Everybody know that certain revulsion sequels — like Dawn of the Dead and Evil Dead II — are masterpieces in their own right . Others have ascended to cult royalty , like Troll 2 and Bride of Chucky . But what about those offbeat , overlooked horror series entries that never quite get the love they deserve ?

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Here are 10 to believe for your next spooky - movie binge .

Happy happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock!

Happy happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock!Image: Universal Pictures

10. Amityville II: The Possession

Remember how in the first Amityville movie , the papa played by James Brolin only threatened to kill everyone ? Amityville : The Possession — which is ostensiblya prequel to the events of that film , and is based on the veridical - life mass murder that happened inLong Island ’s most infamous household — harbour nothing back , showing teenager Sonny Montelli ( Jack Magner ) become possessed by a fiend before brutally gun down his entire family .

Megaproducer Dino de Laurentiis , who never feared leaning into schlock whenever potential , was pulling the strand on this one , which samples hard from The Exorcist and also tosses in some other exploitation elements , including — whee!—incest . That aver , this staunch B - motion-picture show is elevated artistically by Lalo Schifrin ’s breathy grudge , a reprise of his Oscar - nominated euphony for the 1979 original motion picture .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M7lGV0hm2c

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

9. The Hills Have Eyes Part II

This is not to be confused with 2007 ’s tolerable Hills Have middle 2 , because no remaking could ever top Wes Craven ’s nutty 1985 sequel . It revisits the circumstance and some of the character ( including one of the frankfurter ) from Craven ’s 1977 archetype , about a vacation home who be given afoul of a mutant family while taking a shortcut through the desert . “ The undermentioned picture show is based on fact , ” the opening crawl of the follow - up informs us , before unspooling a tarradiddle generously string together by flashback from the first movie ( admit flashback from the dog ’s point of view ) .

The premise is that one of the first movie ’s city - slicker survivors , Bobby ( Robert Houston ) , and the sympathetic mound - household girl , Ruby ( or Rachel , as she ’s now known , played by Janus Blythe ) have set about into the minibike business , manage a team balance for victory thanks to a super - fast fuel Bobby has invented . alas , their next raceway is being declare in the very stretch of solitary desert where Ruby ’s wild family once roll … and still roams , as it turn out . Though Bobby very sagely decides not to go on the trip , chronicle promptly replicate itself , with the addition of a fresh villain accurately dub “ harvester . ”

Craven is say to have disowned the film , which do out around the sentence of his much more successful and far more polished A Nightmare on Elm Street — but it ’s actually pretty entertaining , despite feeling rather patently cobbled together . Its likable ensemble cast also includes Tamara Stafford as a blind char who ’s often left alone to fumble around an abandon mining cantonment , because that seems good , as well as a very youngPenny Johnson Jerald .

William Duplessie

8. Silent Night, Deadly Night 2

There ’s no pauperism to see 1984 ’s Silent Night , Deadly Night before you plunk into part two . The 1987 sequel offers a thorough recap of what come before , with a slightly altered point of sight as it agitate principal - character status from Billy , the cause of death Santa in the first motion-picture show , to Ricky , his younger brother — who very nearly matures into a functional human being but ultimately proves too traumatized to will the violent life behind . Most of the motion-picture show blossom in flashback , but when Ricky run his genial - hospital confinement in the flick ’s last act , he jell out tying up the loose ends the deceased Billy left behind . This includes donning a Santa cause and chasing down the nun buoy who was cruel to the male child when they were growing up in an orphanhood — after yet another individual clip as Santa murdered their parents .

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Director , editor , and co - writer Lee Harry be given into the gallows humor here , but Silent Night , Deadly Night 2 ’s factual raison d’être is Eric Freeman ’s over - the - top performance as Ricky . Is it really “ bad acting ” when it ’s what encounter the movie from so - so slasher to black comedy extravaganza ? “ Garbage day ! ” has already attained legendary position ( watch the tantrum above ) , but the total movie is fill with every bit phantasmagorical moments , made even more so by Freeman ’s wildly over - the - top delivery .

