The release of Ti West’s ‘Pearl’ this weekend raises the question of which other horror classics would benefit from the prequel treatment.
Ti West has pulled off an impressive feat in 2022 by not only introducing audiences to Maxine, Pearl, and the world of X, but fleshing it out into its own horror trilogy within the span of a year. Pearl builds upon the ideas that Ti West first explored in X, only to push them in new directions and through a completely distinct filter. It’s a movie that both stands on its own, but also immediately makes the viewer want to rewatch X to view the film with greater insight.
Horror prequels debatably have an even more contentious reputation than sequels do since a lot of the time they rob characters or concepts of their initial mystique and a level of suspense is missing since audiences know what lies ahead on some level. Pearl is proof that prequels can be a viable way to expand upon a story and don’t run the risk of “ruining” properties in the ways that sequels do. There are some particular horror films where prequels wouldn’t just be appropriate, but also a smart way to return to these worlds.
Here are 10 more horror prequels we’d love to see someday.
Creep
Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice’s Creep films are thoroughly disturbing character studies that detail the manipulative exploits of a serial killer with an increasingly fluid backstory. Both Creep movies are exceptional exercises in tension that build upon the same themes, but hardly feel like they’ve derivative of each other. Duplass and Brice have struggled to crack the right story for a third Creep film to close out the trilogy and perhaps the best approach would be to look back to the past of Duplass’ killer instead of his future.
Creep 2 is predicated upon “Aaron’s” mid-life crisis upon turning forty and losing his zeal for murder. “Aaron” claims to have 39 kills to his name and with Creep 2 shining a light on what might be his final kill, there’d be a welcome symmetry to a prequel that details his very first murder. This Creep prequel could still keep the franchise’s found footage aesthetic, but present it in an even more archaic style of video with a potentially sloppier film style that mirrors the novice nature of Duplass’ killer character.
Midsommar
Ari Aster’s Midsommar is a haunting tone poem on loss, grief, and female empowerment that makes such a strong impact because it functions as a standalone story. It’s a relief that there hasn’t been a follow-up that continues to follow Dani Ardor’s tenure as May Queen, but what could make for a curious and contemplative movie is a prequel that follows the previous generation of Hårga. The Midsommar ceremony that becomes the morbid focus of the film is revealed to be an event that occurs every 90 years in order to perpetuate their customs. Turning the clock back 90 years to the previous Midsommar festival and May Queen crowning could prove to be an enlightening way to expand upon the Hårga’s culture, while still highlighting new sacrificial horrors.
There’s even the possibility for Midsommar’s Hårga elders, Father Odd and Grandmother Siv to possibly appear in the prequel as children that the audience views these new experiences through. A Midsommar prequel could also chronicle the events of the “Black One,” an entity that visited the Hårga people’s village and tricked their children to dance until their deaths. Audiences could see many of the Hårga’s macabre customs find their roots and first come into action.
Pumpkinhead
Stan Winston’s Pumpkinhead is a relic from the ’80s that often doesn’t get its due and the two SyFy original movies from the 2000s are hardly the revival that fans were looking for. Pumpkinhead is a Stan Winston creation that’s honestly on par with Alien’s Xenomorph, but behind the horrors of this film is a haunted fairytale aesthetic. It’s arguably the only monster movie that’s inspired by a poem, which is oddly fitting for this heightened tale of vengeance. 1988’s Pumpkinhead attributes Lance Henriksen’s Ed Harley for summoning Pumpkinhead, this demon of vengeance. However, the movie begins with a prelude that’s set twenty years earlier and looks at a past encounter between a young Ed, his dad, and Pumpkinead.
Pumpkinhead ends on a definitive note, but the movie’s sequels take so many liberties with the eponymous monster’s mythology that it wouldn’t be out of place to just wipe the slate clean and start anew, albeit far in the past as the “first” Pumpkinhead story. This Pumpkinhead prequel could return to the original movie’s introduction or instead look at previous Pumpkinhead tales of vengeance (or even explore any of the other sin-based monsters that are teased). Desperate villagers from the 1600s who turn to summoning Pumpkinhead in a gothic Witch-like environment could be exactly what Pumpkinhead has been lacking.
It Follows
Many of the best horror films are the ones that operate as social allegories that have more to say beyond their surface level horrors. It Follows excels as a terrifying monster movie, but it’s also an exceptional modern horror story with what it has to say about casual sex and dating dynamics. Maika Monroe’s Jay and her friends are the target of a shapeshifting monster that stalks its victims based upon their sexual partners.
It Follows ends on a conclusive note, but the movie kicks off with a sublime introduction that chronicles the tail end of another victim’s unsuccessful attempts to survive the same dark presence. Audiences see the ferocious and flexible aftermath of Annie’s death, but her whole experience with this monster could fuel its own film. It’d leave such an impression if an It Follows prequel were to conclude with the beginning of It Follows, with one movie seamlessly feeding into the other as one big story.
Hellraiser
Hellraiser is set for a modern reboot on Hulu courtesy of The Night House and The Ritual’s David Bruckner, which will hopefully resurrect the gruesome horror franchise from the direct-to-video purgatory that it’s been restricted to for several sequels. What’s most compelling about Clive Barker’s Hellraiser universe is the origins of the Lament Configuration puzzle box and the circumstances behind the horrific Cenobites that they summon. Hellraiser IV: Bloodline is not what most would consider to be a good movie, but it adopts a unique structure that’s set both way in the futuristic time period of 2127, but also flashes back to Paris, France at the end of the 1700s.
