The X-Men film DARK PHOENIX was a notable bomb in 2019. The film suffered from production troubles (the entire third act was changed in reshoots) and earned abysmal reviews when it was finally released - gathering just 23% on Rotten Tomatoes. This was the lowest grossing film ever in the X-Men series, earning just $252.4 million from a $200 million budget. There was perhaps an element of superhero fatigue with audiences (in the wake of the hugely successful Avengers: Endgame) but, ultimately, it seems that audiences and critics just didn't didn't feel that Dark Phoenix was very good and felt it was high time that these characters were rebooted and brought into the Marvel fold. Simon Kinberg, the director of Dark Phoenix, was man enough to take it on the chin and accept some of the blame. "I'm here, I'm saying when a movie doesn't work, put it on me. I'm the writer-director, the movie didn't connect with audiences, that's on me."
WONDER WOMAN 1984 is the sequel to Wonder Woman. The first film was the best recieved in DC's spluttering attempt to catch up with Marvel but this sequel, again directed by Patty Jenkins, fails miserably in almost everything. The film has a preposterous villain in Kristen Wiig as Cheetah and a soppy plot in which Chris Pine, Diana's late lover Steve from the first film, has his soul resurrected in another man. Gal Gadot is a great Wonder Woman but the film has poor action sequences, mediocre CGI, and too many dull stretches. The best sequence in the film comes at the start when the young Diana races Amazons on Themyscira. After this it goes downhill pretty fast. Wonder Woman 1984 is exactly the sort of instantly forgettable superhero flick that people think about when they use the term 'superhero fatigue'.
THE WORST HORROR SEQUELS
Compiling a comprehensive list of the worst horror sequels is a book in and of itself. Where do you even start? Most horror franchises eventually spin-off into straight to DVD land and go on and on and on and on. Take things like Lake Placid, Tremors and Anaconda by way of example. That means there are literally gazillions of (often obscure) terrible horror sequels. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to mention all of them but we'll do our best to mention as many as possible.
LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY'S BABY is a 1976 television sequel to Polanski's classic directed by Sam O'Steen. This is not very good at all and something of a chore to get through. It's split into three parts - The Book of Rosemary, The Book of Adrian, and The Book of Andrew. Patty Duke plays Rosemary in the film, stepping into the delicate shoes of Mia Farrow. However, the film is more about Rosemary's devil cult son Adrian (played by Stephen McHattie when grown) than Rosemary so Patty is elbowed out of the film somewhere down the line. Adrian is snatched back when Rosemary tries to flee and then we see him as an adult living at a casino with Aunt Marjean (Tina Louise), a satanic prostitute working for the cult. Are you following this all so far? Turns out that Rosemary's husband sold their son to the devil cult in exchange for becoming a famous actor. Classy fellow. Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby becomes a slog in the end with the different sections (including sanatorium capers) and is just never that interesting or scary. The original film was a classic of its kind and didn't really need a sequel - especially not a tv one. This is only for the curious and one can't help thinking that a more straight ahead follow-up focused on Patty Duke as Rosemary might have been a better way to go if they insisted on making this film.
The 1973 film The Exorcist is one of the most famous horror movies ever made and was a huge blockbuster. The film made a (short lived) star of Linda Blair, who played Regan MacNeil - a twelve year old girl possessed by a demonic spirit. Warners Bros were understandably eager to make a sequel and it arrived in 1977 in the form of EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC. With the acclaimed filmmaker John Boorman in the director's chair and Richard Burton in the cast what could possibly go wrong? Well, everything to be honest. Exorcist II: The Heretic is regarded to be one of the most disastrous sequels ever made. William Friedkin, who made the original, called it the worst film he'd ever seen. William Peter Blatty, who wrote the first film, said the audience were openly laughing at Exorcist II: The Heretic during a preview screening he attended.
