You know you’re in the right college program when you get to talk about your love for movies in the way they do in Scream 2, when Mickey and Randy debated about sequels—but not just any sequels, horror sequels! And that’s why Empire Strikes Back doesn’t get any consideration here.

“[It’s] not a sequel,” argues Randy, “part of a trilogy completely planned.”

Yeah, well…shut up, Randy. This is why I’m taking Mickey’s side: to explain why the second movie in horror franchises can be just as good, or possibly even better than the first. 

Scream 2

The expectations are high for sequels to live up to their originals, yet they often disappoint. But why? People say it has to do with a lack of originality or laziness from the studio, but Scream 2 treated its disadvantage like a challenge and worked it into the self-aware sense of humour that the franchise is famous for.

For this movie there was a copycat killer: a Ghostface who was very determined to create a worthy sequel, and one who got all riled up every time someone told him it was a bad idea. Maybe he did base his idea off of the first killer, and maybe he was a little clumsier—one time managing to trip over an entire couch—but he tried, and he tried hard (so no one can dare call his sequel lazy!).

There is just something about them: Scream and Scream 2 will always feel the most classic to me, complimenting each other as the beginning and a highly worthy continuation. The franchise slowly started to get less appealing to me afterwards, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Child’s Play 2

Sequels have a hidden advantage to their originals when handled right. Having established a world with characters and backstories already, the original movies save sequels time from introducing these things so they can get straight to the plot.

A great example of this is Child’s Play 2. I remember finding it dissatisfying in the first movie at how young Andy was, and how little he could communicate about the killer doll, Chucky. In the sequel Andy is two years older, more capable of making decisions and understanding the consequences of the situation. Questions like, “When will he try to hide Chucky?” or “When should he trust people to believe him?” add conflict, and therefore brings more excitement to the story.

Sequels can develop relationships much further between characters than the first movie had the chance to. But aw, poor Andy, and just about every other horror protagonist with more than one film…I’ll bet they wished to say goodbye to the killer the first time they killed them.

The Ring Two

Samara reminds me of myself as a child: a horror fan long before she was allowed to watch the movies, so nobody knew what influenced her to be so damn creepy. I love her for it, and I love her sequel for giving her more screen time in a more sympathetic light. It’s a personal preference, perhaps, but it still falls into interesting character development.

Her character has been represented as an entity of pure evil, a vengeful ghost who never stops killing. In the first movie when she was speaking to a doctor in an old tape, he suggests that maybe she didn’t want to hurt anyone—but her answer is what you might expect something evil to say: “But I do.”

Then she said she was sorry. It’s confusing what Samara was trying to say.

By The Ring Two, it’s clear she will do anything and deceive anyone to get what she wants, even if it’s only to belong or to be loved. And it can be hard to see the malice of a plan behind the face of an “innocent” child, making me almost start to root for her against my better judgement. That’s what makes the horror and fascination for me in this movie strong: maybe Samara is half evil, and half misunderstood?

…

So that’s that, do I win this game? Do I get a high-five from the class? Oh, stop pouting, Randy, and acknowledge my points. Write your own blog, if you will—but horror sequels can be great!

Teagan kept on hearing she would have to write some blog posts for college. That joke about writing about horror gave her real fits…then she realized they were serious. At least she’s seen plenty of slasher movies and has her dark sense of humour to work in her favour.

You have just heard from her with her funny little games. They say she’s a writer now. Ha ha.