Philip LeMarchand is a French toymaker who’s responsible for the Lament Configuration’s creation and later experiences his own twisted fate. A prequel film could properly detail this 1796 origin story, but with some actual weight and stakes this time around (but they better also bring back Adam Scott in a powdered wig, while they’re at it). Hellraiser’s comics depict LeMarchand as a serial killer who creates the puzzle box out of human fat and bone, which could also make for a fascinating cinematic story. Alternatively, a Hellraiser prequel could abandon the LeMarchand lore in favor of a markedly looser, but more action-driven prequel. This could be as simple as a Lament Configuration box getting discovered by ancient warriors, pirates, or Colonial soldiers who suddenly need to contend with Cenobites and their delicious pleasures of the flesh. Who doesn’t want to see Pinhead take on Blackbeard after he finds the Lament Configuration box in one of his treasure hauls?
Oculus
Mike Flanagan is one of the most exciting and passionate names that’s currently working in horror and Oculus is one of the director’s strongest, yet most overlooked, films. The movie tells a powerful story about two traumatized siblings who attempt to get revenge on a haunted mirror that destroyed their family a decade earlier. Oculus jumps back and forth between two narratives in 2013 and 2002 that detail the Russell family’s history with the deadly Lasser Glass.
However, Kaylie Russell’s comprehensive research on the Lasser Glass breaks down eight previous tragedies that the mirror has caused. All of these events have tantalizing prequel potential, whether the movie details the initial carnage between the Earl of Leicester and his wife Virginia Lasser back in 1754, the tragedy that befell a Southern railroad tycoon in the 1860s, or any of the freak accidents that took out the owners of the Lasser Glass during the 1900s. Kaylie details the grisly consequences of each of these scenarios, but there’s still lots of room to flesh out their specifics.
Final Destination
Having its initial roots as a prospective X-Files episode, the Final Destination series turned into a surprise success story out of the 2000s. There are five Final Destination movies that explore the twisted whims of fate as Death itself tries to balance the scales and claim the lives that he’s owed. Curiously, the Final Destination series has already played around with non-linear chronology and delivered unexpected prequels, but the franchise could go even further in this department and take a page out of Prey’s book.
The Rube Goldbergian nature of deaths that transpire in Final Destination could instantly feel fresh if they were filtered through dangerous time periods like the Roman Empire or the trenches of World War I. There are so many eras from history that could benefit from the Final Destination treatment. Alternatively, Tony Todd’s mysterious William Bludworth character appears in the first, second, and fifth films in the series and he clearly has some understanding over the supernatural forces that are in play. A Final Destination prequel could highlight the potential tragedy that set Bludworth on this path and explain just what kind of relationship he has with Death.
The Shining
Stephen King’s The Shining is one of the most totemic horror novels and Stanley Kubrick’s epic cinematic adaptation, while quite different from its source material, is viewed with just as high esteem. The Shining tells a satisfying story that really doesn’t need to be expanded upon, but Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep is proof that such endeavors aren’t always a bad idea. There have been efforts to make a Shining prequel film, and series, that focus on earlier exploits at the Overlook Hotel before the Torrance family sets up shop for a fated winter in the 1970s.
Jack learns that the Overlook has quite the troubled history and any of the lost souls that show up in the movie could receive greater depth in an Overlook-centric prequel story. An Overlook prequel could even play with the supernatural idea that Jack has “always been the caretaker” at the Overlook and insert his image into idiosyncratic incidents from the hotel’s past. A prequel of this nature would have very big shoes to fill, but Mike Flanagan has proven that additional stories in The Shining universe can work.
The Descent
The Descent is a standout horror film from the 2000s and Neil Marshall’s claustrophobic meditation on grief and friendship is already captivating before the subterranean Crawlers reveal themselves. The Descent Part 2 likely soured most people to the idea of any additional Descent movies, but it’s been long enough that a prequel that looks at the origins of these creatures could be a unique experiment.
The Descent illustrates that the Crawlers have developed a full colony that’s made up of males, females, and children who have learned to adapt to these dark, cold surroundings. The roots of their genesis is much more interesting than just another story about spelunkers in peril. While not at all necessary, The Descent Part 2 also ends on a cryptic conclusion that indicates that mine operator, Ed Oswald, might have brokered some kind of partnership with the Crawlers that also has prequel potential.
Sinister
Scott Derrickson’s Sinister is dark, unflinching horror that makes such an impact because of Ethan Hawke’s committed performance and the increasingly alarming snuff films that his character exposes to himself. The supernatural Bughuul reveal in Sinister doesn’t work for everyone and the film’s sequel largely has diminishing returns. That being said, the original film lays the groundwork for several upsetting prequel pictures that chronicle the massacres of other families that Bughuul infects.
Seeing the events of “Pool Party ’66” or “BBQ ’79” get expanded into a fully Amityville Horror-style movie would be an interesting exercise in nihilism. Events would play out differently than Sinister and its sequel since Bughuul’s manipulation would presumably go undetected and left to the audience to discover.
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