00:00You put them on, and you click the heels three times, and then you said there's no place
00:06like home.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most memorable movies that informally
00:13continue the story of another, but were made by an entirely different production team and
00:18are not considered canonical.
00:20We've previously addressed sequels that are more high-profile than their predecessors,
00:24such as Silence of the Lambs, and we're excluding movies like Troll 2, which are completely
00:30unrelated to their namesake.
00:32Oh my god!
00:35Number 10.
00:39The Slave, Spartacus.
00:42Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus inspired a new era of Hollywood epics, plus an army of impersonators.
00:48I'm Spartacus.
00:51I'm Spartacus.
00:54I'm Spartacus.
00:56The film itself told the mostly true story of a gladiator's revolt against the Roman
01:01Republic.
01:02But Howard Fast's source novel gave The Slave room for liberties with Spartacus' fictional
01:08son.
01:09Despite landing American distribution with MGM, this Italian production was much smaller
01:13than Kubrick's masterpiece.
01:15It was still a solid success that has since earned a cult following for its action and
01:20informal connection to Universal's classic.
01:22It's also a satisfying end to bodybuilder Steve Reeve's run-of-sword-and-sandal films.
01:35While The Slave is ultimately no Spartacus, it makes a thrilling claim to that name.
01:419.
01:42The Amityville Haunting – The Amityville Horror
01:45The fabled haunting of a house in Amityville, Long Island was the basis for a cult movie
01:50in 1979 that launched a long-running film franchise.
02:06Departing from the original series, 2011's The Amityville Haunting was produced and distributed
02:11by The Asylum, a company synonymous with straight-to-video mockbusters.
02:16The film consists of staged found footage of a family moving to 112 Ocean Avenue.
02:32This continuation of that house's lore was as universally panned as any of The Asylum's
02:37cheap non-efforts.
02:38It's nonetheless set a precedent for low-end productions that could get away with ripping
02:44off the Amityville brand.
02:54At least B-horror enthusiasts can rejoice in that.
02:588.
02:59The Punisher – Dirty Laundry – The Punisher
03:02Lionsgate alone made two attempts to mount a franchise on Marvel's harshest anti-hero.
03:16Four years after the Ray Stevenson reboot Punisher Warzone, Thomas Jane reprised the
03:21role in a fan-made short film.
03:32Dirty Laundry finds Frank Castle lying low in a bad neighborhood, until he ends up cleaning
03:37the streets of Gangs.
03:39In just ten minutes, the film does more justice to its source material than any of the studio
03:44features.
03:45It also debuted Tim Bradstreet's iconic logo for the Punisher, and Jon Bernthal said
03:49his portrayal for Netflix was more by Jane in the short.
03:53Dirty Laundry may be particularly dressed down for an unofficial sequel, but it hits
03:57harder than most fan-films.
03:587.
03:59Cruel Jaws – Jaws The Revenge – Universal's Jaws series began with one of the greatest
04:12films ever made, and ended with one of the worst.
04:21That is, until a shark attack in Florida ostensibly picked up where Jaws The Revenge left off.
04:28The straight-to-video Italian production, Cruel Jaws, was actually made with no involvement
04:33from Universal.
04:34It was, however, made with a lot of footage lifted from the official movies.
04:49Shots from other so-called shark-sploitation films were also thrown into the mix.
04:53This naturally led to legal issues that severely limited the movie's distribution.
04:58But after years of underground circulation and home media deals, Cruel Jaws might be
05:02due for a resurgence.
05:12According to some, it is at least better than Jaws The Revenge.
05:166.
05:17My Sassy Girl 2 – My Sassy Girl The beloved rom-com My Sassy Girl helped bolster
05:23international interest in South Korean cinema.
05:26Despite its title, My Sassy Girl 2 is, in fact, one of many loose adaptations.
05:32The Chinese production really just rips off the premise of some sad sack getting involved
05:37in a volatile love interest's schemes.
05:50At least it had the courtesy to credit the original film's writing team.
05:54Otherwise, My Sassy Girl 2 is a narratively loose capitalization on a popular title.
