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Horror movies have more sequels than almost any other genre, as the format is perfectly set up for more stories, whether it brings back the slasher killer or just has people repeating the same attacks, similar to the Scream franchise. This happens mostly with popular characters like Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers returning for more kills.
However, there are moments where a franchise continues on, but a director makes a drastic change and alters everything people know about that specific series of horror movies. Oftentimes, this is after the original horror tropes are played out, and other times, it is just a way to shake things up and keep the franchise fresh.
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
When watching 10 Cloverfield Lane, it almost feels like the studio took a random horror movie and added the Cloverfield title to sell more tickets. This is actually, in fact, what happened, as it is based on a spec script called The Cellar. That is why the movie bears almost no similarities to the original found footage monster attack movie.
10 Cloverfield Lane is a standalone horror movie about a young woman who is brought into an underground bunker by a survivalist who claims the outside world is uninhabitable, and she begins to suspect he is hiding something. It is a claustrophobic tale of terror that shares more in common with Misery than Cloverfield.
The ending saw the young woman escape after killing her captor, and she found herself in a world that was overrun with the kaiju from Cloverfield. While the ending tied 10 Cloverfield Lane to Cloverfield, it felt shoehorned in and really didn’t fit the film’s themes, making it a very different experience for viewers.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was a dark and violent horror movie about a family of cannibals who killed a group of youngsters who happened upon their house in rural Texas. It is a gory and dirty experience that remains one of the most intense horror movies released in the 1970s. The Texas Chainsaw sequel was very different.
While the original movie was dark and violent and left viewers squirming in their seats, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 was a dark horror comedy that also played as a slasher movie. There was still gore and violence, but everything here was done with director Tobe Hooper’s tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
Everything from Dennis Hopper’s off-kilter sheriff to the more ridiculous and over-the-top family of cannibals was played for dark humor, even as they murdered everyone they could get their hands on. Critics and audiences seemed to hate it when it was released, but it has become a cult classic with fans loving the deranged humor.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch did the exact same thing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s sequel did, but it did not surprise people as much. That is because the original Gremlins movie was not a terrifying horror movie, but was a fun film of little demonic creatures and the young adults who had to survive them.
That said, Gremlins 2 took things way further than the original movie ever attempted. The first film had its humor, but it also had a lot of heart, and people actually cared about the protagonists as they fought for survival. The sequel only cared about going to extremes and being as absurd as possible.
There was even a Key and Peele sketch that spoofed someone coming in and helping them as a «sequel doctor» and accepting the most ridiculous things ever, and everything mentioned in the sketch was in the actual movie. Gremlins went from a fun family horror movie to a ridiculous horror spoof.
Bride Of Chucky (1998)
Child’s Play is a horror movie that started as a pure horror slasher franchise, and things got a little dark over the years when it came to the doll possessed by the spirit of a dead serial killer. The idea of a doll terrorizing a young child was always going to make for a scary movie, and the first film was a masterpiece.
However, everything changed with Bride of Chucky in 1998. Child’s Play was always a franchise that veered toward the absurd, but with Bride of Chucky, it turned into a full-on dark horror comedy. Chucky got his wife, and with Jennifer Tilly voicing her, it was perfection. This led to the next movie, where they had a baby.
The brilliant TV series, Chucky, reined things back in a little, but there was still a dark sense of humor that continued to play throughout the franchise, and it was all thanks to the self-referential parody that started in Bride of Chucky.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
It could be said that Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was Craven’s test run for the Scream franchise. That is because this movie, released two years before Scream, created the self-referential horror franchise before Scream mastered it. The only problem was that Nightmare on Elm Street fans were not prepared.
The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise always had comedic moments, but they were always dark and mean-spirited. This was all about Freddy Krueger, and the dream killer was as cruel as he was violent. However, Craven changed things in 1994 when he mixed reality with fiction in New Nightmare.
