Sequels are always tricky. On one hand, they can keep the magic of a beloved franchise alive and well while giving fans more of what they fell in love with the first time. The Godfather Part II and The Dark Knightstand as proof of what a well-done sequel can really achieve.
However, chasing nostalgia isn’t always enough. The truth is that you can always tell when a sequel is missing the heart of the original. In these cases, it’s not just the film that fails, but also risks damaging the legacy of its predecessor. Here are ten films that were almost too cruel to their sequels.
10
‘Mean Girls 2’ (2011)
The original Mean Girls(2004), starring Lindsay Lohan, practically set the benchmark for teen comedies. The film has it all: humor, romance, the complexities of growing up and surviving the wild world of high school. Not to mention that Mean Girls is one of the most quotable films Hollywood has ever seen. However, the sequel turned out to be a total disaster. I should have realized that Mean Girls 2 would be a complete disappointment when it received a direct-to-video release. I still hoped that it would live up to its predecessor in some aspects, but that really wasn’t the case. Mean Girls 2 follows Jo Mitchell (Meaghan Jette Martin), a tomboy who attends North Shore High and becomes friends with Abby Hanover (Jennifer Stone), the school’s outcast.
Then we have the new Plastics, Mandi Weatherly (Maiara Walsh), Chastity Meyer (Claire Holt), and Hope Plotkin (Nicole Gale Anderson), who are a mere shadow of what the group was in the original. The original Mean Girls was a massive success for its sharp social satire on high school cliques and all the toxic things teenagers might do to fit in. Unfortunately, the sequel threw all of that away for on-the-nose messages about self-acceptance that just didn’t land well. The Plastics just don’t feel as ruthless as they did in the original, and the prank war they get into against Jo and Abby is one of the most useless plot points of the entire film. Not to mention Mandi’s rivalry with Jo, which is basically what starts this whole thing, boils down to a shallow conflict, compared to the pure fear Rachel McAdams inspired as Regina George. Overall, I should have just rewatched the original for the 20th time instead of trying to get through this mess of a sequel.
9
‘S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale’ (2009)
Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko (2001) has gone down in Hollywood history as one of the most iconic psychological thrillers of all time. Jake Gyllenhaal’s portrayal of Donnie, an awkward teenager who narrowly escapes death and starts experiencing strange visions, deserves all the praise and more. It’s definitely hard for any sequel to live up to that kind of performance, but it feels likeS. Darko: A Donnie Darko Taledidn’t even try to! The film focuses on Donnie’s younger sister, Samantha Darko (Daveigh Chase), who begins experiencing the same kind of visions as her brother. While the story does seem to be the perfect continuation of its iconic predecessor, the sequel just felt like someone took Kelly’s ideas and went crazy with them. It felt like S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale was just trying to cash in on the fame of the original by leaning on Easter eggs and recycled plots that didn’t really feel organic.
There’s no denying that Chase delivered a great performance in the original, but she just didn’t have the acting chops to carry an entire film as the lead. The cast also features Ed Westwick, Briana Evigan, James Lafferty, and Jackson Rathbone, but the acting can be described as surface-level at best. The worst part, though, is that the sequel fails to recreate that unsettling feeling of the original because it tries to over-explain everything that was left ambiguous in the Gyllenhaal starrer for a reason. The movie even falls short on a technical level, and it’s a little shocking to see visual effects that are weaker than the original, despite being made years later. Ultimately, S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale remains one of the most forgettable sequels ever made.
8
‘A Christmas Story 2’ (2012)
Some movies are just not meant to have sequels, and the 1983 A Christmas Storyis one of them. Honestly, I don’t even want to call Brian Levant’s direct-to-video Christmas comedy, A Christmas Story 2, a continuation of the original because of how bad it was. The film stars Braeden Lemasters as a 15-year-old version of Ralphie Parker, who doesn’t even come close to Peter Billingsley in the original. The story follows Ralphie and his friends Flick (David W. Thompson) and Schwartz (David Buehrle) getting jobs at Higbee’s department store to pay off the damages after they crash a 1939 Mercury Eight convertible.
The plot does sound interesting, and I was really into the idea of following Ralphie as a teenager just to see what kind of shenanigans he gets up to. Sadly, though, the 2012 version of Ralphie is nothing like the character we all know and love. The biggest problem with the sequel is that its execution feels like a cheap cash-grab, and once you notice that, you can’t even enjoy it as a mindless comedy. A Christmas Story 2 doesn’t have any of the magic of the 1983 classic. The warmth and familiarity of the story are replaced by loud slapstick comedy, exaggerated stakes, unrealistic characters, and fake-looking sets that fail to recreate an authentic sense of time and place. Add in all the actors’ one-note performances to the mix, and you have a sequel that’s an insult to the legacy of Bob Clark’s original.
