Add to the Story: Don't Borrow It

My family and I went to Black Phone 2 last night at Meghan's request. It was Tuesday night, and in our town of Bismarck / Mandan that means "cheap movie night" at the local theater. Meghan is the second oldest in our family and really wanted to see this movie with us. Her reason was because we had just watched the first one as a family a week ago. She felt it fitting to watch the sequel as a family, although I now suspect her real motive was because she has a crush on one of the actors from the first installment of this horror classic. I really enjoyed the first one, so it didn't take much to convince me to go to this one. Only our youngest, Henry, couldn't go because he's a bit too young for horror movies that are rated R. My expectations were understandably low going into this movie, given the less-than-extraordinary success rate of movie sequels in our day and age. But I was surprised. In fact, this movie inspired a realization about sequels. Simply, sequels should always focus on advancing the story, not repeating elements from the first movie. Too many sequels, unfortunately, do attempt to recreate the magic of the first movie. That shouldn't be the point, and this movie proves it. Focus the attention on advancing the story. Show us where the characters are now and forget about trying so hard to repeat themes from the first movie. 

 

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