These Are the 15 Worst Horror Movie Sequels Ever Made

2018 has proven to be a great year for horror. But so many years prior suffered from a very strong dip in quality, as these terrible sequels prove.

'Exorcist II: The Heretic' (1977)

The original "Exorcist" is hailed as being one of the greatest horror films of all time. This sequel is so bad that many prefer to classify it as an unintentional comedy. Even creator William Peter Blatty called it one of the worst films ever made.

'Halloween III: SEason of the Witch' (1982)

"Halloween III" is a lousy film by any measure, but it's especially bad in the context of being a sequel. It shares essentially nothing in common with the rest of the franchise, not even main villain Michael Myers. Instead, there's a bunch of nonsense about a witch's curse and Stonehenge or something? We'd rather forget this one ever happened.

'Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf' (1985)

If the early '80s ushered in a new renaissance for werewolf movies, the late '80s pretty much killed that sub-genre dead. You'll be hard-pressed to find a franchise that plummets harder from Part 1 to Part 2. But hey, at least Sybil Danning was clearly having a blast making this one.

'Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2' (1987)

Before "The Room," there was "Silent Night, Deadly Night Part II." This movie barely qualifies as a sequel, given how much it relies on unused footage from the first installment. The acting and production values are so terrible as to become the stuff of cinematic legend.

'Ghoulies II' (1988)

The main purpose of the "Ghoulies" franchise seems to be tricking people browsing the video store aisles into thinking they're getting a halfway decent knockoff of "Gremlins." They aren't. The original was already one of the worst movies ever made, and the "sequel" (if you can call it that) is no better.

'Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan' (1989)

When your R-rated horror franchise winds up sharing a subtitle with a Muppets movie, you know things have gone off the rails. Worse, said subtitle is basically false advertising, given that the setting doesn't actually shift to Manhattan until the end of the movie. The concept had potential, but the film needed a bigger budget and a far better script to actually live up to that potential.

'The Amityville Curse' (1990)

There's plenty of room for debate as far as which entry in the painfully drawn-out "Amityville Horror" series is the worst. Our money is on the fifth movie. It's an aggressively generic haunted house movie with lousy scares and almost no connection to previous Amityville movies.

'Psycho IV: The Beginning' (1990)

Hollywood's first and biggest mistake with the "Psycho" franchise was trying to turn it into a franchise in the first place. None of the sequels come anywhere close to the quality of the original. Certainly not this dreadful TV movie, which serves as an early example of the "part-sequel, part-prequel, part-reboot" trend currently sweeping the industry.

'Troll 2' (1990)

You could argue whether this movie even qualifies for this list, given that it's a sequel to 1986's "Troll" in name only. But it certainly ranks among the worst movies ever made, horror or otherwise. "Troll 2" can be great fun with a crowd, but if you prefer your horror movies un-ironically enjoyable, you'll want to steer far clear of this one.

'The Rage: Carrie 2' (1999)

One of the reasons the original "Carrie" worked so well is that it saved most of its supernatural elements for the gore-drenched finale. This long-delayed sequel lacks that sense of restraint. Instead, it manages to be a pale imitation with none of the craft or impact of its predecessor.

'Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2' (2000)

Look, no one is blaming Artisan for wanting to put together a sequel to one of the most profitable movies ever made. But maybe they could have made an effort to actually replicate the formula of the original? By abandoning the found footage format, "Book of Shadows" winds up being a really generic and forgettable horror flick.

'Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman' (2000)

1997's "Jack Frost" is firmly in the "so bad it's good" camp. Which is fine, but there's a limit to how many killer snowmen we can tolerate. This unnecessary sequel manages to be an inferior copy of a movie that was already pretty lousy to begin with.

'American Psycho 2' (2002)

This slasher movie would have been bad no matter what, but the fact that it was retrofitted at the last minute to become a sequel to the surprise hit "American Psycho" really didn't help matters. It fails to measure up to the original in any way, lacking the strong cast, intense death scenes or clever commentary on the destructive lifestyles of the wealthy elite. We really hope Lionsgate learned its lesson with this one.

'Hellraiser: Revelations' (2011)

Dimension barely even tried to disguise the fact that the eighth "Hellraiser" sequel was a mere contractual obligation. This awful sequel was shot on a shoestring budget in a handful of months (and without regular star Doug Bradley) so that Dimension could hang on to the property long enough to move forward on a more ambitious reboot. Adding insult to injury, that reboot still hasn't materialized.

'Paranormal Activity 4' (2012)

Like most horror franchises, "Paranormal Activity" is a series of steadily diminishing returns. This sequel marks the point where the series really lost its way, relying more and more on cheap, gimmicky additions to the found footage format and more wrinkles to the convoluted, unnecessary mythology.