(Photo by Paramount Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection. SMILE 2.)

78 Best Horror Movie Sequels

Is it any wonder when filmmakers make it big with a horror movie original, we’d be naïve to not expect a wave of sequels? Perfect the ratio of budget costs to scary shocks, and studios will be rolling out profitable sequel after sequel like a hellbound factory on wheels. But passing critics inspection is another thing, so we’re presenting the best horror sequels ever, everything fit for consumption when going back in for bloody seconds and more.

To start, these are not movies that improved upon their predecessor’s Tomatometer scores. We wanted more than just three entries on this list. These are horror sequels that crossed the basic boo barrier of the 60% Tomatometer score.

And we play it loose defining sequels. We allowed entry for movies in vaguely connected or anthology series, including V/H/S/, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey, and ABCs of Death. And we chucked in prequel movies like A Quiet Place: Day One, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Annabelle: Creation. To reiterate: Prequels is sequels, Finkle is Einhorn.

While long-shambling horror and especially slasher series may give the impression that creating a broadly appealing sequel is anything but child’s play, strong, even superior sequels have been found dating back to Bride of Frankenstein in 1935, Hammer’s own Frankenstein series and the Quatermass movies of the 1950s and 1960s, and Dawn of the Dead of the 1970s.

Some series are almost made up entirely of strong follow-ups, like the Scream movies which counts only the third movie as its Rotten stab at it. A Quiet Place and Evil Dead never got buried.

But other franchises can take decades. Michael Myers didn’t get Fresh with it again until 2018’s Halloween, 40 years after the original. 2023’s X marks the spot for Saw, the only widely critics-supported Jigsaw joint, including the 2004 original.

And now recently, we got Smile 2, Terrifier 3, and Alien: Romulus. With all of them on deck, continue on to discover the best horror sequels of all time!