Not every great horror movie gets the pleasure of receiving a sequel, no matter how groundbreaking, clever, or critically successful the original may be. Many stand-alone horror movies aren’t guaranteed a sequel despite how creative and fresh their ideas are, remaining a lone beacon of ghoulish good fun when a franchise is so tantalizingly possible. Whether it be due to financial woes, lack of executive interest, or creative reasoning, many amazing horror films never got to explore their stories further.
The best horror sequels are able to iterate upon the core concept of the original while not losing sight of what made the ideas of them so successful in the first place. While some horror movies are better left alone as singular experiences that fully probed the concepts they envisioned, others clearly had plenty of fuel left in the tank that somehow never resulted in a sequel. At the risk of falling prey to the old adage that less is more, I’d argue that certain horror films are practically begging for more content set in their universes.
10
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
Has oodles of potential for circus-based murder
Killer Klowns from Outer Space dances on a thin razor’s edge between genuinely frightening horror film and campy so-bad-its-good sci-fi shlock. Predictably, the plot centers on a small town that is invaded by a pack of killer aliens who look like clowns and deploy a range of circus-themed weaponry, transforming hapless citizens into cocoons of cotton candy for later consumption. Killer Klowns From Outer Space is knowingly goofy and campy, but can be earnestly frightening to those with coulrophobia.
For now, fans of the film will have to settle for the recently-released video game, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space is just begging for a sequel that could take advantage of the film’s increased profile, perhaps allowing for a much high budget that could weaponize modern special effects techniques for all sorts of new clown-based horrors. The concept of ᴅᴇᴀᴅly practical jokes and horrific deformed clown beasts allows for endless creativity. For now, fans of the film will have to settle for the recently-released video game, Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game.
9
Malignant
Locks its villain away without killing it
Malignant has one of the most bizarre yet clever premises for a horror movie villain I’ve ever seen, with a hilariously shocking twist reveal that begs for further exploration. The story begins with a woman who suddenly finds herself at the center of a serial killer case, finding herself missing huge chunks of time in her memories as the body count piles up. It’s eventually revealed that her killer is the elusive Gabriel, an evil twin she had half-absorbed in the womb who resurfaces from the back of her skull to take over her body.
Malignant ends with Gabriel not killed, but locked away in a psychic prison of the protagonist’s making, once again burying him in the deepest sanctums of her subconscious. Considering he can’t fully be killed without taking his sister down with him, Gabriel is an ominous villain that could hijack his sibling’s senses once again at any given moment. Another interesting route for a sequel could be to have Gabriel somehow surgically separate himself from his sister, occupying a new twisted body and taking his revenge.
8
Drag Me To Hell
One of Sam Raimi’s few standalone films
From the Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ series to the original Spider-Man trilogy, many of horror visionary Sam Raimi’s films have managed to spawn sequels. However, a handful of them remain desperately stand-alone, including the wonderfully grotesque Drag Me to Hell. Drage Me to Hell tells the story of a woman who is cursed to be tormented by a demon before literally being dragged to hell, a promise the film makes good on by the time credits roll.
For how alluring its тιтle is, Drag Me to Hell doesn’t give an extended glimpse into its own version of H.E. double hockey sticks.
Considering the repugnant visual marvels Sam Raimi is known for, it’s almost a surefire thing that his take on the subject would quickly become one of the most chilling movie versions of hell ever conceived. A sequel following Christine’s actual time in hell and possible struggle to escape could be a great way to continue the story.
7
The Cabin In The Woods
Has infinite potential with a definitive ending to work around
The Cabin in the Woods is one of my favorite horror movies ever made for the simple fact that the film in and of itself is one big love letter to the genre. The story begins as a stock-standard slasher tale of a group of college friends who vacation in a remote cabin only to get picked off one after another by a zombified family of killers. However, the entire event is a carefully-orchestrated ritual sacrifice that eventually goes off the rails when the locked-away terrors of the mysterious organization conducting it break free of their containment.
The Cabin in the Woods ends with an apocalyptic scenario that admittedly makes penning a sequel hard. But the sheer breadth of new horror tropes that the series could add to its collection in the years since its release make it a worthy endeavor anyway, oozing with new possibilities for the nightmarish creatures the world harbors. If the sequel isn’t a post-apocalyptic romp through a bloody new world, it could perhaps instead be a prequel that chronicles the earlier days of execution via horror movie villain perpetrated by its shadowy agency.
6
They Live
Has only gotten more relevant with age
As of late, clips of They Live have started circulating again, introducing a whole new swathe of fans to the underappreciated gem in John Carpenter’s filmography. The 1988 horror-action hybrid stars wrestling star “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as a vagrant drifter who finds himself in yet another new town, coming into possession of a pair of sunglᴀsses. These aren’t any ordinary shades, however, and looking through them clues him in on a hidden world of skull-faced aliens secretly controlling human society.
