Demons 3

In the UK, you’ll find a third Demons movie sitting on the shelf of your local video store (remember them?). A film Called Demons III: The Ogre. But don’t get too excited, it’s not a real sequel.  In fact, the films only tenuous link is that Lamberto Bava director all three films.  Original made as TV movie, The Ogre was renamed by distribution company Trans-Global Pictures, to make is look like it was a direct sequel, in the hope of increasing sales.

There are actually three films that lay claim to being the third in the Demons series. Demons III: The Ogre is one, a film called Black Demons was originally released as Demoni 3  and the official sequel to the Dèmoni series is the 1989 film The Church.

No Matter which film you pick, none of them have anything to with the Demons from the first two films.

Halloween 3

Halloween 3 is the only entry in the Halloween series that does not feature killer Michael Myers. John Carpenter and Debra Hill believed that the Halloween series should to branch into an anthology series of horror movies, each one a stand alone film set at Halloween. The name Season of the Witch was to reflect the films Witch theme, with other Seasons to follow. However, after it’s dismal takings at the box office and poor reviews, the series was put on hold. Michael Myers returned to the big screen 6 years later in 1998 for the aptly named Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.

Hellraiser Sequels

Inferno, Hellworld and Deader are all self contained films that live within the same universe as the Hellraiser films. This would not be so much of a crime if it ACTUALLY had some sort of connection to the previous four sequential films. Copy and pasting in a Cenobites here and there does not count. An appearance which amounts up to nothing more than  a cameo is not enough to lay claim to series name. A sixth film briefly brought back character Kirsty Cotton from the first two films, but her appearance along with Pin-head were, sadly, just cameos.

House III: The Horror Show

Although marketed as a sequel to the House films in the UK, its connection to the other House films is limited to the crew it shares. The film shares the exact same story line as Wes Craven’s film, of the same year (1989), Shocker, which was released 6 months later. House III had a story which had nothing to do with the previous two films, and barely even centred around a house. A fourth film and “true”  third part of the series was released in 1992 as House IV.

Zombi 2

Film-maker Dario Argento was the editor of George Romeo’s Zombie sequel Dawn of the dead. He had secured financing for the film, in exchange for international rights. So once the film was released, he went about creating his own cut of the film, known as Zombi. 

So when Lucio Fulci released a film called Zombi 2, a year later, it would be perfectly reasonable to expect it to be a sequel. However it was not. It did have zombies, which is a good start, but it had nothing to do with Romero’s popular series.

To make matter more confusing , in the US it was released as Zombie and in the UK as Zombie Flesh Eaters.  Zombi 2’s European success led to four sequels. All have self-contained plots.

Pumpkin Head II: Blood Wings

Pumpkin head was an original and well produced film. Throughout the movie, certain rules are set in place and the mythology of the pumpkin head is set in stone. Pumpkin Head II: Blood Wings causally disregards all of this, in favour of a nonsensical story with little connection to the rest of the series. Yes, pumpkin head is in it, but the story does not continue the journey set up by the first. Luckily, this film did not derail the series, and a third film redeemed itself by going back to it’s roots and the original mythology of the creature.

Did we miss something. Let us know in the comments below!