Director Wes Craven, the “father-creator” of the famous Freddy Krueger, allowed himself to be pirononized over horror films. He included in the outline of his film “The Scream” not only maniacs fixated on the movie thrash, but also a dialogue of characters discussing which sequel to the horror movie was really a success.
When the sequel is brilliant
What is a movie sequel? If simply - this is a continuation of another film. The guys from Scream may not have suspected that they themselves would become the heroes of the sequel. But they were absolutely right, calling the films “Aliens” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” the most successful sequels. These are really the best sequels in the opinion of many movie experts and the audience. And in both cases, the director of the sequels was James Cameron. If “Aliens” unwound the thread of the storyline of the thriller filmed by Ridley Scott, then in “Terminator 2” the director continued the work that he himself began in the first part. Cameron managed not only to develop the prequel plots, but also to intrigue and frighten the audience even more, and also retained the main cast of the predecessor film. In the second Terminator, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger and the then wife of director Linda Hamilton. In the horror film about monsters “aliens” and Helen Ripley opposing them, the inimitable Sigourney Weaver once again appeared in the role of a brave heroine. So, a sequel is often a fairly successful project, the creation of which is dictated by the commercial success of a blockbuster.
This is how franchises are born
Often the literary basis of a film consists of several parts, and the whole plot does not fit into the framework of a single film production. Then the sequel is, for example, an adaptation of the second volume or the next book of the same author with the same characters. Sometimes this translates into "multi-part" sagas. It happened, for example, with a cycle about Harry Potter or about adventures in the mysterious Narnia, with Twilight, with The Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola, shooting the continuation of his own "Godfather", was able to block the achievements of the prequel in all respects. If the first part became the owner of three Oscars, the second received 6 out of 11, which were nominated. In “The Godfather 2”, the line of the youngest son of Vito Corleone - Michael (Al Pacino) is more developed, plus a retrospection with the biography of the young Vito was shown (Robert De Niro earned the Academy Award by 100%!). Here with the movie "Twilight. Saga. New Moon ”was not so successful. Although the audience’s excitement was provided (there are enough fans for the saga), but because the second book itself is somewhat protracted and sluggish, it has little action (which “burst out” to the next sequels), the film was not very interesting.
Neither overtake nor overtake!
If we consider weak attempts to continue, then the not-so-successful sequel is also a rather frequent phenomenon. Filmmakers believe so much that on the crest of already existing success, more can be achieved, so to speak, “catch up and overtake”, that they start up frankly disastrous things in production. David Cronenberg’s movie "The Fly" with a charming (even in a mutated form) infernal giant brunette Jeff Goldblum and cute Gina Davis has become a classic of the genre. Despite the fact that it was shot almost 30 years ago, the
thriller is interesting and original. What the director of the 2nd part Chris Wallace did does not go in any comparison with the original. Similarly, Jan de Bont was not able to "climb to the top" of his own "Speed" in the continuation of the tape. And he did Keanu Reeves right that he did not want to take part in Speed ​​2! The sequel is also the film “Hannibal”, which tells about the same ingenious cannibal Lecter, who became the main character in “Silence of the Lambs”. Neither Sir Anthony Hopkins was saved, nor the venerable Ridley Scott in the director's chair. By the way, Jody Foster, awarded the Oscar for Silence of the Lambs, also flatly refused to embody the image of Clarissa for the second time. It is impossible to call
this thriller a failure, it was rather highly appreciated. But in comparison with the prequel, he loses.
This is how the sequel can become an independent masterpiece or discredit the idea of ​​its predecessor.