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7. Ouija: Origin of Evil

Truth be narrate , the most outrageously unusual affair about Ouija : Origin of Evil is that it ’s way better thanany plug-in - game moviehas any right hand to be . If you were a fan of theHaunting of Hill House Netflix seriesand you have yet to look on this surprisingly great continuation to2014 ’s forgettable Ouija , it ’s time to get on that . With Hill House directorMike Flanagancalling the injection , it boasts a cast stuffed full of role player who later play various Crain family members , and it has a Hill House - ish tone of supernatural - infuse melodrama . It also manages to hatch a compelling story directly base on the flimsy villain establish in the first flick .

In late-1960s Los Angeles , the widowed female parent ( Elizabeth Reaser ) of two young daughter ( Annalise Basso , Lulu Wilson ) scraping by giving simulated psychic reading — until she introduces an Ouija board into her enactment , and the seemingly innocent prop unleashes a repellent force into their lives . The basic assumption really is n’t that different from the original , but the performances are top - mountain pass , and Flanagan ’s now - patent flair for slow - tan terror make all the difference .

6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 : Freddy ’s Revengehas its champions , but to maximize your fun time with Freddy Krueger , look to Chuck Russell ’s third installment in the franchise . Original flick stars Heather Langenkamp ( as Nancy Thompson ) and John Saxon ( as her father ) render to Springwood for this one , which sees Freddy terrorise the few continue Elm Street teens ( let in a young Patricia Arquette ) , all of whom have been placed in a psychiatric Barbara Ward because of their vivid nightmares . Enter Nancy , a grad student with some very unique insight into their fears .

It ’s hard to nail any single constituent that make Dream Warriors work so well . Nancy ’s replication form mother wit for the story — of course she would ’ve study dreams in grad school , given her own experience — and while the child are a little bit cartoonish for the interest of setting up Freddy ’s luxuriant death scenario ( as presently as you see that one kid is into marionettes , his destiny is sealed , and even in 2019 the gory , sinewy “ strings ” special consequence are lurid ) , it ’s leisurely to settle for them — even against Freddy , who doles out some quip but had n’t yet become the full - on joker he ’d be in later films .

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That ’s to say , he ’s still scary here ( whether he ’s a kibosh - motion tool or skeleton , a giant worm , or just his sweater - wear common self ) and Dream Warriors — which also have a turn by a Pee - wee ’s Playhouse - era Laurence Fishburne , anda ripping theme song by Dokken — take away the clock time to dig up into the tragical tale of Freddy ’s female parent , giving a small more insight into his character … without overdo the stock story too much .

5. Poltergeist II: The Other Side

Two thing you might remember from Brian Gibson ’s 1986 sequel tothe Tobe Hooper - Stephen Spielberg blockbusterabout a Southern California sept whose girl is targeted by malign spirit who hand out through the TV : Julian Beck ’s deep scary performanceas the ghoulish , undead Rev. Henry Kane ; and the H.R. Giger - designed creatures that make brief appearances . Something you might not call up : the fact that one of the central themes of the movie is that paterfamilias Steven Freeling ( Craig T. Nelson ) fear he ’s no longer “ man enough ” to protect his family , so he undergo some ritualistic shoring up of his maleness with Taylor ( Will Sampson ) , the shaman send out to help the Freelings by Tangina ( the one and only Zelda Rubenstein ) .

The character of Taylor is all kind of problematic , a Hollywood catch - bag of Native American stereotypes that Sampson somehow manages to carry off with dignity ; it helps that he ’s the only person in the movie who seems to have his head in the right place at all times . But if you’re able to get past Poltergeist II ’s most dated elements ( and forgive the fact that it ’s overall just inferior to the original ) , it ’s still got some genuinely creepy , shudder - induce import — mostly thanks to Beck , who is well one of the shivery preacher fictitious character since The Night of the Hunter .

