sequel | the m0vie blog

363. Halloween Ends – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on January 20, 2024 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guests Niall Glynn and Richard Drumm, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends.

In the aftermath of his second brutal massacre, Michael Myers has disappeared. He has retreated into the memory of the suburban town of Haddenfield, leaving only open scars in his wake. The survivors, like Laurie Strode, have done their best to move on with their lives in the wake of unimaginable tragedy, but there is something stirring beneath the surface of Haddenfield, just waiting to bubble up in the right circumstances. Evil is stirring. Evil is growing. Evil is waiting, but not for long.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: corey cunningham, david gordon green, endings, expectations, Folklore, halloween, halloween ends, horror, intellectual property, Jamie Lee Curtis, joey keogh, John Carpenter, laurie strode, male anger, michael myers, niall glynn, podcast, richard drumm, sequel, sexuality, slasher, stephen king, The 250, trilogy | Leave a comment »

349. Halloween II (1981) – All-o’-Ween (#—)

Posted on October 14, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Joey Keogh, this week with special guest Billie Jean Doheny, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This year, we are running a season looking at the films in the Halloween franchise. So this week, Rick Rosenthal’s Halloween II.

In the immediate aftermath of Michael Myers’ brutal killing spree, the lone survivor is rushed to hospital. As Sam Loomis searches desperately for the monster stalking Haddenfield, Laurie Strode makes some startling discoveries about her own family history that suggests the violence of the evening was not as random as it initially appeared to be.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: ben tramer, dick warlock, franchise, halloween, halloween 2, halloween ii, horror, hospital, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Carpenter, michael myers, rick rosenthal, sequel, slasher, splatter | Leave a comment »

326. Child’s Play 2 (#—)

Posted on June 3, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Charlene Lydon, this week joined by special guest Diamanda Hagan, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, John Lafia’s Child’s Play 2.

Following a series of unexplained traumatic events, Andy Barclay has been taken into foster care, hoping to put the nightmare of “Chucky” behind him. Unfortunately, the Play Pal Corporation has other ideas. Desperate to put rumours about their Good Guy Dolls to rest, the company decides to reconstruct the doll at the centre of that horrific incident. Naturally, the doll takes on a life of its own, and Chucky resumes his fixation on the young victim who got away.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: andy barclay, Brad Dourif, charlene lydon, charles lee ray, child's play, child's play 2, chucky, diamanda hagan, don mancini, horror, john lafia, roger ebert, sequel, slasher | Leave a comment »

336. Jeepers Creepers: Reborn (-#37)

Posted on May 27, 2023 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Joey Keogh and Billie Jean Doheny, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Timo Vuorensola’s Jeepers Creepers: Reborn.

Twenty-three years after its last feeding frenzy, the mysterious “Creeper” has emerged from its rest, and it hungers. Finding itself drawn to a horror convention in Louisiana, the Creeper plans to unleash a nightmare all of its own upon the unsuspecting cosplayers.

At time of recording, it was ranked 37th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The Bottom 100, This Just In | Tagged: #metoo, billie jean doheny, hollywood, horror, ip, jeepers creeper, jeepers creepers: reborn, joey keogh, me too, nathan winters, podcast, reboot, sequel, sexual assault, slasher, The 250, The Bottom 100, the creeper, Timo Vuorensola, victor salva | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Video! “Scream VI is a Safe but Sturdy Slasher”

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Darren

I’m thrilled to be launching movie and television reviews on The Escapist. Over the coming weeks and months, I will be joining a set of contributors in adding these reviews to the channel. For the moment, I’m honoured to contribute a five-minute film review of Scream VI, which was released in cinemas this weekend.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: escapist, franchise, high-concept, horror, Randy, review, Scream, scream vi, sequel, slasher, the escapist | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Craft Disservices – “Constantine”

Posted on November 1, 2022 by Darren

I was delighted to join the wonderful Aaron Coker for an episode of his film podcast, Craft Disservices.

