5. Beetlejuice (1987)
The Tim Burton classic “Beetlejuice” introduced both Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton to a much wider audience and helped them establish themselves as two of the biggest stars of their era.
Both actors have collaborated with Burton since then, and the recent Keaton comeback and his last collaboration with Burton (“Dumbo”) again rose the questions around a possible sequel. Even though all three names mentioned have been supportive of the idea for so long, it seems like it’s not going to happen.
In an April interview, Burton basically said that he doesn’t know if there’s going to be one and that he “doubts” it. Warner Bros also confirmed that “the project isn’t in active development.” Maybe it’s better to leave it this way; if you look at Burton’s most recent collaboration “Dumbo” with Keaton, you’ll see that it’s hardly anything close to “Beetlejuice” or his Batman movies.
In fact, Burton hasn’t made a great film for more than a decade now (at least a non-animated one) and so many years have passed since the original already, even if it’s somewhat popular.
Even though Keaton and Ryder still have it in them, if they can’t find a story worthy of their talents, then we don’t need it. So possibly we’ll never get another “Beetlejuice” movie. Which is totally okay. We’ll always have the great original, which we can always go back and watch again, because… well… it’s showtime!
4. Christine (1983)
Stephen King didn’t write a sequel to “Christine,” but he doesn’t have to. There was no “Pet Sematary” sequel, yet we got one back in the day. Wish we didn’t, but whatever. So there was always a chance for a sequel to “Christine,” a modest box office success with mostly positive reviews.
It has gained a cult following since then and has a special place in pop culture. And at the end of the film (spoilers ahead), our characters watch the remains of Christine be compacted into a cube by a car crusher – and dropped into a junkyard.
But then we see a close-up of the front grille, where a piece of metal moves slightly. So there’s an idea for sequel, but it’s kind of a hard one to pull off because the idea of a killer car has always had the possibility of looking silly.
John Carpenter was a master director who knew how to handle the material, and he also put a lot of focus on human characters for the film to have more depth. Since the film is still known and beloved, it’s still possible to get a sequel. Even if it doesn’t get a sequel, it may still get a remake. For example, “The Strangers: Prey at Night” director Johannes Roberts has expressed an interest in it as it’s his “possibly favorite movie.”
Carpenter, in retrospect, doesn’t think the film was “very frightening,” but for his music album, he reworked the amazing score he made for this film and even made a music video where Christine was back! So we may never have got a “Christine” sequel, but we’ll always have that.
3. The Hunger (1983)
It may have a thin plot, but Tony Scott, gaining inspiration from the amazing cinematography of his brother’s “Blade Runner,” delivered a very stylish and atmospheric vampire movie with Catherine Deneuve, Susan Sarandon, and David Bowie. Its idea was great – it was about being a vampire from a vampire perspective, including their fears and their loneliness. But it was not explored deeply enough.
A loose adaptation of the 1981 novel of the same name by Whitley Strieber, “The Hunger” did fine at the box office, but received mostly mixed reviews. It has a cult following right now, thanks to its gothic and haunting atmosphere.
The ending was restructured against the director’s wishes by parent company MGM, who had its eyes on a sequel. Strieber wrote two sequels to his novel “The Hunger” – “The Last Vampire” (2001) and “Lilith’s Dream: A Tale of the Vampire Life” (2003) – but neither have ever been filmed.
However, with material ready for a possible sequel, we ask, is there an enough interest in making a sequel to this? It still has its fans (Jim Jarmusch is one of them). Stranger things have happened, but after all these years and Tony Scott’s passing, what will we get will be either a remake/reboot, or some kind of “inspired” show like same-titled TV series in the late ‘90s.
2. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Based on the 1975 book of the same name by parapsychologist and Fortean author John Keel, “The Mothman Prophecies” is a pretty creepy movie with really creepy images and a scary atmosphere.
While the plot doesn’t go to the darker places it needs to go, the atmosphere and mystery behind the events is so engaging that you just keep watching it and get almost impressed by it. Mark Pellington did an excellent job in the director’s chair; his camera knows what to do, and that’s why the film ends up being memorable, even if its script is not.
Even though it received mostly mixed reviews, it had its fans. Author Jason Horsley declared “The Mothman Prophecies” to be “probably the most effective depiction of demonic forces at work” in American cinema, and it grossed $55 million at the box office.
There have been rumors of a sequel over the years, but nothing substantial. It’s possible to bring a new sequel to this, though; the idea behind it was interesting and creepy. They could bring up a new story or just focus on one of the cases and try to go to deeper and darker places. The film rarely gets a mention these days, so chances are we’ll never get a sequel, which is a shame because so much more could be done with this idea.
1. The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Drew Goddard’s commercial and critically successful “The Cabin in the Woods” was, according to him and his co-writer Joss Whedon, an attempt to “revitalize” the slasher film genre and to be a critical satire on torture porn.
Full of wit and well-written smart moments, some subtle and not so subtle jabs at the slasher genre, “The Cabin in the Woods” turned out to be one of the most entertaining and invigorating films of the year. So, the sequel talks were almost inevitable.
However, it didn’t just didn’t happen. At least, so far. Goddard was asked about it several times and his response was clear: “I don’t need to just go make a sequel for the sake of making a sequel.
The only way we could do it is if we could do it justice, and the truth is, it’s a hard one to do justice to. Every version of continuing the story undercuts the ending that we had in ‘Cabin,’ and I just feel like that continues to be the perfect ending for that movie and I never want to undercut it.” He certainly has a point. But then again, he doesn’t totally rule out the possibility of a sequel.
Indeed, the film is great, and nobody is asking for a sequel for the sake of making one. So we have to wait and see if he and Whedon will figure out how to make a sequel to this. Since both are known for their creativity, we can be sure that if they have one in their mind, it’s gonna be worth the wait. If not, then that’s fine as well.