Four Sequels/Prequels I Wished Happened

There have been some great films over time that were followed by equally great sequels...and other sequels that were let's just say, not so much. The following list are some of my favorite films that never got the continuation nod they deserved.

Flash Gordon

Apparently this was considered a bomb at the U.S. box office and I really don't know why. Maybe it was because it was released the same year as the epic Empire Strikes Back or people did not understand the meaning of "camp".

In the film's conclusion, Ming gets speared by General Ajax's Destroyer thanks to our hero Flash ("you saved your life...have a nice day. Yaahh!"). Now that the tribes of Mongo have united in harmony, Flash and Dr. Zharkov decide to stay in Mongo and hang out. Then we get a close up of Ming's gloved hang picking up his ring of power, complete with the ring's sound effect and a caption stating "The End?" followed by Sydow doing Ming's truly evil laugh.

When I was a kid, I didn't think there was a chance in hell that a sequel would not be made, but alas it never happened. I always envisioned the sequel with Ming reforming his army to attack Flash and his new forces. Ming seemingly indestructible with the power of his ring, would have the energy to match the quantity of Flash's new friends and could only be vanquished if the ring was destroyed. This would lead to a one-on-one duel between Flash and Ming that we didn't get in the original.

And we needed more Rocket Cycle. To this day, all I want in life is a fully functional Rocket Cycle!

At least we never got that awful idea for a remake with Ashton Kutcher (shudders) but we did get that equally awful SyFy Original Series.

Near Dark

I always thought that there would a be sequel concerning Mae's inability to cope with being humanized once again. In my point-of-view that last shot at the end looked to say "WTF Caleb?! I told you I loved the night and you took that away from me. I didn't want this...you did." But how do a sequel when Jesse, Severen and the rest of the gang exploded right in front of our eyes? My thought was always that Mae would have sought out a new gang to be transformed back into a bloodsucker and leave Caleb to win her back and battle the new gang...this time after somehow being turned into a V-word once again. While this sounded like a great concept back in the day in my mind, I don't know how this would good this would have been as an end result.

A more intriguing idea was one that I learned from the 2002 Near Dark special edition DVD. If memory serves me correctly (and it usually doesn't), Henriksen or Paxton stated that a sequel was planned which would begin with Jesse's transormation during the Civil War and document how he met and formed the rest of the gang. It would also show some of the path of destruction they left over time, including starting the famous Chicago fires Severen referenced to Jesse in the film.

If they had the original cast (even with the whiny Homer) and Kathryn Bigelow returned to helm the flick, that would have owned on so many levels. Again, I think Paxton stated that it was all good to go after the film's success and acclaim received on video and cable, but Bigelow had moved on to other projects...which eventually led to her winning that little thing called an Academy Award 20+ years later.

The Lost Boys

And no that dreck called The Tribe does not count as a sequel. That film is filed in my brain along with the Highlander sequels and Alien 3 as never having existed.

The Lost Boys ends with David being thrown onto deer antlers by Michael in Grandpa's shed and later Max being destroyed by Grandpa. Even as a kid, I was confused how David perished on something that was not wooden or made of silver.

Since the film was a major summer hit, I always thought that a sequel involving David surviving and assuming a head vampire role now that his master Max had been defeated. He underestimated Michael's inner strength, used his power of suggestion ("Worms, Michael. You're eating worms.") to fake his death and then created some more "boys" to take out Michael, Sam and the Frog Brothers. Of course nothing ever happened until The Tribe graced us with its presence on video.

In retrospect, that idea would have been a rehash and more of the same. It would have been typical Hollywood to make a cash cow to essentially trick moviegoers into paying their hard earned bucks to essentially watch the same film with a few differences.

A few years back, I read that director Joel Schumacher had originally planned a sequel around that very concept, but there was also a script for a prequel that was going to be filmed instead. Last Spring, that official script was released online and it is fantastic! I even reviewed it on ETMC. Sadly that script, or the David's new "boys" concept or even the rumored Lost Girls was never made. All we got was the f'n Tribe. Bleh!

Evil Dead IV

I am sure that you all are not surprised in the least that I wished for a sequel in the Evil Dead trilogy. The original ending for Army of Darkness had Ash taking too much sleeping potion and waking up in a post-apocalyptic world while the theatrical (and highly superior) ending dealt with Ash reciting the wrong words once again and releasing Deadites into the present time.

AOD fell flat at the box office (except in the hearts of Evil Dead fans), but soon developed an enormous cult following on video and cable...even to those people who enjoyed the comedic aspect and thought it was a standalone film. Either way, the franchise has always been an extreme favorite of mine and I wanted a sequel no matter what ending they used.

Ash fought deadites in the present (Evil Dead II) and in the past (AOD), so it would seem logical that Ash would do battle with them for the last time in the future. My idea would have been that the ending to the theatrical version would have been one of Ash's dreams while he slept for centuries. Then he awakens to the end of the world and has to do battle against the deadites with some of the only remaining people left on Earth. Yeah it might have sucked, but anything with Bruce Campbell as Ash is pure gold to me. Even those video games every one hated? I loved them...so I thought bring in the sequel!!!

But it will never happen. Bruce Campbell laid down the official word there will never, ever be an Evil Dead IV. That's that.

So that's it folks! Too bad none of these came to fruition but again, maybe paper champions are better thought of as such.