5. Final Destination 3 (2006)
I’m gonna say something slightly controversial here: Final Destination 3 isn’t just an incredible threequel. It’s the best of its franchise. The first film is brilliant for the central idea it proposes, and the plane crash is indeed terrifying. The second ups the ante with Rube Goldberg machines of death and is much meaner. But the third film — with an iconic roller coaster set piece, a fantastic lead performance from scream queen Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and the most compelling reason I’ve ever seen to avoid tanning salons — is where the franchise hits its peak. It’s brutal, fun, and packed with deaths that stick with you. Once again, triples are best. (Anna Swanson)
4. Day of the Dead (1985)
George Romero’s “Living Dead” films are a testament to the man’s interests, skillset, and the market’s unfortunate pigeonholing of creatives. While Night of the Living Dead is revered as a groundbreaking classic and Dawn of the Dead is held high as a sharp and gory commentary, Romero’s third entry is often dismissed as an also-ran. Screw that noise. Day of the Dead is actually my favorite of the franchise. From Tom Savini’s brilliant gore effects to John Harrison’s highly listenable score to a fantastic mix of characters you root for and others you despise, this remains a stellar horror film commenting on military/scientific overreach while still delivering a gut-munching good time. (Rob Hunter)
3. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
When is a threequel not a threequel? When it’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill couldn’t imagine where they could take the Michael Myers storyline after killing the Shape and Loomis in the previous film. However, as Twilight Zone and Outer Limits fanatics, they could conceive a world where the Halloween franchise became an anthology series. So, for Part III, they ditched their boogeyman and attempted to find a new one in Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy). The horror community at the time was not ready, but over the years, a cult has formulated around Season of the Witch. The movie is extra goopy and gross, moving the violence mostly implied in the earlier films and pushing it toward grotesque heights. Tom Atkins is no Jamie Lee Curtis, but he’s a noirish, somewhat brutish doctor determined to halt a heathen apocalypse. His wide-eyed disgust toward the film’s many revelations seems utterly appropriate, and he’s easy to root for even when he seems totally out of his element. (Brad Gullickson)
2. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Even if you’re a Freddy’s Revenge apologist, you must admit that Dream Warriors is a hell of a comeback. Not only does this threequel see the return of one of (if not the best) final girls in horror history (Heather Langenkamp), but we’re also introduced to a new mechanic that keeps the nightmare-invading format fresh and freaky: lucid dreaming. Sometime after the events of the first film, Nancy (Langenkamp) has put her own traumatic past to good use by entering the medical field to help teens with sleep disorders. When the patients at a psychiatric institution start to die under suspicious circumstances, Nancy realizes that her old, dream-hopping nemesis is back. Directed by the great Chuck Russell (who helmed The Blob remake the following year), Dream Warriors outclasses its peers with a charming ensemble cast of teens and adults alike (hello Laurence Fishburne and Craig Wasson!) while also bringing a masterful balance of psychiatric trauma and cheeky wit. Matching and at times surpassing the creativity of the original, if you’re going to watch a Nightmare sequel, this threequel is an absolute dream. (Meg Shields)
1. The Exorcist III (1990)
Set seventeen years after Regan MacNeil’s exorcism, police detective William F. Kinderman (now played by George C. Scott) investigates a series of murders that share commonalities with the work of an executed serial killer. His trail eventually leads to a psychiatric hospital where the previously thought deceased Father Karras is alive… sorta. Through him, “The Master” works.
William Peter Blatty originally conceived the story that would become The Exorcist III as a sequel for William Friedkin to direct. However, when Billy left the project, Blatty turned the script into the novel Legion, published in 1983. Years later, Morgan Creek Productions acquired the rights and set Blatty up as director. The studio and Blatty fought tooth and nail toward the end, and the director was forced to add a last-minute exorcism sequence, but the final result is a brutally imaginative and terrifying exercise. (Brad)
Looking for more triple threats? Follow along with more 31 Days of Horror Lists!
Previous 2 of 2