The 10 Worst-Rated Sequels Ever, Ranked

A defining moment for comedies of the 1980s, Caddyshack introduced us to Harold Ramis as a director, Chevy Chase as a bona fide megastar, and continued Bill Murray’s escalation up the comedy ladder. A classic “slob vs. snob” comedy, its influence remains over many comedies of the ensuing decades, and it remains one of the best of its own decade.

Fast forward eight years, and Caddyshack II was one of the worst of the decade, and of all time. Rodney Dangerfield left a month before filming was due to start, and an early script co-written by Ramis was completely rewritten and downgraded to a family-friendly follow-up. What remains is a lazy and totally misguided money-grab embarrassment.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 4%

We begged for more than a decade for a follow-up to 2001’s hilarious cult comedy Zoolander, but we all should have known better, including Ben Stiller and co. While not a huge success on its original release, its DVD life was huge, and it became an endlessly quotable classic.

Fast forward to 2016, and Zoolander 2 had the gang back together and heading to Europe, it was surely a slam dunk. It wasn’t. Poor reviews and poor box-office (it opened in the US the same weekend as Deadpool) saw it cast into oblivion as quickly as it arrived. But, it wasn’t all bad news: Stiller said the flop, whilst devastating, allowed him to move in a different direction and pursue projects like his acclaimed work on the award-winning series Severance.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 21%

Talk about jumping the literal shark. Steven Spielberg’s magnificent, cinema-changing original is still as scary and brilliant as ever, but being a bit of a hit meant sequels were a must. Spielberg wasn’t interested, but two more films – Jaws 2 and Jaws 3-D – followed with decent box-office returns.

By 1987, Jaws: The Revenge was in the can, but was known as the distant cousin no one talks about. Sinking without a trace, it struck the final stake in the heart of the franchise. On the film, star Michael Caine admitted he took the job for the money, saying afterwards, “I’ve never seen it, but I’ve seen the house it bought, and it’s bloody marvellous”.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 2%

There can be only one, apparently. Well, there wasn’t – in fact, there were many. But how a franchise was born after the travesty of its first sequel is still head-scratching – even more so when you discover that the sequel paid no attention to the continuity of its predecessor, despite being a direct follow-up.

Made in 1991, Highlander II made director Russell Mulcahy request that his name be removed from it after seeing the “shockingly bad storyline”. The film’s insurer took control in the interim and edited the film as it stands today. Part III ignored it and retconned everything.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 0%

What worst sequels list isn’t complete without the franchise killer to end all franchise killers? Despite poor reviews, the third Batman – Batman Forever, directed by Joel Schumacher – was a huge success, and a fourth film was quickly greenlit, with Warner Bros. seeing a merchandising goldmine.

But, even Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Clooney couldn’t save the overhyped, overproduced fourth film, Batman & Robin, which killed the franchise with horrific reviews and poor box-office results. Clooney is still joking about how bad it is even now, saying: “I always apologise for Batman & Robin.” But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 11%

If you have a huge sleeper hit that surprises everyone, chances are you are thinking of a sequel almost immediately. But, if your main star decides the script for said sequel is rubbish, it might be a sign to stop what you are doing and listen.

Sadly, 20th Century Fox didn’t heed the warning and pressed ahead with a sequel that was the antithesis of what made the original so brilliant: no drama, no thrills, no tension, dull. Only Willem Dafoe’s batshit villain was worth the admission price when it comes to Speed 2: Cruise Control. Sandra Bullock says she is “still embarrassed” by it.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 4%

Under the direction of Paul Verhoeven, and with two spectacular turns from stars Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct was more than just a by-the-numbers erotic thriller. Sure, it was trashy, but it was flashy trash, beautifully orchestrated by Verhoeven with his own Hitchcockian angle on it.

It was a perfect one-and-done, but 24 years later, we got a sequel so bad it was genuinely laughable. Stone tried gallantly, but without Verhoeven, Douglas, and writer Joe Eszterhas, Basic Instinct 2 failed miserably in its attempt to replicate the original – and cost a staggering $70m to make, while lasting just 17 days in US cinemas.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 6%

Richard Donner’s 1978 superhero film changed the landscape of what cinema was capable of, helped by the staggering performance by Christopher Reeve at its core. Success bred sequels, of course, but with each passing entry, quality sank and trust in the material waned, much like Batman.

Reeve was lured back for Superman IV by Cannon Films, but the studio’s stretched resources badly affected the film. Gone was the amazement of watching a man fly; in its place was watching a man fight a Chippendale model, fix the Great Wall of China with his eyes, and other awful production problems. Reeve said in his autobiography, “The less said about Superman IV, the better.”

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 17%

The sequel to the genre-defining The Exorcist was one of the craziest films ever committed to celluloid. A huge budget for the time, a hot director (John Boorman, coming off Deliverance) and some special-effects breakthroughs couldn’t save Exorcist II: The Heretic from Hollywood Hell, and it’s still regarded as the worst sequel ever made – although don’t tell Park Chan-wook that; he thinks it’s a masterpiece.

Linda Blair and Max von Sydow returned, but neither of them could do anything to salvage an already sinking ship, further hindered by rewrites, illnesses, locusts, and countless delays. A new documentary, Boorman and the Devil, delves much deeper into its unique lore. Jump to The Exorcist III instead; it’s much more interesting.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 10%

In a similar style to Speed 2: Cruise Control, if you lose your main star for a potential sequel, it might be best not to press ahead with it. In the case of Son of the Mask, it was even more prevalent given that the original film’s star, Jim Carrey, was so key to the film’s initial success, but he had since sworn off sequels.

Still, the studio saw guaranteed money and pressed ahead with a quasi-sequel about an animator (Jamie Kennedy) who finds the eponymous mask and becomes his own version of the character. Even with a reported $100m budget, it comes nowhere close to the original; instead, it is a turgid, ill-conceived, horrifically painful follow-up that is easily the worst sequel of all time. Somebody really should have stopped them.

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 6%