As much as movie sequels now dominate the box office more than ever before, they have also been around for more than a century. Hot off the success of The Birth of a Nation, author Thomas Dixon Jr. (who wrote The Clansman, the book on which D. W. Griffith’s racist epic was based) directed its sequel The Fall of a Nation himself in 1916 to diminishing returns. It’s considered by many to be the first sequel to a feature film. In 1925, Douglas Fairbanks starred in Don Q Son of Zorro, a sequel to his 1920 smash hit The Mark of Zorro, in an attempt to shore up United Artists. As long as there have been moving pictures, there has been an urge to capitalize on proven intellectual property.

With each ing decade, that urge grew alongside the undeniable monetary benefits of the formula. By the bloated 1980s, acceleration was met with stagnation. These narrative continuances often felt more perfunctory than ionate, and the box office suffered. Yet the sequels persisted, bigger than ever before. After all, for every The Sting II there was an Empire Strikes Back. As Hollywood attempts to survive and thrive in this ever-changing media landscape, the familiar serves as an easy comfort. With that in mind, which are the ones you might have missed or dismissed that are worthy of your time?

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)

A direct sequel to Tod Browning’s 1931 masterpiece, Dracula’s Daughter opens in the moments after Van Helsing (Edward Van Sloan) has killed the vampire. Minutes later, Countess Zaleska enters the picture, played seductively, domineeringly by Gloria Holden. Once bitten, she’s determined to cure herself, but to no avail. Robin keenly observes, “Countess Zaleska’s first words on the screen are, ‘Are you in charge here?’ While she’s answered in the affirmative, it is pretty immediately and abundantly clear to the audience that she is in charge of whatever room she’s in.” As Zaleska’s bloodlust takes hold, no one is safe.

Song of the Thin Man (1947)

This is the final and least-regarded of The Thin Man pictures, directed by Edward Buzzell and starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as the iconic crime-solving couple Nick and Nora Charles. In this sixth film following the duo, they must solve the case of a murder among nightclub musicians. It’s the broadest (and funniest?) of the series, featuring some of the best dog acting you will ever see and great human acting as well! M writes, “There’s not ONE bad film in The Thin Man franchise and if you don’t agree then that’s YOUR problem.”

Billion Dollar Brain (1967)

Directed by a young Ken Russell, this third film in the Harry Palmer film series (starring Michael Caine) is by far the weirdest. The “Brain” in question is a supercomputer issuing devious, potentially world-changing orders. Palmer, retired from the spy game, is re-enlisted to stave off disaster, despite being severely overmatched. Featuring obtuse smash cuts, frenetic camerawork and ridiculous performances, it playfully critiques its own existence. GoldMod explains that it “ditches the defining element of the Harry Palmer films, i.e. being somewhat more grounded and moody than say, James Bond, in favor of a total opposite: intense surreality and hyper-stylized extravagance.” Russell, of course, was just getting started.

They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970)

Here we have another sequel to a Best Picture Winner: In the Heat of the Night. Dismissed upon its release, the film finds Detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier, reprising his role) in San Francisco, investigating the murder of a sex worker of which his good friend Reverend Logan Sharpe (Martin Landau, superb) is accused. Director Gordon Douglas appears determined to do everything completely different from the previous effort’s Norman Jewison. And it works! Rodolfo is right to assert that the standout scenes are with Tibbs’ family: “This is pretty terrific. Sidney was really good in this one. Some great family scenes which I wasn’t expecting. Well made.”

Funny Lady (1975)

Even Barbra Streisand, per her autobiography, has softened on this contractually obligated sequel to Funny Girl. Directed by Herbert Ross and lensed by the great James Wong Howe (his final credit as cinematographer), Funny Lady complicates the legend of stage and radio icon Fanny Brice in a way that turned off viewers at the time. But Streisand is great here, and her tête-à-tête with James Caan’s Billy Rose is worth the price of ission. Crucially, the musical numbers do not disappoint. Ultimately, Lovryn writes what all of us who’ve watched Funny Lady are thinking: “Fuck all of these men, Fanny Brice deserves better.”

French Connection II (1975)

Spoilers for The French Connection: the bad guy (Fernando Rey) gets away at the end. In this brazen sequel, directed with verve by John Frankenheimer, NYPD Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) has made port in Marseilles in pursuit of the one that got away. What follows is an incredibly dark, vicious narrative that sees Doyle completely out of his element and in way over his head. Hans notes that it’s “entirely different in style and tone than the first film. This contains the most intense acting performance I’ve seen from Gene Hackman. And I’m talking about Gene Hackman.”

Return to Oz (1985)

The great film editor Walter Murch directed this truly demented sequel to The Wizard of Oz for Disney in 1985. Starring Fairuza Balk in her screen debut (in which she is magnificent), the film is decidedly not for children. Here, young Dorothy is sent to receive electrotherapy(!) due to her persistent memories of Oz. Her escape from the hospital leads her back to the Emerald City, which is now a ruined kingdom. Nicole captures the strange trajectory of this cult classic, writing “This used to give me nightmares as a kid but rewatching it made me fall in love !!! Absolutely obsessed with the concept of Oz. I adore when the place of a movie is practically the main character.”