4. The Exorcist III

William Peter Blatty , generator of The Exorcist novel , lead and wrote ( more precisely , adjust from his novel Legion ) this grim 1990 chiller that sense very close in spirit to William Friedkin ’s 1973 moving-picture show — though its tale is quite unlike and its musical note is more frantic and hysteric . Nearly 20 years afterRegan MacNeil ’s possession in Georgetown , we catch up with law Lt . Kinderman ( act as here by George C. Scott ) and Father Dyer ( Ed Flanders ) , older ally who both knew Father Karras ( Jason Miller ) before he met his downhearted stairway fate .

But … did he ? A brutal in series sea wolf is roaming the streets , and there ’s a very loquacious affected role in the local psychiatrical ward who seems to be the avatar of both Karras and the infamous Gemini Killer ( Brad Dourif ) , both of whom are supposed to be dead . It ’s a gruesome head - bender of a case for Kinderman and the viewer — though only the latter gets the recherche holy terror that comes with experience one of the scariest picture moments of all time . You ’ll know it when you see it , cut back snip .

3. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

The fact that the quaternary Friday the 13th picture show was nowhere near “ the last chapter ” is just one of the delectation that comes withJoseph Zito ’s fan - favorite entry in the series . Want more reasons to learn ? Here ’s a whole article some weirdo wrote all about it back in 2015 :

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2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch

John Carpenterdoesn’t direct , but he was obviously on hand to guide author - conductor Tommy Lee Wallace ( fun fact : Wallace was also the screenwriter of Amityville II ) , who ’d form on several of his celluloid . And it just feel a fate like a Carpenter film — Carpenter ’s frequent camera operator , Dean Cundey , also lenses this one ; Carpenter himself did the music ; and faces familiar to Carpenter devotee ( Tom Atkins , Nancy Loomis , Dick Warlock , even Michael Myers himself makes a cameo ! ) dot the mold .

Somewhere along the line of merchandise , it was decide that the Shape would outride utter after Halloween II , and the serial would become more of a horror anthology . Obviously that idea did n’t take , but we will always have this cult favorite outdoor stage - alone about an evil Irish toymaker who found a homicidal scheme usingHalloween masks — power by robotics and Stonehenge hoodoo ( and activated by the irritatingly catchy ditty that plays throughout the movie)—that utter bod - melt laser ray of light andconjure creepy - crawlies and deadly snake from human genius .

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Also , there ’s an army of murderous robots and a quaint California town built around protecting what amounts to an ancient human forfeit ritual dally out on a massive scale . That ’s confessedly a lot to swallow , but Halloween III presents its deliciously idiotic horrors in such a matter - of - fact manner you ca n’t aid but just go with it .

1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Tobe Hooper’sThe Texas Chainsaw Massacrecame out in 1974 and is still one of the scariest , most disturbing horror movies ever made . Hooper ’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 pretty much does away with the scares ( but double down on the distressing ) and delivers a macabre black comedy for the ages . There ’s a wild , campy energy in plaza of the original film ’s grimy menace , with some truly original new characters — notably chatterbox anthropophagus Chop Top ( Bill Moseley ) , payback - driven Texas Ranger Lefty ( Dennis Hopper ) , and good ol’ gal radio DJ Stretch ( Caroline Williams)—mixing it up with hangover from the first movie , include , of course of action , Leatherface ( Bill Johnson ) , who still has his chain saw but come across here as more of a loveable ( albeit still murderous ) enceinte galoot .

The Texas Chainsaw 2 plot is just an excuse to get Lefty and Stretch into the Sawyer family ’s uncanny , circus - themed , body part - strew den , where the skillful barbecue in Texas is train and some of repulsion cinema ’s most repeatable lines are uttered : “ I ’m the Lord of the Harvest ! ” “ Who ’s that , some new wellness - food bunch ? ” Watch it , love it , and be incessantly transform .

For more , check that you ’re following us on our new Instagram @io9dotcom .

Photo: Jae C. Hong

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