The great sequel rip-off
When is a film sequel a film too far? I asked myself that question this week when an email arrived in my inbox announcing the imminent DVD release of Lake Placid 3, while another told me that 30 Days of Night: Dark Days was also on its way.
Before the summer glut of sequels arrived, I warned of the perils of going to the cinema to watch follow-ups to popular films, the quality often dropping in a rush to rake in the cash.
What I didn't talk about were those straight-to-DVD efforts which have tricked film fans for years, rip-offs which usually avoid big actors and use the familiar name of a franchise to convince buyers to add it to their shopping list.
Lake Placid (1999) was a fun romp starring Bill Pullman and Brendon Gleeson as smalltown folk facing attacks from a killer crocodile.
The latest sequel jettisons big names for TV actor Colin Ferguson and Coronation Street's Roxanne Pallet, once again fighting a giant croc on a DVD shelf near you.
Likewise, 2007's 30 Days of Night featured Josh Hartnett and Danny Huston in a tale of vampires infiltrating an Alaskan town as they're plunged into darkness.
The new sequel gets rid of Hartnett and Huston and replaces female lead Melissa George for TV star Kiele Sanchez, though the producers claim that being on DVD means they have more freedom to follow the plot of the original graphic novel.
Personally, I have a soft spot for DVD-only sequels, something which started back in 1996, when the second instalment in the Tremors series was released on VHS. The 1990 original starred Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and Michael Gross, but Tremors 2: Aftershocks retained only Ward and Gross alongside more Graboids.
I stuck with the series for Tremors 3: Back to Perfection in 2001 and Tremors 4: The Legend Begins in 2004, both of them starring Gross. The movies all benefited from having the same team behind the cameras and a feeling that the creators wanted to give fans the best quality production they could, though profit was clearly a consideration.
If only all sequels could say the same then perhaps we wouldn't be so loathe to seek them out, though I'll be checking out both Lake Placid 3 and 30 Days 2 for research sake - and I'm still waiting for Tremors 5 to be announced.
Let me know your favourite Direct to DVD film sequels below.
Before the summer glut of sequels arrived, I warned of the perils of going to the cinema to watch follow-ups to popular films, the quality often dropping in a rush to rake in the cash.
What I didn't talk about were those straight-to-DVD efforts which have tricked film fans for years, rip-offs which usually avoid big actors and use the familiar name of a franchise to convince buyers to add it to their shopping list.
Lake Placid (1999) was a fun romp starring Bill Pullman and Brendon Gleeson as smalltown folk facing attacks from a killer crocodile.
The latest sequel jettisons big names for TV actor Colin Ferguson and Coronation Street's Roxanne Pallet, once again fighting a giant croc on a DVD shelf near you.
Likewise, 2007's 30 Days of Night featured Josh Hartnett and Danny Huston in a tale of vampires infiltrating an Alaskan town as they're plunged into darkness.
The new sequel gets rid of Hartnett and Huston and replaces female lead Melissa George for TV star Kiele Sanchez, though the producers claim that being on DVD means they have more freedom to follow the plot of the original graphic novel.
Personally, I have a soft spot for DVD-only sequels, something which started back in 1996, when the second instalment in the Tremors series was released on VHS. The 1990 original starred Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and Michael Gross, but Tremors 2: Aftershocks retained only Ward and Gross alongside more Graboids.
I stuck with the series for Tremors 3: Back to Perfection in 2001 and Tremors 4: The Legend Begins in 2004, both of them starring Gross. The movies all benefited from having the same team behind the cameras and a feeling that the creators wanted to give fans the best quality production they could, though profit was clearly a consideration.
If only all sequels could say the same then perhaps we wouldn't be so loathe to seek them out, though I'll be checking out both Lake Placid 3 and 30 Days 2 for research sake - and I'm still waiting for Tremors 5 to be announced.
Let me know your favourite Direct to DVD film sequels below.
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