Sequel Showdown: 3s, Threes, and IIIs
So in the 2s, Twos, and IIs list last month, Friday the 13th Part 2 beat off (not like that – ew!) all the competition to be crowned best #2 slasher sequel.
Twos-ville is a crowded suburb, but numbers dwindle a little for the Threes…
1982-1988
Friday the 13th Part III; Halloween III: Season of the Witch; Psycho III;
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors; Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland
So, which is the best of the first crop? Elm Street 3 – the first slasher film I ever saw – gets my vote, followed by Psycho and Friday, with the dismal Halloween III coming in last.
1989-1991
Prom Night III: The Last Kiss; Silent Night Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!; Slumber Party Massacre III; Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III; Child’s Play 3
A difficult era for the genre, not a lot of high-profile original material was released after circa-1987; the three big franchises even wound down as box office numbers crumbled… I digress, Prom Night III is my favoured entry here; though Slumber and Child’s Play are decent, TCM – a franchise I’ve never been wild about – doesn’t live up to the “most controversial film ever made” blurb of its poster, and the less said about Silent Night III the better.
1992-2004
Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence; Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest;
Scream 3; Urban Legends: Bloody Mary; Scarecrow Gone Wild
A far-reaching group here, showing how few franchises got to numero tres at this time… Scream 3 clearly kicks the asses of the rest, though I quite enjoyed UL3. The rest are kinda sucky.
2006-2009
Final Destination 3; The Graveyard; I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer; Boogeyman 3; Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
Another easy one; FD3 cleans up against uber-feeble competition from what’s technically Bloody Murder 3, and truly horrid entries in the Last Summer and Wrong Turn canons.
The Finalists
This could be a bit too easy…
Prom Night III is funny, but derivative of it’s neighbour here, Elm Street. Being a finalist at all should be gratifying enough for it and everybody involved. Congrats to you all, but you’re not winning.
I used to love Scream 3 more when I first saw it, but repeated viewings have scrutinised some of its evident problems. It’s still fun, but there’s a boredom emanating from the returning players, all of whom look like they’d rather be doing something else, as did Kevin Williamson, it seemed, who barely contributed a damn thing. And then they aaaall came crawling back a decade later…
Final Destination 3 largely re-booted to the original template, but did so with far more venom and disregard for its characters, who are done away with far more viciously than in any of the other entries in the series.
Thus, the winner is…
*
Clearly the best threequel in the slasher realm; they got everything right in this one (though it drags a little towards the end): The vein puppet, Jennifer’s “big break in TV”, and an overall great concept make Freddy the deserved winner.
“Friday the 13th Part 2 beat off (not like that – ew!) all the competition to be crowned best #2 slasher sequel.”
Whore.
Going just by hazy memories of some of these, my categorization is:
Liked:
Friday the 13th Part 3
Dream Warriors (though not as much as everyone else)
Sleepaway Camp III
Prom Night 3
Final Destination 3
Passable:
Psycho III
SPM III
Leatherface
Child’s Play 3
Maniac Cop 3
Scream 3
IAKWYDLS (… what?)
Boogeyman 3
Didn’t Care For:
Halloween 3
SNDN 3
CotC III
UL: Bloody Mary (though it did have some good elements)
Scarecrow Gone Wild
The Graveyard
Wrong Turn 3
Honorable Mentions: Carved 0: The Beginning, Screaming for Sanity: Truth or Dare 3, Killjoy 3, Within the Woods, and My Super Psycho Sweet 16 3 (I got the whole trilogy in from eBay the other day!)
And there’s a Violent Shit 3 and 4, though they abandoned the slasher genre in favor of action-horror with ninjas, zombies, supervillains and whatnot.
Oh, and Cold Prey 3, another I still need to see.
… I’m prone to rambling.
Cold Prey III is waiting in the wings for the prequel edition. I’ve still not found My Super Psycho Sweet 16 Pt 3
Good choice. A very well done movie with a great cast and a disturbing but interesting Freddy strategy.
Don’t get the hate for Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
Really liked Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland. Could be wrong but all the cut footage from that film seems to be shown in all the best of/flashbacks featured in the dreadful, Sleepaway Camp IV: The Survivor.
Final Destination 3 was easily the weakest film in the franchise. Hated how those photo predictions ripped off from The Omen.
Not mad at Dream Warriors winning this.
Sorry for rambling.
Halloween III gets a lot of stick; I really should give it another go one of these days/months/years/lifetimes. But every time THAT song starts… Ugh.
I think id have chosen Scream 3 over Elm Ste 3