Every weekday until the end of October, CraveOnline will present an all-new Horror Movie Marathon to help you avoid showing the same old movies at your Halloween parties. Keep coming back every day for new schedules and party ideas!
Sequelitis
Why would you watch only horror sequels and none of the originals? In the case of horror movies, sequels are often where the elements a franchise is most famous for come to be. Jason isn’t really a killer until Friday the 13th Part 2 and doesn’t even get the hockey mask until Friday the 13th Part 3. My first pick for the marathon is an example of a sequel that’s even more famous than the original.
Also, since horror movies tend to be low budget labors of love, the sequel often affords them the resources necessary to do what they really set out to do. I earned the nickname “Franchise Fred” because I always defend sequels. I truly believe there should always be more sequels to every film, indefinitely. Doesn’t matter if a sequel is bad. The next one could be better. Even in a conclusive story, those characters have more adventures. Life doesn’t stop when you fall in love and defeat the bad guy. And if all the characters die at the end? Come on, this is horror sequels we’re talking about.
Marketing Rules
For decorations, we’re in luck when it comes to sequels because the more popular the franchise gets, the more marketing materials get produced. Freddy Krueger essentially became a children’s toy by Nightmare on Elm Street 3, and you can even get Billy bobbleheads from the Saw films now.
Posters and lobby cards from later entries in horror franchises should be easy to locate online and print out for temporary hanging on your wall.
Check Out: Horror Movie Marathon of the Day: Slashers
Franchise Food
It’s too bad they don’t make sequels to food, or you could stock up on Doritos 2 and Budweiser: The Final Chapter. I’m going to have to get a little broad with this, but since we’re discussing horror franchises and my Franchise moniker, I’m going to recommend food from the biggest franchise chains in the company.
Domino’s should be a no-brainer for pizza, but if you prefer Pizza Hut or Papa John’s, they’re pretty lucrative franchises too. Subway caters now, so subs from the top fast food franchise would work. Or, drive through McDonald’s or Burger King to pick up some burgers and fries in bulk. It’s gonna be a long night.
Get The Right Movies
You can find a lot of decent, sometimes even great horror movies on Instant Streaming. Then again, so can everyone else. If you’re hosting a horror movie marathon, your guests expect you to show them something they haven’t seen before along with a handful of classic standbys.
So go to your local video store – the odds are good it still has a better selection than Netflix – or, if there aren’t any left in your neighborhood (such a shame), track them down online. Most of the movies we’re recommending are great movies that are either so popular they’re pretty cheap by now, or so obscure they are probably priced low since the demand isn’t high. But obscure movies can be the best surprises, and trust us, we’re about to recommend a ton of them.
Check Out: Horror Movie Marathon of the Day: Witchcraft
Put a Schedule Together
The film critics at CraveOnline have a tried-and-true formula for movie marathons. You start with a “Duh” movie (a popular film everyone has seen), partially to get it out of the way and partially because there’s a good chance some of your guests will arrive late and you don’t want them to miss the good stuff.
Then you get everyone’s attention with the “Unknown Classic,” a film that none of your guests have (probably) seen, so even someone who goes home early will feel like they got something special out of the evening.
Follow that up with some “Background Noise,” i.e. a film that won’t necessarily capture everyone’s attention. That’ll play in the background while everyone socializes. But you’ve got to make sure it has enough good parts that people don’t take their eyes off the TV for too long and forget why they came.
Now the time has come for a “Jumpstarter,” a really lively, crazy film that’ll grab everyone’s attention again. You’ll follow that up with something even weirder, the “Oddball,” to reward the folks who are still going. This will be the strangest film of the evening, maybe a genre-bender or the work of a mad genius, and it will be a great capper for the masses who will probably call it an evening afterwards.
And now that the evening is coming to an end, you’ll want to throw in something stupid. A real “Stinker.” Take the edge off the night’s festivities by talking back to the screen or falling asleep to a film that doesn’t really deserve your attention. It’s the perfect way to end an evening of otherwise great movies.
Then again, you may want to just pick films from one of those categories to test your endurance. How many classics can you get through in one night? How many unsung classics can you discover? How can one weird-ass film top the next? We have multiple suggestions in every category to get you through the night, if that’s the way you want to play it.
Just remember: don’t overextend yourself. Six movies is probably the maximum number that anyone can handle. Don’t feel bad if people leave early. Just make sure the folks who stay get something special for their trouble.
Let’s Plan Your Horror Sequel Marathon!