06:11The poorly received romp didn't fool critics or audiences, but South Korean and Chinese
06:16filmmakers did collaborate on an official sequel, My New Sassy Girl, in 2016.
06:375.
06:38Zombie 2 – Dawn of the Dead In 1978, everyone was talking about the sequel
06:45to the genre-defining Night of the Living Dead.
06:54Italian audiences knew Dawn of the Dead by the title, Zombie.
06:58The Italy-based variety distribution thus named their undead thriller, Zombie 2, in
07:03order to draw domestic audiences.
07:15The movie is actually based more on voodoo zombie lore than George A. Romero's viral
07:20outbreak.
07:21It was still so full of gore that controversy made it a global phenomenon in its own right.
07:26This led to Zombie 3 and an international franchise of unofficial sequels and retitled
07:31releases.
07:44If Romero's horror classics concocted the zombie genre, then Zombie 2 and its own rip-offs
07:50were integral to the spread.
07:524.
07:53Showgirls 2 – Penny's From Heaven
07:57Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls went from a critical scandal to one of the great camp classics
08:02of the 90s.
08:03Katrina Riffle felt her brief role as Penny deserved more spotlight.
08:19With help from Kickstarter, she produced, wrote, directed, edited, and distributed Showgirls
08:242 – Penny's From Heaven.
08:25Oh yeah, and she also acted in the titular dancer's rise from a minor character to
08:30a burlesque star.
08:41Unfortunately, the two-and-a-half-hour-long opus received even worse reviews than the
08:45legendary bomb before it.
08:46It's still hard not to admire the awesome underdog story in its creation.
09:00Whether Riffle's unlikely spinoff will have the same legs as Showgirls, Penny's From
09:04Heaven is already enticing an audience.
09:073.
09:08Shocking Dark – The Terminator
09:11James Cameron brought sci-fi action into the future with The Terminator.
09:15Even five years later, Variety Distribution felt they could widen Shocking Dark's audience
09:20by marketing it as Terminator 2.
09:24What's most shocking is that the movie itself is more of an aliens rip-off.
09:37The plot concerns a military raid on a research facility overrun with xenomorph-like monsters.
09:44Perhaps the filmmakers respected that the unauthorized Alien 2 on Earth beat them and
09:48Cameron to an alien sequel.
10:04International distribution for Terminator 2 was nonetheless limited by its title, even
10:08after Cameron cleared up any confusion with T2, Judgment Day.
10:15Shocking Dark now enjoys a cult following under its original title, albeit largely for
10:20its bizarre connection with two sci-fi classics.
10:232.
10:25Happily Ever After – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
10:28Walt Disney Productions gave way to animated feature films with Snow White and the Seven
10:33Dwarfs.
10:45Filmation associates specifically wanted to explore the and-they-lived-happily-ever-after
10:50part of the story.
10:51The company had every right to continue the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, and already did
10:56so with 1980's A Snow White Christmas.
10:59But Happily Ever After was so similar to Disney's aesthetic that the entire production was racked
11:04with legal issues.
11:13By the time the film was widely released in 1993, Filmation had shut down.
11:18Fans also weren't enchanted with Snow White's journey to rescue her prince.
11:28Still, for all the critical and legal realities, Happily Ever After found its own happy ending
11:37as an animation cult classic.
11:551.
11:56Return to Oz – The Wizard of Oz Only Disney could be trusted to recapture the
12:02magic of the musical fantasy, The Wizard of Oz.
12:0546 years in the making, Return to Oz picks up six months later, with Dorothy Gale returning
12:11to an Emerald City in ruins.
12:23It's technically just an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's sequel to the book adapted in
12:271939.
12:28However, it lifts so many elements from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's production that it's widely considered a high-profile
12:35rip-off.
12:45It still wasn't high-profile enough to survive critical and box office disappointment.
12:49Over the years, though, Return to Oz has won praise for reconciling MGM's masterpiece
12:54with a faithfully darker interpretation of Baum's fantasy.
13:07And with the unofficial prequel Oz the Great and Powerful, a cinematic classic lives on
13:12with Disney.
13:13Which unofficial or unauthorized sequels stood out to you?
13:17Feel free to continue our story in the comments.
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