The original cast was back, with Heather Langencamp (Nancy) and Robert Englund (Freddy) playing fictional versions of themselves, and even Wes Craven was in the movie as he tried to write the new Nightmare movie. However, when the «real» Freddy tried to break through to the real world, the film rewrote all the rules of horror movies.
Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982)
There are some cases where the creator of a horror franchise wants to change everything, but it ends up as a box office failure, and the studio demands it be returned to the status quo. This happened to John Carpenter and his Halloween franchise. After directing the first film, the studio asked him to write another with Michael Myers.
However, after Halloween II, Carpenter was finished with Michael Myers, and he wanted to turn the Halloween franchise into an anthology movie series with a new horror story each year. However, the studio (and fans) wanted Michael Myers back, and Carpenter quit when the studio passed this decree.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch only had Carpenter as a producer, but it was what he wanted from the franchise. The story was about a company with a plot to sell Halloween masks that would turn the people wearing them into homicidal killers. It ended up as the only Halloween film that wasn’t about Michael Myers.
Army Of Darkness (1992)
The first Evil Dead movie was a masterwork of independent horror, as Sam Raimi worked magic with little money and turned in one of the most iconic splatstick horror movies of the 1980s. The second movie told the exact same story, but with a bigger budget, more money, and it remains one of the best horror movies of all time.
However, Raimi changed everything about the franchise with Army of Darkness. The movie turned from a cabin in the woods-style demonic slasher to a high fantasy movie in the distant past, but still retaining the same basic villains. The threat level was also upped with an army of Deadites.
It is clear that Sam Raimi was flexing his creative muscles with Army of Darkness. The film retained the humor that was largely thanks to Bruce Campbell and the splatstick horror, but this changed the rules and offered up something that was completely different from what Evil Dead fans might have expected.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Everett Collection
The first Terminator movie was a genuine slasher horror movie, but with a robot from the future as the slasher killer stalking a young woman through the city. There was also the twist of a soldier from the future sent back in time to help her, and the robot was virtually unstoppable in its pursuit.
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However, the sequel changed everything. The movie’s main story was still the same. A robot was sent back from the future, this time to kill the woman’s son, and this time, it was a version of the first movie’s robot killer that was sent back to protect the child. However, this was not so much a horror movie as a sci-fi action extravaganza.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day wasn’t about the slasher horror moments. It was about car chases, gun battles, and a variety of special effects that allowed James Cameron to cut loose with everything he dreamed up in his head. The Terminator sequel morphed from horror to sci-fi action without missing a beat.
Prey (2022)
The Predator franchise struggled over the years and never reached the level of success of its sister franchise, Alien. The first sequel moved the action from the jungle to the city, and it remains mostly forgotten. A third movie moved it to a hunting grounds planet, and a fourth was a disappointing -up to the first two films.
However, Prey changed everything about the Predator franchise and launched the series into a new generation. This took the action to the far past and put an Indigenous woman against the ruthless hunter, while also seeing her battling oppressors coming into America at the same time.
Dan Trachtenberg’s movie was a monumental success, even though it was a Hulu original. It soon led to an animated Hulu movie anthology and a new big-screen release in 2025, as Prey changed everything about Predator for the better.
Aliens (1986)
The first Alien movie is best described as a haunted house movie in space. Directed by Ridley Scott, the movie puts a group of scavengers in space coming across an abandoned ship and realizing too late that a deadly alien was onboard. One survivor (and her cat) came out alive after battling the Xenomorph.
Ripley was the Final Girl in what was a slasher movie with an alien. However, when James Cameron took over and directed Aliens, he changed everything about the formula. The horror moments were mostly added to a sci-fi action story. Cameron brought in colonial marines with big guns to fight the Xenomorphs.
Yes, the marines still all died, and it still ended up as a Final Girl trying to survive (and protect a child this time), but the action scenes, the big guns, and the explosive action turned this from a haunted house in space story into a big-budget action extravaganza. The Alien franchise changed everything in its sequel.
