they cost, but this is not always the case. Here a few other sequels that managed to live up to its predecessor.
