With a lot of movie franchises, fans tend to feel that the original film is the best, yet that’s not always the case, especially in the horror genre. Though it is tough to match the scares of the first film, like with The Exorcist or the Scream franchise, some sequels manage to pull off the unlikely and exceed them.
There are also some film series that are hard to fully gauge since the genre tends to shift. For example, Alien is a horror movie, and while many believe the sequel, Aliens, is better, that’s more of an action flick than something designed to terrify.
It’s actually more common now than it was in the ’80s and ’90s for a horror sequel to surpᴀss the original. Several follow-up films, whether the second installment or later, have been great, and it has only made the modern era for the genre even better.
Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)
It’s no secret that a lot of movie franchises, especially in the horror genre, tend to either get worse with each pᴀssing installment or be up-and-down in terms of quality. That happened with Halloween, Friday the 13th, and several others.
In that sense, Final Destination is an outlier as it’s the rare horror series to be remarkably consistent. All the entries are pretty close in quality, but the most recent installment, Final Destination: Bloodlines, feels like it can sit at the top of the list.
Final Destination: Bloodlines provided the tense and creative kills the franchise is known for while doing so with impressive modern technology. They also expanded the lore by having Death come for multiple generations. The final appearance of Tony Todd is an added bonus as well.
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
The universe of The Conjuring is an expansive one, featuring several movies in the mainline series as well as a handful of spin-offs. Those spin-offs include their own trilogy of films centered around the тιтular demonic doll, who first appeared in 2013’s The Conjuring.
The initial Annabelle film was met with poor critical reception, though the mᴀssive box office intake meant sequels were on the horizon. The prequel, Annabelle: Creation, improved on the first but it was the third entry where it all came together.
Annabella Comes Home focuses on Judy Warren as she’s left at home with a babysitter when Annabelle gets released. However, Annabelle also releases other unwanted spirits, giving the film a haunted house feel as these untrained kids try to fight off unimaginable terrors. Judy makes for a compelling protagonist since she doesn’t have the answers that her parents usually do.
A Quiet Place II (2020)
The first A Quiet Place kind of took the world by storm. John Krasinski proved his directorial chops by telling a harrowing story in a world where making a sound pretty much means instant death. Upping the ante for a sequel was a tall task for everyone involved.
That said, A Quiet Place Part II managed to more than live up to the hype. Krasinski was a hit in the director’s chair again but what made this entry stand out more was how it expanded the world. Rather than focus purely on the core family and their home, the characters branch out to try and survive.
Doing so meant the arrival of several new characters, including Cillian Murphy’s Emmett. While Emily Blunt is once again great as well, it’s Millicent Simmonds who steals the show as her daughter, Regan. She’s the ultimate hero of the story and shining a light on her marked an improvement in this sequel.
Terrifier II (2022)
Terrifier is an interesting horror franchise to consider because most people didn’t really even become aware of it until the sequel. The first film was released in 2016 to little fanfare and didn’t even gross $500,000, yet it went on to become a cult hit that spawned a sequel six years later.
It was clearly pretty early on that Terrifier II was better than the first. Reviews on the first were mixed, while the second film sits at 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. Terrifier II gave Art the Clown over two hours to cement himself as a horror icon.
He does some absolutely barbaric things in this film that only the greatest horror movie villains could pull off. As good as Art the Clown is, the true highlight of Terrifier II is the introduction of Art’s rival, Sienna Shaw. Lauren LaVera is spectacular as Art’s foe and is one of the genre’s best “final girls.”
A Nightmare On Elm Street III: Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is one of those franchises where it’s tough to topple the original. The first film, released in 1984, is a true classic of the slasher subgenre and marked the debut of Freddy Krueger, one of horror’s most legendary figures. The movie was also met with widespread acclaim.
That makes it all the more impressive that A Nightmare on Elm Street III: Dream Warriors managed to be slightly better. It might not be as scary as the original and it has some hilariously outdated special effects, but the concept is pure genius.
Dream Warriors sees a group of troubled teens, led by Patricia Arquette’s Kristen Parker, actually go into dreamland to save a kid from Freddy and fight him. Freddy is normally in full control in the dreams, so seeing the battle taken to him was a welcome change of pace.
Fear Street: 1978 (2021)
Not enough people talk about how one of the best horror movie trilogies ever was released just a few years ago on Netflix. Based on R.L. Stine’s book series of the same name, the Fear Street trilogy blends the slasher subgenre with witchcraft in brilliant fashion.
The first entry is Fear Street: 1994, which pays homage to slashers from the ’90s and is a really good movie on its own. The follow-up, Fear Street: 1978, takes things up a notch by moving to the late ’70s and being a nod to slashers from that time period.
The camp setting is a lot of fun, while the killer feels almost unstoppable. You actively fear for the lives of the heroes, which isn’t often the case in slashers. The cast is also great, with Stranger Things standout Sadie Sink leading the way in this Fear Street installment.
Ouija: Origin Of Evil (2016)
Even in these cases of sequels being superior to the originals, rarely is the gap as wide as it is for the Ouija series. The first film, released in 2014, was a huge misfire with critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes rating of a paltry 6%.
2016 marked the arrival of the next film in the series, Ouija: Origin of Evil. This prequel succeeded by bringing in horror master Mike Flanagan to direct, and it marked a mᴀssive improvement over what came before it. In fact, this prequel jumped all the way up ot 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Flanagan’s ability to deliver the scares was a big part of why this was so much better than the first. Ouija: Origin of Evil is genuinely frightening, features a stronger screenplay, and perfectly plays into the fears that come with a Ouija board.
Smile 2 (2024)
2022’s Smile was a standout horror movie for a few reasons. The smile that the characters displayed in the film were legitimately creepy and they were used for marketing. The studio had actors sit behind home plate at baseball games and just stare into the camera with the smile.
It was all off-putting and helped make the film a success, yet two years later, Smile 2 managed to best it in almost every way possible. It put the “smile” curse on a pop star who had to deal with the harrowing aspects of the curse while trying to maintain her lavish life.
Naomi Scott gives a remarkable performance as the protagonist. She was so good that many believed she should’ve been in the conversation for an Oscar nomination. Reviews were stronger this time around and Smile 3 is on the way but it’ll be hard to live up to what Scott did here.
Halloween (2018)
To put out a slasher movie better than 1978’s Halloween is incredibly difficult. That’s even more true to do it within the same franchise as, while not all Halloween sequels were bad, none of them managed to live up to what the original achieved.
It took going back to its roots for the franchise to be at its best. In 2018, a direct sequel was made to that 1978 film, meaning any storylines from other sequels were ignored. This placed the focus on Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, only 40 years later.
Halloween 2018 positioned Laurie as a woman destroyed by the events of 1978, yet one who trained relentlessly for the day Michael came back for her. From a gripping story involving Laurie’s family to a merciless Michael to impressive long takes, this film is Halloween at its finest.
Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ II (1987)
Although the original Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ from 1981 is a classic that did so much with so little in terms of its budget, there’s no denying that the sequel improved upon it. The first can drag a bit despite being less than 90 minutes long and Bruce Campbell’s Ashley isn’t all that interesting.
Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ II made two important changes that turned Sam Raimi’s franchise into one of the best. The film incorporated comedic elements, and it turned Campbell’s Ashley into Ash, a much more confident, funny, and impressive hero.
Although Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ II hits a lot of the same beats as the first, Campbell’s performance is much better and Raimi has clearly grown as a filmmaker. It all came together to make something special that set the tone for a franchise that’s still going strong today.