Linda Blair was persuaded to return for the sequel although she was in the midst of drug problems at the time this film was made. She was rarely on set at the right time. Blair said Richard Burton was often drunk near the end of the production but quite charming all the same. Burton said he only did the film to pay for his divorce. Ellen Burstyn declined to appear in this film but they did manage to cast Louise Fletcher. It was all to no avail. The bizarre premise of Exorcist II: The Heretic has Regan MacNeil now 16 and living with a guardian in New York. Regan has suppressed the memories of the first film and is being treated at a high tech psychiatric institute. She is treated with a "synchronizer" - a device that merges brainwaves. Or something. The scenes of this in operation make the film look like a Gerry Anderson sci-fi show. Richard Burton plays a priest investigating the events of the first film. He naturally seeks out Regan. Exorcist II: The Heretic is a somewhat baffling film that was endlessly cut and re-edited - even as it hit cinemas. The film could not be salvaged though and got terrible reviews. It is just a very strange film full of bewildering creative decisions - like a scene where Linda Blair tapdances.
"It all comes down to audience expectations," said Boorman. "The film that I made, I saw as a kind of riposte to the ugliness and darkness of The Exorcist - I wanted a film about journeys that was positive, about good, essentially. And I think that audiences, in hindsight, were right. I denied them what they wanted and they were pissed off about it - quite rightly, I knew I wasn't giving them what they wanted and it was a really foolish choice. The film itself, I think, is an interesting one - there's some good work in it - but when they came to me with it I told John Calley, who was running Warner Bros. then, that I didn't want it. "Look," I said, "I have daughters, I don't want to make a film about torturing a child," which is how I saw the original film. But then I read a three-page treatment for a sequel written by a man named William Goodhart and I was really intrigued by it because it was about goodness. I saw it then as a chance to film a riposte to the first picture. But it had one of the most disastrous openings ever - there were riots! And we recut the actual prints in the theatres, about six a day, but it didn't help of course and I couldn't bear to talk about it, or look at it, for years."
PIRANHA II: THE SPAWNING is a 1981 Italian horror film and the sequel to Joe Dante's cult classic Piranha. James Cameron (yes, THAT James Cameron) is the credited director but he says he didn't have much to do with the film. "I was replaced after two-and-a-half weeks by the Italian producer," said Cameron. "He just fired me and took over, which is what he wanted to do when he hired me. It wasn't until much later that I even figured out what had happened. It was like, 'Oh, man, I thought I was doing a good job.' But when I saw what they were cutting together, it was horrible. And then the producer wouldn't take my name off the picture because [contractually] they couldn't deliver it with an Italian name. So they left me on, no matter what I did. I had no legal power to influence him from Pomona, California, where I was sleeping on a friend's couch. I didn't even know an attorney. In actual fact, I did some directing on the film, but I don't feel it was my first movie." Cameron has said that he considers The Terminator to be his real directorial debut.
Piranha II: The Spawning is a famously daft film that has piranhas menacing a West Indian holiday resort. But that's not even the half of it. Oh no. These piranhas are especially deadly because they can fly! Piranha II: The Spawning is a silly cheapjack film that really suffers without Joe Dante. Did you know by the way that Steven Spielberg personally handpicked Dante to direct Gremlins because Piranha was his favourite Jaws rip-off? The special effects are laughably bad in Piranha II: The Spawning with the killer fish looking patently fake and silly as they 'fly' through the air. The only interesting thing about the film is an appearance by Lance Henriksen, an actor who would go on to become a cult genre star in sci-fi and horror. Piranha II: The Spawning might be good for a laugh or two but the film is rather boring at times and not the best example of a 'so bad its good' film. As a sequel though this is obviously a complete disaster.
1981's OMEN II: THE FINAL CONFLICT, the third and final Omen sequel (featuring Damien Thorn anyway) was directed by Graham Baker. It's definitely a step down from the first two. In the film Damien is now in his thirties and played by Sam Neil. Neil can do the suave thing quite well and looks somewhat sinister but you never get the impression he's really that into this film.Anyway, Damien (like his late father) becomes the American Ambassador to Britain because he has learned that the Second Coming of Christ will occur in England. Naturally, Damien wants to stop this. However, Father DeCarlo (Rossano Brazzi), a priest from the Subiaco monastery where Father Spiletto spent his final days and observed Damien from afar since his adopted father's death, acquires the Seven Daggers of Megiddo that were dug out of the ruins of the Thorn Museum in Chicago. Joined by six other priests, DeCarlo...
