The confusing world of film sequels

I'll begin with some fun.

Grindhouse double Planet Terror and Death Proof collectively advertise 'fake' trailers for Machete, Machete Kills and Hobo with a Shotgun.

All of which became real films of course.

Werewolf Women of the SS, Don't and Thanksgiving weren't so lucky.

Joke or not, Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers promised Student Chainsaw Nurses, which sadly never materialised.

Similarly, clever Jaws parody Blades teased Hedges.

Spoofing anything from Top Gun to Mission: Impossible, 22 Jump Street is the undisputed fake poster king.

Okay.  Down to business.

Despite name and number, expect a wicked combination of fake sequels and erroneous nonsense drafted in to unnecessarily bamboozle.

To be fair, the finger of blame should be pointed at studios, rather than film-makers.

But whatever, enjoy.

Natura Contro (translated as Against Nature) was released in 1988, and today is best known as Green Inferno or Canniabl Holocaust 2.
It wasn't a sequel to Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and just to make things more confusing, there was another film called Green Inferno in 1973, which 40 years later, would not be remade by Eli Roth in 2013 as The Green inferno.

America released Shock as Beyond the Door II, but had nothing to do with said series.

Similarly, Death Train or Amok Train, came out as Beyond the Door III.

Although The Church is also known as Demons 3, Michele Soavi's film has more in common wih my ass than the 'Demons' franchise.

Arrow Video released Demons and Demons 2 in 2012 with a a two-part comic included, called Demons 3.

Crazy shit.

Lamberto Bava's The Ogre was released on video in America as Demons III: The Ogre.

To capitalise on Grizzly's earlier success, Claws was re-released in 1978 in Canada and Mexico as Grizzly 2.
Interestingly, official sequel Grizzly II: The Concert was filmed and partially completed during the early 80's, but was never released.

1995 classic was updated in 2008 and titled Ghost of the Shell 2.0.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) is considered a loose sequel.

Titanic II is a mockbuster, not sequel to James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster.

The Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is based on original book, so obviously doesn't follow events of Howling III.

Universal Soliders wasn't a belated sequel to Van Damme/Lundgren action vehicle, but a Predator rip-off with Terminator-esque baddies thrown in for good measure.

Presumably because Sean Cunnigham produced it, The Horror Show was renamed House 3 for UK and Australian releases.
Because of this, House 4 is the real House 3.

Fright Night 2: New Blood takes chunks from Fright Night (1985), 2011 remake and Fright Night Part 2 (1988).

Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven is a remake, sequel and parody.

Troll 2 features goblins, not trolls.
HA HA HA!

The icky Xtro received two sequels, The Second Encounter and Watch the Skies.  Even though both were directed by Harry Bromley Davenport, neither had anything to do with original.

Stand-alone or remake?
I'm on either side, but whatever, Deep Blue Sea 2 doesn't deserve 'sequel' tag.

Randomly introducing witch cult, Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation bore no relation to Better Watch Out! and although next entry returned to killer Santa theme, The Toy Maker followed another unrelated plot.

Silent Night served as a loose remake of 1984 original.

Much to the annoyance of Rene Perez, Playing with Dolls: Bloodlust was repackaged in the UK as Leatherface.
Tactic was no accident, as distributor knew about upcoming Texas Chainsaw prequel.

Okay, now volume is turned up beyond eleven.

Mario Bava's hugely influential 1971 masterpiece A Bay of Blood was re-released in America under several names, including The Last House on the Left - Part 2.

Dario Argento's Deep Red didn't hit Japan until 1978, and bizarrely marketed as Suspiria Part 2.

One of the alternative titles for Night Train Murders was Last House - Part II, which according to tagline, implies the 'First' was either Wes Craven's original or 'Last House', which to this day - doesn't exist.
Errr, WTF? 

Naked Exorcist, aka Return of the Exorcist, was at some point dubbed The Exorcist III: Cries and Shadows.
The Exorcist III didn't come out until 1990.

The power of Christ compels me to show you 1975 poster.

Please note mysterious figure.

For some reason, The Exorcist's poster springs instantly to mind.

Max von Sydow's Father Merrin made an unofficial appearance.

For the record, original eventually received two prequels.  Exorcist: The Beginning and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist.

The Crawlers never received a sequel, but is also known as Troll 3¹, Creepers² and Contamination³.

¹Bears no connection to Troll or Troll 2.  Quest for the Mighty Sword (last in the Ator series) can also be called so.
²Dario Argento's Phenomena was released in America as Creepers.
³ntbcw 1980 film of same name, which was renamed Alien Contamination by North American distributor Cannon Films to capitalize on the success of Ridley Scott's Alien.