7
‘Son of the Mask’ (2005)
The Mask(1994) turned Jim Carrey into a comedy superstar. The film was wacky and downright nasty at times, but that was the entire point. The Mask combined Carrey’s manic energy with CGI effects that were nothing short of groundbreaking at the time, and ended up cementing itself as a Hollywood classic. However, when New Line visited the franchise over a decade later, it proved to be a terrible decision. I’d like to give Son of the Mask some grace, but honestly, the plot is doomed right from the start. The film follows Jamie Kennedy as Tim Avery, an animator who finds the iconic mask after his dog fishes it out of a river. That’s not all, though, because he then impregnates his wife, Tonya (Traylor Howard), and their baby is born with the mask’s powers. As if all of that wasn’t enough,Alan Cummingplays Loki, who travels to Earth to find the mask. Despite all that, though, the film doesn’t really have a concrete story to tell.
It’s almost as if the filmmakers ran crazy with the special effects without really thinking much about plot or character development. From a jealous dog trying to kill the baby to kidnappings and magic rituals, Son of the Mask is all over the place and not in a good way. The film barely feels like a sequel because it has none of the standout elements of the original. To me, Carrey is the mask, and Kennedy could barely scratch the surface of what the original actor did with his animated physicality.Son of the Mask was so terrible that most fans of the franchise like to pretend that it doesn’t even exist.
6
‘Mortal Kombat: Annihilation’ (1997)
Mortal Kombat: Annihilationis a spot-on title for this sequel because it annihilated the franchise itself. The 1995 Mortal Kombatwasn’t a cinematic masterpiece, but it had a certain charm to it. For starters, fans of the gaming franchise that inspired the film were happy with the adaptation and its surprisingly impressive martial arts choreography. The sequel, however, suffers from a poorly developed story, wooden acting, and fight scenes that don’t even come close to the first movie. Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage was one of my favorite parts of the original, and the fact that the sequel killed him within the opening minutes should have been my cue to stop watching.
What’s worse is that Mortal Kombat: Annihilation recasts nearly the entire lineup of the first film, which gives you practically nothing to stay invested in. The introduction of Animality, one of the most important parts of the games, was supposed to be this big, jaw-dropping moment. However, it ends up being a laughable CGI showdown with Liu Kang (Robin Shou) morphing into what I can only call a blob with wings and a tail. The film’s ridiculous character arcs and low-quality set pieces, combined with the producer Lawrence Kasanoff admitting that the film was released unfinished, explain why the third installment in the franchise was eventually canceled. After this epic failure, the Mortal Kombat live-action franchise was rebooted in 2021 for a much-needed fresh start.
5
‘Speed 2: Cruise Control’ (1997)
The original Speed (1994) starring Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, and Sandra Bullockis a masterpiece. The premise of a bus that will explode if it drops below 50 mph sounds absurd, but Jan de Bont made it work and delivered one of the most exhilarating action films of all time. The sequel, however, took away everything that made the original an all-time classic. Speed 2: Cruise Control follows Bullock reprising her role as Annie and her new boyfriend Alex (Jason Patric) on a Caribbean cruise that is hijacked by John Geiger (Willem Dafoe), a former employee of the cruise company.
Some might argue that the thrilling setup of the original would translate well in a setting as contained as this one, but the truth is, the whole thing lacked the sense of urgency that made Speed so iconic. Not to mention that Reeves turned down the offer to reprise his role, which obviously leaves a huge gap that Patric can’t fill with his lackluster acting. Bullock herself is nowhere near the well-developed character that she was in the original and is reduced to an almost dumb, stereotypical female sidekick. The action sequences in Speed 2: Cruise Control are ridiculously exaggerated to the point where they almost feel like a parody. If you loved the original Speed, I’d suggest avoiding the sequel like the plague.
4
‘Basic Instinct 2’ (2006)
The first Basic Instinct(1992) was a pop culture moment. The film was an erotic thriller, but at the same time, it was a brilliant take on the genre that made Sharon Stoneone of cinema’s greatest femme fatales. Let’s be honest, that famous interrogation scene is one of the most iconic movie moments of all time. The film had everything, from sexuality to suspense and a story that kept you wanting more. The 2006 sequel tried to capture that same magic, but it failed horribly. Basic Instinct 2, directed by Michael Caton-Jones, follows Stone as she reprises the role of Catherine Tramell, who is involved in yet another suspicious death.
