The conventional wisdom in Hollywood suggests that if a horror movie is financially successful enough at the box-office, it will inevitably warrant a sequel or potential franchise. Whether it's Halloween, Friday the 13th, or A Nightmare on Elm Street, the biggest horror movies always tend to foster several follow up films in the attempt to recreate the success of the first.
On the flip side, many horror films that often earn rave reviews fail to receive a sequel for one reason or another. But if there were any standalone horror movies that ever deserved to get a sequel, these titles below would rank at the top.
Crawl (2019)
Alexandre Aja's 2019 highly entertaining summer horror film, Crawl turned an estimated budget of $13.5 million into a $91.5 million global moneymaker. And yet, despite Aja's public interest to make one, no word of a sequel has yet to be announced.
The economic character-driven thriller follows Haley (Kyla Scodelario), a gifted University of Florida swimmer who races home in a category 5 hurricane to ensure her father's survival. Once there, she becomes trapped in the basement of her house as the tides rise and a vicious congregation of alligators infests the area.
In The Mouth Of Madness (1995)
Given legendary horror director John Carpenter's willing involvement in the new Halloween reboot, it isn't out of the realm of possibility for him to direct a sequel to one of his other titles. In 2017, he made a four-minute short called John Carpenter: Christine, which revived his 1983 Stephen King adaptation.
However, one of Carpenter's last great standalone horror movies was In The Mouth of Madness, starring Sam Neill. The film follows a hackneyed horror scribe who discovers the ability to conjure ghoulish monsters from the page into waking reality. Neill plays John Trent, an investigator sent to unmask the mystery of an imaginary hellscape.
Planet Terror (2007)
Although packaged as the gimmicky Grindhouse double-feature, along with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, the idea of Robert Rodriguez directing a bigger, bolder, and bloodier zombie film is as intriguing as they come.
Planet Terror results from a military bioweapon that goes horribly awry and begins turning people into rabid, flesh-hungry zombies. El Wray (Freddie Rodriguez) and his girlfriend, Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan), lead a human resistance against the onslaught, ending with their refuge in the Caribbean. A post-credit scene suggests Rodriguez left the door open for a potential sequel.
Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Sam Raimi rose to prominence in the 1980s as a DIY indie horror filmmaker behind such genre classics as the Evil Dead series. Although he recently returned to the horror realm for Quibi's 50 States of Fright in 2020, his last horror feature came via the 2009 film, Drag Me To Hell. With such a downbeat cliffhanger of an ending, a sequel would be warmly welcomed.
However, when asked about a potential sequel in 2019, Raimi told Bloody Digusting that he had always intended Drag Me To Hell to be a standalone horror movie, saying, "I don't have a story, because, in my mind, the character got killed, and worse. So I don't know how to proceed with a sequel." Raimi also said if someone comes up with a good story, a sequel isn't out of the question entirely.
It Follows (2014)
One of the more beloved horror films of the past five or six years belongs to David Robert Mitchell's It Follows, a title that literally begs for a sequel of some kind. As a menacing metaphor for the guilt, remorse, and paranoia of contracting an STD, the movie still has a lot of subject matter to explore.
The film centers on Jay Height (Maika Monroe), a 19-year-old girl who is suddenly stalked by a supernatural entity following a harmless sexual experience. As Jay and her friends try to shake the sinister stalker that continues its relentless pursuit, more answers are raised than questions answered.
Black Swan (2010)
Although Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) dies a gloriously self-imposed death at the end of Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky can surely find a way to continue the story. Besides, the prestigious horror film became a runaway box-office hit by turning a $13 million budget into roughly $330 million in profits.
A sequel could very well center on Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel), Nina's maniacal dance instructor, a decade or so after Nina's suicidal ballet performance, as he grapples with his guilt and remorse.
The Witch (2015)
While Robert Eggers followed-up his brilliant horror debut The Witch with the equally disturbing The Lighthouse, his deadly debut still leaves many wanting a sequel or prequel of some kind.
With a slow-burning build to an entrancingly evil finale, The Witch follows the daily routine of a family in 1630s New England. When a baby is snatched by a conniving witch one day, the family falls victim to intense demonic possession in their attempt to retrieve the infant. Thomasin's (Anya Taylor-Joy) fate is strongly alluded to, but it'd be nice to actually see the consequences of her actions.
Get Out (2017)
While the subject matter might be too scary to return to, the filmmaking acumen and major financial success of Jordan Peele's Get Out warrants a follow-up of some sort.
Get Out exposes a vile, vindictive, and unthinkably evil plot in which a rich white family subjugates black domestic helpers with the sole intent of stealing their genetic dominance. The dastardly plot is revealed through Chris' (Daniel Kaluuya) terrifying visit to his girlfriend's house in rural America, where he is drugged and sent to the "Sunken Place" to have his identity stripped.
The Babadook (2014)
Jennifer Kent's feature debut, The Babadook, is widely hailed as the top two or three horror movies to come out in the past six years. The film is a mortifying metaphor for the stress of parenthood, over-exhaustion, the lack of sleep, and how a monster is only as powerful as the belief you give it. A follow up would be more than welcome.
The terrifying iconography of the film comes from a mysterious children's book called Mister Babadook that suddenly appears in the home of Amelia (Essie Davis) and her young son Samuel (Noah Wiseman). The horrifying boogeyman torments the single mother and child until they make a daring stand.
Hereditary (2018)
Inarguably one of the scariest movies of recent memory, Ari Aster's Hereditary starts as a harrowing domestic drama that devolves into a demonic possession piece following the death of the Graham family matriarch.
While the ending leaves few survivors, one entity bound to persist is Paimon, the central demonic figure in the film. Paimon could easily continue to stalk and possess various members of the extended Graham family if a sequel were made. As it stands currently, Aster is poised to make a four-hour "nightmare comedy" as his next project.