Now it's time for Italy to strut piss-taking stuff.

Alien 2: On Earth is the unofficial 1980 sequel to Alien.

Released only in Japan for MSX, Aliens: Alien 2 covered all bases.

Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws would have you believe series continued, but...
TV movie even had the cheek to recycle footage from Jaws, Jaws II, Deep Blood and The Last Shark.
For shits and giggles, it also pretty much lifted Mafia subplot from Peter Benchley's original 1974 Jaws novel.
Gotta love how tagline builds on Jaws: The Revenge.

The Evil Dead was called La Casa and similarly, Evil Dead II was dubbed La Casa II.

No prizes for guessing what happened next.

Before Army of Darkness, there was La Casa 3 (later released as Ghosthouse).

Two more 'sequels' followed, La Casa 4 (Witchery) and La Casa 5 (Beyond Darkness).

Peversely, House II: The Second Story and The Horror Show were also released under the La Casa label, as 'sixth' and 'seventh' films respectively.

Bonus round start.

Even though 1973 Spanish horror El ataque de los muertos sin ojos (Return of the Blind Dead) was renamed Return of the Evil Dead for English-speaking countries, it did not provide the basis for Sam Raimi's Evil Dead.

It was actually the second in Amando de Ossorio's 'Blind Dead' series.

Interesting, right?

Bruno Mattei remade Aliens and called it Terminator 2.
Unsurprisingly, Shocking Dark was never released in America.

Let's take a closer look.

Sara vs Ripley

Samantha vs Newt

Burke vs Burke

Main villain turns out to be Tubular Corporation's Perfect Android.

Marines gather to chew the fat.

We do at least get an alien.

Holy SHIT!

Grand finale is done ass about face on purpose.

Day of the Dead (1985) was loosely remade in 2008 and again in 2018, with the subtitle of Bloodline.

Before all that.

Day of the Dead 2: Contagium is the unofficial prequel to Romero's original.

Dawn of the Dead (1978) was remade in 2004.

During a legal battle with the MKR Group, Capcom famously added disclaimer for the European release of Dead Rising.

This game was not developed, approved or licensed by the owners or creators of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

1986 computer game Zombi was heavily influenced by DOTD and was followed by Zombi 2 (1979).

If only it were true...

(Laughs).

I wonder where Ubisoft lifted cover art from?

When ported from Wii U to PS4 etc, ZombiU was simply renamed Zombi.

Right, to serious business.

Dawn of the Dead was released in Italy as Zombi, so to cash in on its success, Lucio Fulci's gore-drenched classic was called Zombi 2 (without director's knowledge or permission).

So in the UK.

Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombi 2)
Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (Zombi 3)
Zombie Flesh Eaters 3 (Oltre la morte, aka After Death)

3 is unrelated to series and was called Zombie 4 in Japan.

Think that's bad, it gets much worse.

Germany

Zombie (Dawn of the Dead)
Zombie 2: Das Letzte Kapitel (Day of the Dead)
Zombie III (Zombi 3)

Zombi 2 was released separately as Woodoo.

Thailand

Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombi 2)
Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (Zombi 3)
Zombie Flesh Eaters 3 (Oltre la morte, aka After Death)
Zombie Flesh Eaters 4 (Uccelli assassini, aka Killing Birds)

3 and 4 are completely unrelated to series.

America

Zombie (Zombi 2)
Zombie 3 (Zombi 3)
Zombie 4: After Death (Oltre la morte, aka After Death)
Zombie 5: Killing Birds (Uccelli assassini, aka Killing Birds)
Zombie 6: Monster Hunter (Absurd)

So 'Zombie 2' doesn't exist.

Killing Birds (1987) was released before After Death (1988), and Absurd came out in 1981.

Err, logic?

So after all that shit, Germany was the only country to exploit Day of the Dead.

But what of Night of the Living Dead?

Special effects extraordinaire Tom Savini directed impressive remake of same name in 1990.

As the undead powers that be never copyrighted 1968 original, mayhem inevitably ensued.

Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006)

Remake starred Sid Haig and was unbelievably bad.

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated (2009)

Soundtrack, concept and dialogue is retained, but contributing artists (who didn't get paid a penny for their efforts), employed their own styles of stop-motion, claymation, sock puppets and comic book visuals.

Imaginative I suppose.

Night of the Living Dead: Reanimation (2012)

Prequel to NOTLD 3D.

Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection (2012)

Third remake was shot in Wales.

Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn (2015)

With graphics shoddier than a low-end PS1 game, CG movie swaps farmhouse setting for modern-day apartment block.

Tony Todd and Bill Moseley reprised roles as Ben and Johnny from first remake.