Recommendations of the Editorial team
Sequels are almost as old as Hollywood itself. Even before sound films came onto the market in 1927, studios were producing follow-up films such as “The Fall of a Nation” and “Don Q, Son of Zorro”. This trend continued in the Golden Age of Hollywood with The Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula’s Daughter, The Thin Man Goes Home, Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell, Jolson Sings Again, and Father’s Little Dividend. The blockbusters of the seventies and eighties such as “Star Wars”, “The Exorcist”, “Halloween”, “Ghostbusters”, “Batman” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark” founded film franchises that continue to this day.
It’s easy to see why risk-averse studios are so eager to greenlight sequels. If a formula worked before, why not just try again? Plus, it’s much easier to market a well-known story than to introduce something new. The problem is that very few sequels in Hollywood history have lived up to the original. And for every “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” that truly justify their existence, there are about 300 films like “Weekend at Bernie’s II” and “Son of the Mask” that, to put it politely, don’t.
Sad journey through Hollywood history
A list of the worst sequels in history could go on almost endlessly, and it would be too simple. Hardly anyone turned on “Crocodile Dundee” in Los Angeles or “American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile” expecting a great masterpiece. When putting together our list of the worst film sequels, we limited ourselves to films that, at the time, gave the impression that they might actually be worth watching. We admit that this is very subjective. And it’s easy to accuse us of expecting something decent from the more recent “Die Hard” or “Terminator” films, but somehow they always managed to raise our hopes at least a little. (If they made Terminator 37, we’d still go in hopeful. We’re fools.)
Join us on this sad journey through Hollywood history where Michael Meyers is never truly dead, John McClane transforms from a regular cop into an immortal killing machine, the odd Star Trek movie is always bad, and we wait in vain for the day when a Jurassic Park sequel is even remotely worth watching.