10 Best Horror Movie Sequels Ranked

From the golden age of the Universal Monsters to modern franchises like Saw, Hollywood has always been in the business of cranking out endless sequels to its most popular scary movies. With such a high volume of fright-inducing follow-ups, it’s safe to say the majority of horror movie sequels aren’t great. Every now and then, however, a studio will produce a worthy successor that matches — or in rare cases surpasses — the original. Some of these sequels expand upon the franchise lore, some up the gore factor, and some of them keep their head down and try not to deviate too far from the established formula. Hey, if it ain’t broke, right?

After some intense research, we managed to put together a list of the most scream-inducing horror sequels ever put on film. In an effort to keep the list firmly rooted in terror, we chose to omit sequels like Aliens and Gremlins 2, which, while amazing, belong to a different genre than horror. Without further ado, here are our picks for the best horror movie sequels ever made.

10) Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Friday the 13th is one of the most convoluted franchises in horror. Jason Voorhees doesn’t show up until the second movie, gets his iconic hockey mask in the third, and doesn’t become a festering, unstoppable corpse — you know, the version of Jason most people picture when they hear Friday the 13th — until the sixth entry.

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is the high point of a very uneven series. Not only is Jason Lives the first time fans were introduced to zombie Jason, but it’s also the most accessible of all the sequels. The movie’s toned-down gore and lack of nudity make it the perfect Friday the 13th film to show a first-time viewer, especially if they’re on the younger side.

9) Final Destination 2 (2003)

All of the Final Destination films featured their share of unique death traps and stomach-turning gore, but one thing sets Final Destination 2 above all the rest: the log truck scene. Like all of the Final Destination movies, part 2 opens with a horrible accident, but in this case, the accident became a pop-culture touchstone.

The horrifying highway accident involving a logging truck and several other vehicles of varying size and shape has left an indelible mark on everyone who has seen it. The scene is so iconic that even drivers who have never seen Final Destination 2 get goosebumps when they pass a logging truck on the highway.

8) Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

The original Hellraiser was already one of the gloopiest, gloppiest gorefests of the ’80s, but apparently, Clive Barker wasn’t satisfied with the level of dripping viscera on display in Pinhead’s first outing because somehow Hellbound: Hellraiser II tops it. While the first movie was content to bring Barker’s demonic hell priests, the cenobites to Earth, Hellbound instead drags us to their realm: Hell. Far from just an empty shell full of blood and organs, Hellraiser II offers haunting visuals and expands upon the lore of the first movie and the cenobites themselves.

Hellbound: Hellraiser II represents a high point in a series that devolves into cheaper and cheaper made-for-video duds, the further it strays from the original.

7) The Exorcist III (1990)

The Exorcist is widely considered one of the best horror films of all time, so obviously the sequels pale in comparison, right? Not exactly. Against all odds, The Exorcist III manages to be not only the best Exorcist since the original but also an excellent thriller in its own right. Elevated by stunning performances from acting legend George C. Scott and Chucky himself, Brad Dourif, as well as a screenplay from original writer William Peter Blatty, Exorcist III is better than any movie with a 3 in the title has any right to be.

6) Smile 2 (2024)

The first Smile was a sleeper hit that put its own grin-related twist on the mysterious entity that jumps from victim to victim formula introduced in It Follows. While a serviceable supernatural thriller that relies a little too much on jump scares, the first Smile left plenty of room for improvement. Room that Smile 2 puts to excellent use.

It’s not one particular thing that makes Smile 2 a better film than its predecessor, but rather a combination of several things. Smile 2 features better scares, a more interesting main character, and a setting — the world of pop stardom and drug addiction — more conducive to the franchise’s central battle between real trauma and psychological delusion.

5) The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

Rob Zombie is like a horror version of Zack Snyder. His fans follow him with an almost cultish devotion, while the larger movie-going population sees him as a hack…with one exception. The Devil’s Rejects — Zombie’s take on a Manson Family-style goup of hillbilly degenerates out for some indiscriminate murder and mayhem — is not just Rob Zombie’s most popular movie with horror aficianados but with critics and cinephiles as well.

Rejects represents the height of Zombie’s talents as a filmmaker and is of a quality neither its predecessor — House of 1,000 Corpses — nor anything else in the director’s filmography comes close to matching. It’s not just good in relation to Rob Zombie’s other work but a genuinely fun, albeit offensively gruesome, film in its own right.

4) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

We won’t beat around the bush: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors features the best Freddy Krueger in the franchise. Period. Dream Warriors was the beginning of the wise-cracking Freddy who dominated the latter half of the 1980s and the last time Krueger would be truly scary. Starting with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, the franchise would focus more on Krueger as a comedic prankster, a dream demon version of Superman’s nemesis, Mister Mxyzptlk.

By comparison, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 showed viewers Freddy at his most cruel and terrifying while also giving him one-liners like “Welcome to primetime b*tch.” Dream Warriors is arguably the best of the Elm Street sequels and, for many fans, tops even the original.

3) Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)

Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn is the only movie on this list that can boast its own horror subgenre. Sam Raimi’s second Evil Dead is often considered the origin of “splatstick” — a genre that mixes slapstick comedy with over-the-top gore — and if you’ve seen the film, you know why.

Featuring literal gallons of blood in the same scene as a laughing desk lamp, Evil Dead 2 is like a Looney Tunes short by way of Terrifier. It’s one of the weirdest, wildest horror sequels and a definite must-see for any gorehound who likes a bit of levity with their carnage.

2) Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Bride of Frankenstein isn’t just one of the best horror sequels of all time, it’s one of the best sequels of all time. James Whale’s follow-up to the original Frankenstein paved the way for sequels like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and The Godfather: Part II, which are widely regarded as superior to their predecessors. Much like those sequels, Bride of Frankenstein broadens the scope of the film that came before it while deepening the viewer’s emotional connection to the characters.

The original Frankenstein presents the monster as an unsympathetic brute, lacking the quiet grace displayed by the creature in Mary Shelley’s original novel. Bride hews closer to the source material, restoring the monster’s gravitas and delivering a horror classic whose influence is still felt today.

1) Dawn of the Dead (1978)

“When there’s no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth.” With that tagline, George Romero delivered to the world his magnum opus, Dawn of the Dead. A horror sequel that not only builds on but improves upon every single aspect of Night of the Living Dead, Dawn set a high bar for zombie movies that has seldom been met in the 47 years since it was released.

Dawn of the Dead is the perfect mix of social commentary and practical gore effects. It’s a film with a powerful anti-consumerist message that also boasts some of the gnarliest organ harvesting ever performed by undead hands. If you’re a horror fan who hasn’t seen Dawn of the Dead, we can’t recommend it enough.

Agree with our picks? Have some of your own? Let us know in the comments.