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
Let's Plan Your Horror Sequel Marathon!
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The Duh
The ultimate example of a horror sequel is really the film everyone refers to when they say Evil Dead. This is where Sam Raimi really brought the slapstick humor into the grueling horror, and Bruce Campbell gives a tour de force performance that would make Charlie Chaplin give up and go home. Incidentally, this is also the first movie that made me aware of what filmmaking could do. You mean you can tilt the camera that way? You can edit those pieces together? It’s probably unlikely that anyone at your party hasn’t seen Evil Dead 2, but it’s the strongest way to start off a night of sequels.
Alternates:
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Army of Darkness (1992) -
The Unknown Classic
Considering the popularity of Gremlins, I am shocked how few people have seen Gremlins 2. In 1990 it was my most anticipated movie of the year, but I later learned that it actually did poorly that year. It was clearly ahead of its time, with meta moments like Leonard Maltin reviewing Gremlins 1 on VHS, and the Gremlins stopping the film projection and Hulk Hogan forcing them to turn it back on. It’s insane Gremlins fun that I can’t believe Warner Bros. allowed in a summer movie. Fortunately, DVD versions now have the Hulk Hogan scene, instead of a hastily assembled “John Wayne” VHS version. Both are now outdated as movies are no longer projected on film reels, but Hulk Hogan could still set digital projection right.
Alternatives:
Psycho 2 (1983)
Jaws 3-D (1983)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
The Fly II (1989)
Leprechaun 2 (1994) -
The Background Noise
Halloween: Resurrection is a sequel you can definitely play in the background, as it is mostly generic kids getting picked off by Michael Myers, with an already out of date webcam motif. However, there are a couple scenes for which you’ll want to pause the conversation. Not enough is ever said about Busta Rhymes kickboxing Michael Myers. That needs to be seen. And Jamie Lee Curtis’s final cameo, while a slap in the face to her victorious Halloween H20, is still a valiant sendoff.
Alternates:
Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Bride of Re-Animator (1990)
Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996) -
The Jumpstarter
By now, everyone thinks of the Final Destination series as the one with all the crazy, elaborate deaths. It was really David R. Ellis’s sequel that took the franchise to the next level. The original was an intimate, moody creeper, but the second Destination gave us chain reactions galore, chain link fences projectiled as razor wire, artificial limbs snagging in an elevator and airbags that proved not the least bit safe. If your guests are waning, Final Destination II is a movie that will get them back on their toes anticipating the unexpected deaths around every frame.
Alternates:
Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
Halloween H20 (1998)
Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) -
The Oddball
Bride of Chucky could have easily been an Unknown Classic or a Jumpstarter (or a Duh in my book) but perhaps its place in the franchise best qualifies it for the Oddball. I mean, Chucky was always a wisecracking killer doll. There’s no way around that, but after the success of Scream and self-reflexive horror comedy, the fourth Chucky movie came back with a comic vengeance. It’s even more self-reflexive than Scream because it’s self-reflexive within its own franchise. It introduced wacky concepts that the fans embraced for subsequent entries, like the very idea of a second killer doll, full frontal plastic on plastic love, Martha Stewart and legitimate gender politics. It’s also great to see John Ritter as a corrupt cop/overprotective stepdad. My favorite remains Howard Fitzwater though.
Alternates:
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Return of the Fly (1959)
Psycho III (1986)
Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood (2003)
Seed of Chucky (2004) -
The Stinker
Everybody knows Freddy’s Revenge is the worst of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. It has little to do with the Elm St. story as a new family moves into Nancy’s house and introduces an idea that Freddy can possess Jesse (Mark Patton) and enter the real world. Perhaps the mistake was replacing a final girl with a hormonal boy. While ahead of its time, the gay subtext of Freddy’s Revenge would never be mistaken for subtle. It can be a hilarious misfire, if perhaps an easy target to end the marathon.
Alternates:
The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1984)
Jaws: The Revenge (1987)
The Hills Have Eyes II (2007)
Saw 3D (2010)
Any of the Hellraiser Sequels
Scream 4 (2011) -
Alternate Marathons: Final Chapters That Were Not Final Chapters
One famous trope of horror sequels is the “final chapter” that is not, in fact, the last film in the series. There are enough of these that you could do an entire marathon of erroneous “final chapters,” bookended by the two Friday the 13th finales, neither of which were the last of the series. This alternate marathon would include: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, The Final Destination, Children of the Corn: The Final Sacrifice, Saw: The Final Chapter (because it’s only a matter of time), Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.
