Every movie genre has its own benefits, buthorrorhas a reputation for pushing the boundaries of storytelling and subverting conventional movie tropes. Everything from a standard slasher to an exploration of folklore offers a different viewing experience – horror has something for everyone and often leaves fans wanting more.
But for all its novelty, horror films are not immune to the machinations of production houses looking to mint as much money as possible. Almost every interesting concept leaves room for a sequel to expand the world the film lives in. It works well at times, theEvil Deadfranchise consists of classics, a wildly entertaining TV show, and a successful expansion of the concept for modern audiences inEvil Dead Rise. Then you also have something like theFriday the 13thfranchise, which was once a trailblazer, but devolved into a parody of a shadow of itself. That is acceptable, though, when compared to films with interesting concepts that ended on cliffhangers, but never had a sequel.
1028 Weeks Later
Without Danny Boyle behind the camera,28 Weeks Laterplays out a lot more like a standard post-apocalyptic horror film. Gone is the social commentary of28 Days Laterand its links to the original are sparse at best, but the Rage virus is present in full force. The plot is relatively by-the-numbers; a safe space becomes infected, and the story follows a band of survivors, two of whom may be the key to finding a cure.
In the final act, Tammy (Imogen Poots) and her brother Andy (Mackintosh Muggleton), are whisked away to safety, or so it seems. 28 days after landing safely in France, the country has an outbreak of its own. A group of infected emerge from a metro station with a view of the Eiffel Tower as the credits roll, leaving viewers to wonder just what comes next. It has been 16 years since28 Weeks Laterhit theaters, and fans still haven’t gotten the resolution they were hoping for. That could change, though, with mutedrumblings of a third installmenthaving Boyle behind the camera once more.
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9Annihilation
The Shimmer emerged from a meteor and began expanding in Florida, mutating everything in its boundaries inAnnihilation. Several exploratory teams went in, but no one ever returned except Lena’s (Natalie Portman) husband Kane (Oscar Isaac), who mysteriously came back after a year missing. With his condition deteriorating, Lena goes into The Shimmer with a team to figure out what’s going on.
After facing mutated horrors and barely making it to the center of The Shimmer, a lighthouse, Lena finds Kane’s body and a video recording that sees his Doppelgänger step into the frame. Lena then seemingly outsmarts a strange humanoid that was transforming into her and manages to destroy The Shimmer and returns. In the end, Lena and Kane’s Doppelgänger meet as both their irises shimmer. This was quite the spot to end the story, as fans were left waiting to understand just what these mysterious organisms intended to do. What were faux-Kane and faux-Lena planning? It seems like we’ll never know.
8It Follows
It Followsdeals with perhaps the most terrifying STI of all time. Passed through sexual transmission, the holder of this “virus” is always being followed by an entity. If the entity finds you, a horrible fate awaits. The film does some interesting things with its concept, and while the final act is a little underwhelming (electrocuting this seemingly unstoppable entity in a swimming pool doesn’t scream ingenuity),It Followsis a fun experience.
In the final scene, Jay, (Maika Monroe) who has spent the movie fighting this entity is finally at peace. As she holds hands with Paul’s (Keir Gilchrist) while walking down a street, a figure walks behind them. As the credits roll, fans are left wondering if these characters are really free of the entity, or do more horrors await them.It Followshas seen several interpretations, including it being a parable for HIV/AIDS, but regardless of what meaning one takes away from it, a viewer cannot truly say the entity was stopped.
Usdoes not lack ambition, but is perhaps the weakest of Jordan Peele’s feature films so far. Regardless, any holes in the plot are easy to gloss over thanks to Lupita Nyong’o’s powerhouse performance as Adelaide/Red. After spending most of the movie surviving The Tethered, Adelaide chases Red down to an underground facility that housed the Doppelgängers to save her son.
After killing Red and saving her son, Adelaide thinks back to when she first met Red as a child in the Hall of Mirrors.In a twist, it is revealed that both women swapped places, with whom fans believed to be Adelaide, actually being Red this entire time. As The Tethered replicates Hands Across America, the movie leaves several questions unanswered. How many of Tethered are around? What has happened to their originals? Does Adelaide/Red’s son suspect his mother of having pulled off a switcheroo?
SmileandIt Followsactually have a lot in common in terms of their concepts. Both movies have a woman terrorized by a malevolent entity that cannot be escaped, only passed on to someone else.Smileis at its best when it leans on the psychological aspects of its horror as viewers see Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) fall apart in front of their very eyes.
The final act has Rose take the fight to the entity in her abandoned childhood home where she is forced to relive some of her worst traumas. The entity ultimately reveals itself and takes over just in time for Joel to reach the home and see her self-immolate. It is a powerful ending, and the movie is an effective commentary on the nature of pain and trauma. However, by passing on to Joel who is a police officer, the entity now can be stopped, as he can kill someone else under the guise of the law to save himself. This could have taken the story in a new, interesting direction focused on morality, but fans never got to see it.
5Possessor
Possessorperhaps most effectively balances director Brandon Cronenberg’s shocking visual imagery with an engaging, relatively straightforward plot. In an alternate 2008, Tasya (Andrea Riseborough) is an assassin, jumping into the consciousness of an unwitting host, and using them to commit murders. It comes at a cost though, as Tasya is increasingly detached from herself and her own life.
Tasya’s handler is critical of her clinging onto her husband and child. In her newest case, Tasya finds herself fighting for control in her host’s mind as both people come unraveled. In the end, Tasya loses whatever human connection she once had and is disturbingly at peace with her decisions. Seeing Tasya wrestle with these two halves of herself would have made for a fascinating second chapter in this story, but it never came.
Triangleis anunderrated horror/thriller moviethat puts an interesting spin on Sisyphean punishment. But it is more than just a standard slasher, using its concept to explore guilt, pain, and the failures of motherhood.
Melissa George is fantastic as Jess, taking viewers on a mind-twisting journey as they discover a double of Jess is hunting all of them aboard a ship. The mystery further unravels as we finally discover her failings as a mother to her autistic son, portraying an image of a woman doomed to relive her worst failures. In the end, the loop begins once more, as Jess hopes thatthisis the one that ends her punishment.
Zack Snyder’sDawn of the Deadis a re-imagining of the George Romero classic, with a screenplay written by James Gunn. The film manages to remain quite scary, while adding an element of action, giving the film a sense of momentum and urgency.
After spending much of the movie in a mall, a handful of survivors are able to escape to safety on a yacht. Or so it seems. Footage from a camcorder on a yacht suggests a far more terrifying experience that leaves their fates unknown.
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Malumis perhaps the most unknown name on this list, but it may also be the scariest. Balancing between standard jump scares, a slow-building atmosphere, and elements of psychological horror, Malum sees a young police offer spend a night at a decommissioned police offer trying to discover the link between her father’s violent death and a vicious cult.
There is a lot to unpack in this movie and not all of it is immediately clear, but the film ends on a note that serves the cult’s purposes and could potentially doom the young police officer to a horrific fate. But without a sequel, there’s no knowing what was going to come next.
1The Thing
The Thingremains one of the greatest horror movies of all timeover 40 yearsafter its release because it is an exercise in tension. Cut off from the rest of the world, the characters of the film quickly discover they can’t trust anyone because The Thing could be any one of them.
As the bodies begin to drop, it all comes down to MacReady (Kurt Russell) and Childs (Keith David). On the verge of death, both men share a bottle of whiskey, acknowledging that they can’t trust each other. It is an iconic ending, and the film is better off without a sequel. Regardless, a sect of fans has always hoped for a definitive answer.
