Ooh, secret sequels! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most memorable movies that informally continue the story of another, but were made by an entirely different production team and are not considered canonical.
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00:00You put them on, and you click the heels three times, and then you said there's no place
00:06like home.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most memorable movies that informally
00:13continue the story of another, but were made by an entirely different production team and
00:18are not considered canonical.
00:20We've previously addressed sequels that are more high-profile than their predecessors,
00:24such as Silence of the Lambs, and we're excluding movies like Troll 2, which are completely
00:30unrelated to their namesake.
00:32Oh my god!
00:35Number 10.
00:39The Slave, Spartacus.
00:42Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus inspired a new era of Hollywood epics, plus an army of impersonators.
00:48I'm Spartacus.
00:51I'm Spartacus.
00:54I'm Spartacus.
00:56The film itself told the mostly true story of a gladiator's revolt against the Roman
01:01Republic.
01:02But Howard Fast's source novel gave The Slave room for liberties with Spartacus' fictional
01:08son.
01:09Despite landing American distribution with MGM, this Italian production was much smaller
01:13than Kubrick's masterpiece.
01:15It was still a solid success that has since earned a cult following for its action and
01:20informal connection to Universal's classic.
01:22It's also a satisfying end to bodybuilder Steve Reeve's run-of-sword-and-sandal films.
01:35While The Slave is ultimately no Spartacus, it makes a thrilling claim to that name.
01:419.
01:42The Amityville Haunting – The Amityville Horror
01:45The fabled haunting of a house in Amityville, Long Island was the basis for a cult movie
01:50in 1979 that launched a long-running film franchise.
02:06Departing from the original series, 2011's The Amityville Haunting was produced and distributed
02:11by The Asylum, a company synonymous with straight-to-video mockbusters.
02:16The film consists of staged found footage of a family moving to 112 Ocean Avenue.
02:32This continuation of that house's lore was as universally panned as any of The Asylum's
02:37cheap non-efforts.
02:38It's nonetheless set a precedent for low-end productions that could get away with ripping
02:44off the Amityville brand.
02:54At least B-horror enthusiasts can rejoice in that.
02:588.
02:59The Punisher – Dirty Laundry – The Punisher
03:02Lionsgate alone made two attempts to mount a franchise on Marvel's harshest anti-hero.
03:16Four years after the Ray Stevenson reboot Punisher Warzone, Thomas Jane reprised the
03:21role in a fan-made short film.
03:32Dirty Laundry finds Frank Castle lying low in a bad neighborhood, until he ends up cleaning
03:37the streets of Gangs.
03:39In just ten minutes, the film does more justice to its source material than any of the studio
03:44features.
03:45It also debuted Tim Bradstreet's iconic logo for the Punisher, and Jon Bernthal said
03:49his portrayal for Netflix was more by Jane in the short.
03:53Dirty Laundry may be particularly dressed down for an unofficial sequel, but it hits
03:57harder than most fan-films.
03:587.
03:59Cruel Jaws – Jaws The Revenge – Universal's Jaws series began with one of the greatest
04:12films ever made, and ended with one of the worst.
04:21That is, until a shark attack in Florida ostensibly picked up where Jaws The Revenge left off.
04:28The straight-to-video Italian production, Cruel Jaws, was actually made with no involvement
04:33from Universal.
04:34It was, however, made with a lot of footage lifted from the official movies.
04:49Shots from other so-called shark-sploitation films were also thrown into the mix.
04:53This naturally led to legal issues that severely limited the movie's distribution.
04:58But after years of underground circulation and home media deals, Cruel Jaws might be
05:02due for a resurgence.
05:12According to some, it is at least better than Jaws The Revenge.
05:166.
05:17My Sassy Girl 2 – My Sassy Girl The beloved rom-com My Sassy Girl helped bolster
05:23international interest in South Korean cinema.
05:26Despite its title, My Sassy Girl 2 is, in fact, one of many loose adaptations.
05:32The Chinese production really just rips off the premise of some sad sack getting involved
05:37in a volatile love interest's schemes.
05:50At least it had the courtesy to credit the original film's writing team.
05:54Otherwise, My Sassy Girl 2 is a narratively loose capitalization on a popular title.