That’s where the similarities between the two films end, because it feels like the sequel is just trying to recreate the same kind of tension without actually putting in the effort to do so. It felt like the writers had no idea who Catherine was as a character, which made her feel hollow and lifeless, rather than the playful seductress from the original. My biggest issue with the sequel is that it portrays Catherine as a one-dimensional bully, and that just didn’t work. Stone was, of course, as mesmerising as ever, but her charm couldn’t make up for the film’s flat writing and an overall lack of direction. Not to mention that she had absolutely no chemistry with David Morrissey’s Dr. Michael Glass, which completely ruined the purpose of the whole thing. The sex scenes are clumsy at best, and the dialogue sounds like it was written by a 2nd grader. This disastrous sequel is a total skip for me.
3
‘Dumb and Dumber To’ (2014)
The 1994 comedy, Dumb and Dumber, is one of the funniest comedies of the ‘90s. In fact, the film set the benchmark for the genre for years to come. Jim Carreyand Jeff Danielsas Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne were the perfectly lovable dimwits who you couldn’t help but love. I agree that the film was over-the-top and a little too stupid in its comedy, but that was the whole point. Sure, there was no shortage of toilet humor and slapstick jokes, but beneath all that, the story had a certain innocence and sweetness about it. Dumb and Dumber To tried to recreate the magic two decades later, but the film stands as proof of how weak sequels really can be if not executed well. My favourite part about the film is seeing Carrey and Daniels’s undeniable chemistry on screen.
However, the story of the sequel does a massive disservice to them by writing Lloyd and Harry as two mean-spirited pranksters who knew how annoying they were to others. The sequel doesn’t lean into the characters’ obliviousness, and that’s the only way for the story to work in a positive way. This shift was extremely off-putting, and I could barely sit through the whole thing when it included scenes that had Lloyd mocking grieving parents after their son had died in a motorcycle accident. The Farrelly brothers blatantly repeat mannerisms and gags from the original, but they just don’t land the same way. The original film was silly, but it’s also extremely rewatchable. Dumb and Dumber To replaces that with a weird kind of cynicism that moves it so far away from the essence of the original that you aren’t really sure if these are the same characters we were once fascinated by.
2
‘Grease 2’ (1982)
John Travoltaand Olivia Newton-John created cinema history with Grease(1978). The film, based on the 1971 musical of the same name, was campy, featured an iconic soundtrack, and became a cultural phenomenon soon after its premiere. If you ask me, giving a film as monumental as Grease a sequel was never going to be an easy task, and the spectacular failure of Grease 2only proves that. The sequel features a mostly new cast, led by Maxwell Caulfield as Sandy’s cousin, Michael, and Michelle Pfeiffer in her first starring role as Stephanie. The story pretty much follows the idea of the original, where an outsider goes through a transformation to win love.
The biggest issue with the sequel was its lack of memorable songs, and it’s just not acceptable for a musical to completely drop the ball with its music. The songs, as bad as they were, didn’t even advance the story like “Summer Nights” or “You’re the One That I Want” did in the original. By the second half, I found myself cringing every time I heard a tune play. The character development is nonexistent in the sequel, which means that by the end, you still can’t bring yourself to care for anyone. The film feels like a recycled version of the original without any of its energy. I won’t deny that Grease 2 has gained a cult following over the years, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was a total critical failure.
1
‘Jaws: The Revenge’ (1987)
No other thriller comes to Jaws(1975) for me. The sense of tension and paranoia that the film managed to create, not just in the story but also in the real world, was unmatched. Jaws: The Revenge, on the other hand, decided to turn that fear into pure comedy. The sequel is the fourth and final film in the franchise and acts as a direct sequel to Jaws 2 (1978) while completely ignoring the events of Jaws 3-D(1983), so you already know this is going to be a whole mess. The film follows Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), who is now widowed, as she starts believing that a great white shark is targeting her family specifically. After the shark kills her youngest son on Christmas Eve, Ellen moves to the Bahamas to protect herself. But somehow, the same shark tracks her down across nearly 2,000 miles of ocean.
If that isn’t ridiculous enough of a plot for you, let me tell you about how Ellen then develops this weird connection to the creature and starts experiencing visions whenever it’s near. By the end of the film, I was wondering why Ellen couldn’t just move to a landlocked country where she just didn’t have to be near water. The part that I hate the most is that in this sequel, the shark is everywhere. The original was so terrifying because we didn’t actually see the menacing creature as much, which is what created that constant sense of danger. But in Jaws: The Revenge, the shark is leaping out of the water every chance it gets, and that just ruins the mystery. Michael Small’s score might just be my favorite part of this sequel because it’s the only thing that’s remotely familiar to the original. Everything else, though, feels more like a soap opera full of melodrama, bad acting, and unintentionally hilarious dialogue.
