The ’80s were a wonderful time to be a science-fiction fan. You could rent a movie about killer fish, mutant monsters, or a guy slowly turning into a giant insect, and nobody thought twice about it. The video store was full of this stuff. Some of it was great. Some of it was downright terrible. And if a movie had a cool poster and an attractive actress, well, that certainly didn’t hurt its chances of getting rented.
Sequels were especially dangerous. Hollywood figured that if audiences liked one movie about a monster, they’d probably pay to see another. Sometimes they were right. Other times, we got films that made us wonder whether anybody involved had actually watched the original. But that’s part of the fun of revisiting these old VHS favorites. A few have aged surprisingly well. Others are a little harder to defend when you’re no longer twelve years old. Let’s take a look at five ’80s sci-fi sequels that might have seemed a whole lot cooler back then.
Jeff Goldblum’s unfortunate teleportation experiment left behind a son, because apparently one human-insect tragedy wasn’t enough. The Fly II follows Martin Brundle, played by Eric Stoltz, as he grows up inside a laboratory run by people who probably shouldn’t be trusted with a microwave, let alone advanced science. Daphne Zuniga plays Beth Logan, the scientist who gets close to Martin before his father’s genetic nightmare starts catching up with him.
Zuniga is certainly easy on the eyes, but the real attraction here is the gooey creature work. Director Chris Walas knows how to make a transformation disgusting. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t have the emotional punch of David Cronenberg’s original. Goldblum and Geena Davis gave the first film a tragic romance that made its horror hit harder. Here, we get a sinister corporation and a lot of slimy special effects. Fun for a group of brave kids? Absolutely. A sequel that needed to exist? That’s another question.
Following up 2001: A Space Odyssey was a pretty tall order. Stanley Kubrick’s original was a science-fiction classic. The second time around, American and Soviet astronauts head to Jupiter to find out what happened to the Discovery spacecraft and its troubled computer, HAL 9000. Let’s be honest, though. This isn’t the kind of movie that’s going to blow your mind the way 2001 did. Director Peter Hyams explains more of the mystery, which makes the story easier to follow but takes away some of the original’s weird, unsettling magic.
Still, for kids who loved spaceships, futuristic computers, and big cosmic mysteries, there was plenty to enjoy. The special effects were impressive, Jupiter looked spectacular, and getting another adventure in the world of 2001 was exciting enough to make the movie worth a rental. It wasn’t a classic on the level of its predecessor, but back then, just going back into space with HAL was a pretty good deal. Today? There are better retro and modern escapades to take. Not to mention, 2010 came and went.
The first Critters gave us little furry aliens with enormous appetites. The sequel brings them back to terrorize a small town, and this time the creatures are ready to multiply. Scott Grimes returns as Brad Brown, while the bounty hunters are back to deal with the mess. There’s also Roxanne Kernohan as Lee, one of the film’s memorable bounty hunters. She brings some welcome attitude to a movie that otherwise has the subtlety of a Crite chewing through a television set.
The first Critters had that low-budget charm that made it feel like Gremlins‘ nastier cousin. I remember watching this movie on several occasions to help scratch The Gremlins itch. The sequel brings back the furry little monsters and adds more jokes, more chaos, and a whole lot more Critters. It’s not always a winning formula, though. Some of the comedy falls flat, and the effects look pretty cheap by today’s standards. But back in 1988, this was exactly the kind of movie you’d grab off the video-store shelf on a Saturday night. And honestly, there’s still something fun about watching these little furballs wreak havoc.
Heather Locklear in a movie about a swamp monster. That’s probably all some viewers needed to know in 1989. The sequel brings back the leafy hero created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, along with the villainous Dr. Anton Arcane. This time, Arcane’s stepdaughter Abby arrives to investigate her mother’s death, only to become caught up in another round of bizarre experiments. Before long, there’s a parade of mutants, a mad scientist, and a romance between a woman and a creature who looks like he lost a fight with a garden center.
Director Jim Wynorski clearly wasn’t trying to make another serious horror film. This is a goofy comic-book adventure with rubber suits, ridiculous dialogue, and a sense of humor that occasionally wanders into the weeds. Locklear brings plenty of charm, while Louis Jourdan chews through his villainous role with considerable enthusiasm. When I was still an adolescent, this movie had just the right amount of comic-book allure and mature themes that made it worth watching. Now? Probably not so much for most viewers.
Not every forgotten sci-fi sequel needs killer monsters or exploding laboratories. Sometimes all you need is a group of retirees who discover that eternal youth comes with a few complications. Cocoon: The Return brings back the elderly characters from the original film after their return to Earth. They want to reconnect with family and friends, but ordinary life starts looking pretty appealing again. It’s a gentler kind of science fiction, which might explain why this sequel gets overlooked when people discuss the decade’s more outrageous genre films.
The movie also features a young Courteney Cox, years before Friends made her a television star. Tahnee Welch returns as Kitty, too. The problem is that the sequel lacks much of the original’s emotional magic. There’s a lot of sentimental soul-searching, and the story never quite finds the same balance between wonder and comedy. It’s hardly the worst film on this list, but it can feel like a long trip back to a place that was more interesting the first time around. Still, Gen X viewers who remember renting the original might find a little nostalgic pleasure here. Just don’t expect another trip to the stars to be quite as magical.
Do you still enjoy any of these movies today? They’re all still good in their own right, and now I think I might revisit some of them. And let us know if there any ’80s movie sequels that you can’t stand today.