The Two Jakes (1990)

Earl puts this one in a nice perspective: “I think it’s wonderfully-shot, with intelligent dialogue, and actually quite a fascinating story. I’ve come around to the position that The Two Jakes’ only crime was not being Chinatown. For that it got hammered by most critics and by most everybody else. It truly deserves a second look.” Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond shoots this follow-up to Chinatown with a golden hue that plays like fractured nostalgia. Released in 1990, star Jack Nicholson directed the film himself, an overly complicated noir that features top-notch production design and the joy of watching the great Harvey Keitel go toe-to-toe with Nicholson on-screen. There’s also the continued pleasure of watching Nicholson play Jake Gittes as a detective that is not very good at detecting.

Texasville (1990)

“I wouldn’t know how to fall in love with anybody. I’m too old for it,” Jeff Bridges’ Duane says at one point in Peter Bogdanovich’s unwanted sequel to The Last Picture Show, made nearly twenty years after the original. Gondo describes this one as “everyone has sex with each other and everyone is kinda sad. Great film.” The Director’s Cut of Texasville (28 minutes longer) was released a couple of years after the initial release and has garnered increased, deserved praise (and a Criterion release, paired with its predecessor) as the years have gone by. There is a beautiful melancholy that lingers on through each scene of the picture. After all, life is hard and then it’s over.

Alien: Resurrection (1997)

Of all the Alien sequels, this one has improved the most with age. Brandon writes, “SO much better than I ed. Jeunet’s is the most overtly sexual and horrifying of the series. Just a disgustingly imaginative movie that we would NEVER see today. Sigourney and Winona are so good in this.” French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and screenwriter Joss Whedon lean into the cynical cash grab of a fourth film in a series by building a narrative around a corporation that is cravenly, carelessly attempting to capitalize on a copy of what has come before. There is originality in the awareness.

Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

“That’s cool if you don’t like this movie. Fun isn’t for everyone, I guess,” Parker declares. This movie opens with a burst of flames, and that’s about the level of energy (and subtlety) it operates at for the entirety of its runtime. No single other film better represents the cartoonish, rubbery aesthetic of early-2000s blockbuster filmmaking. Full Throttle works as well as it does because it leans into every maximalist impulse. McG’s action epic is the living manifestation of James Cameron’s edict “Less isn’t more. More is more.” Also, the Demi Moore comeback started here, and do not let anybody tell you different.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

The most reliable piece of continuity throughout the entire Terminator franchise is that John Connor sucks. The leader to save mankind never sucked more than he does in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as played by Nick Stahl. Director Jonathan Mostow’s sequel is fast, furious and bold. Claire Danes does A-plus work with a C-minus character, and Kristanna Loken’s turn as the next incarnation of advanced Terminator has aged well. It’s more playful than the first two, and that ending hits like an avalanche. Marky calls it “super fast, sorta dumb, often silly and occasionally quite wonderful. A solid sequel to James Cameron’s (undeniably superior) predecessors.”

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

This second entry in star Vin Diesel and writer-director David Twohy’s Odyssesian saga of Richard B. Riddick was a costly flop built on lofty ambitions. Riddick, on the run from everyone in the universe, finds himself in the middle of a power struggle on a planet where religious fanatics named Necromongers rule. It’s all derivative and silly and wonderful. I’m on Avalyn team: “Fuck anyone who says that the scope got too big. Give me all the intricate lore, give me all the insane 2000s CGI-scapes, give me all that gonzo action, give me the Bionicle-ass looking fonts. This is what it’s all about.”

Iron Man 3 (2013)

This is the funniest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For the sequel, co-written and directed by Shane Black, many Marvel fans scoffed at the clever twist on the Mandarin villain character (Ben Kingsley, great). There is also the unforgivable dismissal of the Rebecca Hall character. And yet! Black’s direction of Robert Downey Jr. (who has never been better) and his honest wrestling with PTSD within this blockbuster framework is quite lovely. Eric writes, “Yeah, it’s probably the best one of these. The quips and one liners are actually good here because the maestro Shane Black really knows how to inject a buddy cop vibe. Plus Guy Pearce breathes fire!”

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Where Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was met with righteous indignation, Dial of Destiny wasn’t met at all. Very few people saw it! And what a shame that is. Director James Mangold set out to make something wholly different from what had come before. Here we find Indy (Harrison Ford) at the bittersweet end of his life’s adventure. This film is slower, sadder and lovelier than the rest. As Gabriele puts it, “A film about time, full of watches, clocks, ticking bombs and rushes against time, that actually tries itself to go back in time and still make that Indiana Jones magic once again.”

A Haunting in Venice (2023)

Based on Agatha Christie’s 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party, director Kenneth Branagh (who also hams it up as Detective Hercule Poirot) finds his stride in this third film of his series by getting small and scary. Ian says, “This is it. This is what I want from a Hercule Poirot movie. A big cast that understands the assignment and who can balance the camp with taking the story seriously. These kinds of murder mysteries don’t benefit from knowing winks. But what really levelled up this movie was the location. There is no substitute for really being somewhere. Venice looked amazing and tangible because it WAS Venice and not some CGI rendering.”