You may have heard a whole lot of film jargon in recent years, about how films are reboots, remakes or re-imagining existing franchises. And whilst Hollywood can sometimes confuse itself what each of those mean, it’s reboots that have suddenly become very popular. The confusing jargon is simply hiding the truth behind the matter, a reboot resets the continuity of an established film series, there by re-setting it to a certain point in the series. And whilst this seems like a modern-day term, the practice has been around for decades. Today we are looking at early film reboots you may not have known about. These are the films that snuck the new timelines in, or shook things up, without us even knowing. Here are 7 Movies you didn’t know were Reboots!

The Evil Dead 2

The Evil Dead’s continuity has been a fond point of contention for many horror fans. Considering the films title, the film is a complete reboot of the original, introducing us to a different introduction into the films main plot. Gone are Cheryl, Scott and Shelly, leaving Ash and Linda to discover the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. We are also introduced to a more detailed look at how the book wound up in the cabin, and what happened to archaeologist and his wife. On top of all this, Ash has gone through some major changes, becoming a rude, arrogant anti-hero, rather than the every-man character of the first film. The Evil Dead 2 is sillier, gorier and filled with more one liners than a night at the comedy club!

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)

If there ever was a sequel that completely missed the point of the first, it is Highlander 2. Introducing plot points that crippled the story, resurrecting characters and generally screwing up any continuity, Highlander II: The Quickening completely retcons the original film. For all intense and purpose, the sequel reboots the original into a completely different direction. Highlander III: The Sorcerer also reboots the series, becoming a standalone alternate sequel to the original film, forgetting that the second film even happened! Thank god for that!

Halloween: H20 (1998)

Halloween may have just had a reboot this year, in which the sequel “Halloween” (2018) continues 40 years later from the first film, but this is not the first time Halloween has done this. In 1998, Halloween: H20 rebooted the series from the second film, with Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode, who in this time line is Michael Myers sister.

Fast forward 20 years, and the new reboot drops the second film from its roster, taking the series in a completely new direction. In the original Halloween run, the fourth movie killed off Laurie Strode, leaving her daughter as Michael’s target. Confused.com!

Puppet Master 4 (1993)

Leading up to Puppet Master 3, all the films linked together. Puppet Master 1 and 2 were direct sequels, and part 3 was a prequel that did little to fill in any blanks in the existing series.  Puppet Master 2 showed, in a flashback, that André Toulon received the elixir of life from a magician in Cairo. This origin story lasted only this single film, as any movie after went in a different direction, thanks to a sneaky reboot of the series.

Puppet Master 4 returns the puppets to Bodega Bay Inn (Despite part 2 showing them heading off to terrorize institutionalized children) and introduces us to the evil god Sutekh, who wants the secret of animation that was stolen from him. It’s the introduction of demons and spells that leads the franchise forward. The crafty magician and his elixir are no longer canon and nearly all of the films previous characters are wiped from the films timeline.

There was also a second reboot in 2016, where the time line was altered to fit a new story and origin. In Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, Andrew Toulon’s is actually an evil Nazi and his puppets are tools or war, created by an ancient evil.

Demons 2 (1986)

Whilst Demons 2 might start out revealing a group of teens sneaking into the quarantined zone, following a Demon outbreak from the first film, it becomes clear that these events are a non-fictional story from a film within a film. Demons 2 does not continue the series as tradition dictates, but reboots it in parallel timeline, where the first film was a movie. The various residents of a high-rise apartment building have no idea that Demons are real, until one crawls out of a TV set and starts to murder everyone. In this new timeline, the demons are only interested in spreading their plague, unlike in the first film where the creatures murdered people in many horrible ways.

Queen of the Damned (2002)

Most people will remember The Queen of The Damned as being Aaliyah’s movie swan song. The film brought to life the third novel of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles series, The Queen of the Damned, whilst loosely entwining it with its predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. However, it was not quite the sequel to Interview with the Vampire that we all hoped. In fact, the film was a reboot that took the books story-line rather than the more theatrical screen play of the first film. Many characters and important plot lines from the first film were written out of the “sequel” in order to take the film series in new directions. But this approach was too jarring for fans, who found it hard to figure out what was going on.

Jason X (2001)

The last we saw of Jason, he was being pulled down into Hell, in 1993s Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. However, it certainly was not the final Friday the 13th as the tile promised. Whilst the films ending set up the Freddy vs Jason flick that came in 2003, the franchise had a brief reboot in 2001s Jason X.

Jason X sees a now indestructible Jason Voorhees, taken prisoner by the United States government and held at the Crystal Lake Research Facility. It’s from here that film quickly propels Jason 445 years into the future; and onto a space ship, by freezing him in stasis. This new rebooted time line does little to explain how he escaped Hell, why he is now indestructible and drops any mention of his mother, who had been a huge driving force for him throughput many of the films.  Instead the “NEW” Jason is seen as an indestructible force of nature that can never be stopped.

“Hi Horror Fans – We can sometimes look at things way to closely, and we could be way off on these. But maybe we have HIT the nail on the head. Let us know what you think of our list, in the comments below. Do these films really count as reboots? Maybe we have missed a few. Lets chat!

Keep Rotten”

“Morti” The Mortician