The premise of the podcast is built around the discussion of movies that were perhaps undervalued at the time, or that were greeted with critical hostility, and placing them in a broader context. Constantine is an interesting subject for such a reappraisal, and not just because there has recently been a sequel announced. Constantine represents one of the last of a certain breed of comic book adaptations, movies willing to play fast and loose with the lore in the process of translating them to screen. It is also a movie that exists among the last of a wave of truly diverse comic book adaptations before the superhero genre takes over.

You can listen directly to the episode below or by clicking here.

Filed under: Movies, Podcasts! | Tagged: alan moore, cast, comic books, Comics, constantine, Craft Disservices, devils, Keanu Reeves, podcast, sequel, smoking, Warner Bros, Warner Brothers | Leave a comment »

278. The Godfather: Part III/Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (#—)

Posted on March 12, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Jenn Gannon and Jason Coyle, The 250 is a weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

So this week, both Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part III and Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.

It is 1979. Michael Corleone has solidified control of the Corleone crime family, and hopes to take the family business completely legitimate by striking a deal with the Vatican Bank. Trying desperately to reunited his fractured and divided family, Michael quickly discovers that organised crime isn’t the only place where criminals are lurking, ready to strike.

At time of recording, neither movie was ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: al pacino, belief, epic, faith, francis ford coppola, godfather, hollywood, paramount, religion, sequel, sofia coppola, the godfather, the godfather coda, The Godfather Part III, the godfather: part 3, the vatican | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On James Cameron’s “Aliens” as a Challenge to Ridley Scott’s “Alien”…

Posted on July 5, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. James Cameron’s Aliens is thirty-five years old this July, so it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at one of the best sequels ever made.

Aliens works in large part because it’s smart enough to avoid directly challenging Alien, in that it avoids simply recycling the original formula with a shift in location or with a new cast. Instead, it offers a very different approach to the core material. More than that, James Cameron positions Aliens as a direct challenge to Alien, deliberately and pointedly inverting some of the core themes of the original film. This choice enriches both films, turning Alien and Aliens into a conversation.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: alien, aliens, Ellen Ripley, feminism, Fox, horror, james cameron, ridley scott, Ripley, science fiction, sequel, sequels, themes | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On the Inevitability of a “Knives Out” Sequel…

Posted on February 19, 2020 by Darren

I published an In the Frame piece at Escapist Magazine on Monday, to mark the news that Knives Out would officially be getting a sequel.

To be fair, this news was hardly a surprise given the box office success of the film. With a tiny budget, Knives Out managed to gross over three hundred million dollars worldwide. Even before the sequel was officially announced, it seemed inevitable. And it will most likely be another great time at the cinema. At the same time, though, it’s hard not to feel like the proper way to celebrate the success of Knives Out might not be to start producing Knives Out sequels en masse, but instead to simply make more movies like Knives Out.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: budget, knives out, lionsgate, originality, Rian Johnson, sequel | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Terminator – Dark Fate

Posted on October 24, 2019 by Darren

Terminator: Dark Fate is perhaps the second-best of the four attempts to make a third Terminator movie.

To be fair, the previous three efforts have all been exercises in figuring out how close or how far to hew to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. There has been a sense of watching various chefs trying awkwardly to replicate a signature dish. Does a Terminator sequel need Sarah Connor? Does Sarah Connor have to be played by Linda Hamilton? Is Arnold Schwarzenegger essential, and to what degree? James Cameron isn’t going to direct because he has his own projects, but what level of involvement is “just right”? Is it enough for him to do some press, to be a producer, or does he need a story credit?

Fight and flight.

The results have been as interesting as they have been frustrating. Few film franchises has branched quite as dramatically as the Terminator franchise, perhaps reflecting the series’ own preoccupation with time travel. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator: Salvation and Terminator: Genisys have all tried to figure out a way to make a sequel to Judgment Day, and have only really managed to agree that each of the others adopted the wrong approach. Dark Fate at least seems like the right Terminator sequel for its own time and place, tapping into a wave of nineties anxiety and franchise dominance.

Dark Fate is only moderately successful as a film in its own right, and as a follow on to one of the most beloved blockbusters of all-time. It says much more about the larger Terminator franchise than about Dark Fate that it counts as one of the best sequels to Judgment Day.