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True, but most franchises that I've seen do seem to do that. They are generally re-treads and the studio financial geeks calculate a box office figure based on some fraction of the first movie, come up with a budget that reflects that and then high-five themselves if the movie beats their expectations. They already know what, for example, Freddie Kruger looks like, so there's not much original design needed, actors already are familiar with their roles (even if they didn't act in the earlier movie) and audiences don't need much plot exposition, generally just a plot and character link to the previous movie, so they can get right into the bloodletting.
In my case, I generally avoid sequels because they rarely work for me, but I wonder if someone out there has compiled a list of horror flicks where the sequel was better than the first one.
In my case, I generally avoid sequels because they rarely work for me, but I wonder if someone out there has compiled a list of horror flicks where the sequel was better than the first one.
I know some people who consider Dawn of the Dead to be the best of the trilogy. I myself consider Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 to be my favorite of that franchise. I certainly prefer 10 Cloverfield Lane to the original Cloverfield film. While it is blasphemy to my horror friends, Army of Darkness is easily my favorite film in the Evil Dead series. It's not a well-known pair of films, but I prefer the film The Collection to the original film The Collector.
I won't argue that most sequels aren't lazy. They definitely are. And "horror movie sequel" is often synonymous with "quick cash grab". But a good sequel builds on what came before it, and I think that there are plenty of examples of films that do. And even films that don't reach the heights of the original can still be worth watching. The film New Nightmare isn't as powerful as the original Nightmare on Elm Street but it does some really interesting things with its approach to "meta horror."
I'm often cautious about watching sequels to films I like, because I don't want to "mix" my experience of the original with an underwhelming epilogue. But there are plenty of worthy ones out there. Even series that get pretty bleak (like my beloved Hellraiser, which has generated some of the WORSE films I've ever watched) occasionally produces something like Deader that's worth watching for a handful of effective horror setpieces.