06:11The poorly received romp didn't fool critics or audiences, but South Korean and Chinese
06:16filmmakers did collaborate on an official sequel, My New Sassy Girl, in 2016.
06:375.
06:38Zombie 2 – Dawn of the Dead In 1978, everyone was talking about the sequel
06:45to the genre-defining Night of the Living Dead.
06:54Italian audiences knew Dawn of the Dead by the title, Zombie.
06:58The Italy-based variety distribution thus named their undead thriller, Zombie 2, in
07:03order to draw domestic audiences.
07:15The movie is actually based more on voodoo zombie lore than George A. Romero's viral
07:20outbreak.
07:21It was still so full of gore that controversy made it a global phenomenon in its own right.
07:26This led to Zombie 3 and an international franchise of unofficial sequels and retitled
07:31releases.
07:44If Romero's horror classics concocted the zombie genre, then Zombie 2 and its own rip-offs
07:50were integral to the spread.
07:524.
07:53Showgirls 2 – Penny's From Heaven
07:57Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls went from a critical scandal to one of the great camp classics
08:02of the 90s.
08:03Katrina Riffle felt her brief role as Penny deserved more spotlight.
08:19With help from Kickstarter, she produced, wrote, directed, edited, and distributed Showgirls
08:242 – Penny's From Heaven.
08:25Oh yeah, and she also acted in the titular dancer's rise from a minor character to
08:30a burlesque star.
08:41Unfortunately, the two-and-a-half-hour-long opus received even worse reviews than the
08:45legendary bomb before it.
08:46It's still hard not to admire the awesome underdog story in its creation.
09:00Whether Riffle's unlikely spinoff will have the same legs as Showgirls, Penny's From
09:04Heaven is already enticing an audience.
09:073.
09:08Shocking Dark – The Terminator
09:11James Cameron brought sci-fi action into the future with The Terminator.
09:15Even five years later, Variety Distribution felt they could widen Shocking Dark's audience
09:20by marketing it as Terminator 2.
09:24What's most shocking is that the movie itself is more of an aliens rip-off.
09:37The plot concerns a military raid on a research facility overrun with xenomorph-like monsters.
09:44Perhaps the filmmakers respected that the unauthorized Alien 2 on Earth beat them and
09:48Cameron to an alien sequel.
10:04International distribution for Terminator 2 was nonetheless limited by its title, even
10:08after Cameron cleared up any confusion with T2, Judgment Day.
10:15Shocking Dark now enjoys a cult following under its original title, albeit largely for
10:20its bizarre connection with two sci-fi classics.
10:232.
10:25Happily Ever After – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
10:28Walt Disney Productions gave way to animated feature films with Snow White and the Seven
10:33Dwarfs.
10:45Filmation associates specifically wanted to explore the and-they-lived-happily-ever-after
10:50part of the story.
10:51The company had every right to continue the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, and already did
10:56so with 1980's A Snow White Christmas.
10:59But Happily Ever After was so similar to Disney's aesthetic that the entire production was racked
11:04with legal issues.
11:13By the time the film was widely released in 1993, Filmation had shut down.
11:18Fans also weren't enchanted with Snow White's journey to rescue her prince.
11:28Still, for all the critical and legal realities, Happily Ever After found its own happy ending
11:37as an animation cult classic.
11:551.
11:56Return to Oz – The Wizard of Oz Only Disney could be trusted to recapture the
12:02magic of the musical fantasy, The Wizard of Oz.
12:0546 years in the making, Return to Oz picks up six months later, with Dorothy Gale returning
12:11to an Emerald City in ruins.
12:23It's technically just an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's sequel to the book adapted in
12:271939.
12:28However, it lifts so many elements from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's production that it's widely considered a high-profile
12:35rip-off.
12:45It still wasn't high-profile enough to survive critical and box office disappointment.
12:49Over the years, though, Return to Oz has won praise for reconciling MGM's masterpiece
12:54with a faithfully darker interpretation of Baum's fantasy.
13:07And with the unofficial prequel Oz the Great and Powerful, a cinematic classic lives on
13:12with Disney.
13:13Which unofficial or unauthorized sequels stood out to you?
13:17Feel free to continue our story in the comments.