If anything, the film’s story has resonated harder with audiences today than it did back in 1988, begging for a second chance.
The messaging of They Live, playing on late-stage capitalism and conformity, has only gotten more relevant as time has gone on. If anything, the film’s story has resonated harder with audiences today than it did back in 1988, begging for a second chance. While Carpenter hasn’t made a film since 2010 and is unlikely to come out of retirement any time soon, handing the тιтle over to a trusted hand could allow the film’s story to finally strike at the right time.
5
Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
Needs a comeback if only to bring the talent together again
Like The Cabin in the Woods, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is another scathing subversion of classic horror tropes, though with a much more comedic angle. The film follows the тιтular duo of hillbilly best friends whose lives are interrupted by a gaggle of vacationing college kids, who manage to hysterically convince themselves that the two rednecks are crazed rural killers after a series of hilariously brutal accidents. When one of the partiers goes particularly feral, Tucker and Dale have to take down a horror villain of their own.
Alan Tudyk has since sH๏τ up in popularity since the release of Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, and that notoriety makes the film deserve a second installment in its own right. Beyond the increased celebrity profile of its stars, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil could introduce new classic horror ideas for the eponymous duo to face off against. Even if it doesn’t follow the classic subversion of making the college jock the murderer and the country hicks the good guys, a sequel has endless potential to be entertaining as long as Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine can convene again.
4
Trick ‘R Treat
Can further mythologize a new modern slasher icon
I have quite a soft spot for Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘R Treat, and am still bitterly disappointed it has yet to receive a sequel. The nifty little horror anthology film weaves its way through a handful of stories all converging on Halloween night in a particular Ohio town in which the holiday is given special respect. Werewolves, serial killers, and zombie ghosts all make appearances, but the star of the show is the pint-sized slasher Sam, named after Samhain, the original pagan name for Halloween.
Sam is one of the most iconic masked slasher villains to come out of the new millennium, and deserves more movie appearances commemorating this fact. As a concept, Trick ‘R Treat is endlessly easy to iterate on with more collections of ghastly Halloween tales, with the possibility to form a horror anthology franchise rivaling the likes of the V/H/S movies. Sam could further earn his place in the Mount Rushmore of horror movie greats with a new appearance.
3
Circle
Leaves more questions than answers
Circle is a great indication of how a thrilling horror movie can be made on a low budget so long as the creative spirit behind it is willing. Nearly taking place entirely in real-time, Circle thrusts the viewer into a mysterious room containing a group of randomly abducted strangers. As part of some twisted alien experiment, the group is continuously forced to vote for one person among them to be killed every few minutes, sealing the fate of all put one of the victims.
Circle ends with the revelation that similar circles were formed all over the Earth, leaving the aliens to fly away after having culled the planet’s population to a scattered few. The fallout and emotional trauma shared by the survivors would be an easy thing to explore initially, but the concept of another Circle abducting a fresh group of survivors as a sort of second round could be interesting as well. In either case, Circle deserves to have a few sequels in the vein of the Cube movies, sharing a similar geometric deathtrap shared by strangers.
2
Event Horizon
Could have been the start of something greater
If big names like the Jurᴀssic Park franchise and The Matrix movies could get Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill back years later, so could a sequel to Event Horizon. Event Horizon is a science fiction horror classic that follows the classic premise of a ship responding to the distress call of another vessel that seemed to have some sort of horrific accident. The crew soon learn that the ship encountered a mysterious gateway to hell itself, bringing all manner of depraved violence and psychological torment aboard to torture their would-be rescuers.
Event Horizon gives only the briefest flashes of its depiction of hell, but these small snippets are some of the most intensely grotesque violent imagery ever experienced by mᴀss audiences. The film could further explore the idea of hell being used as a shortcut through space, as humanity deems it worth the cost benefit to attempt to brave the horrors of the cosmos in the name of saving time. If the copyright gods would be willing, this could even confirm a popular fan theory that Event Horizon is a prequel to the Warhammer 40K universe.
1
The Host
Needs revisiting after the success of the director
Few directors have had as meteoric a rise to success as South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho, who was crowned as the first foreign filmmaker to receive an Academy Award for the coveted Best Picture commendation thanks to Parasite. However, one of his earlier works, the seldom-seen creature feature The Host, could decidedly use some help. The film centers on a тιԍнт-knit family who suffer through the effects of a giant monster attack, the kaiju in question being an overgrown tadpole mutated by toxic chemicals dumped by the U.S. government.
The Host‘s themes of environmentalism and U.S. intervention are certainly still very relevant today, and deserve a new once-over with the director’s amᴀssed talent, budgetary freedom, and recognition since its creation. While the тιтular creature is killed by the end of the film, there is a teaser that something else might be lurking within the polluted waters of the Han River after all. After the release of his upcoming film Mickey 17, it might do Bong Joon-ho well to finally revisit a horror movie.
