Five Promised Sequels That Never Happened

One of the most controversial movie moments in 2022 involved the ending of the “Black Adam” movie where Black Adam is confronted by the government official Amanda Waller. She vows to stop him, and Black Adam challenges her prompting Superman to arrive and confront him face to face. This set off announcements of a potential Superman vs. Black Adam movie. However, excited fans were saddened (understatement of the century) when director James Gunn announced that not only wouldn’t that be happening, but that Henry Cavill who played Superman had been released from his role.

Of course, this isn’t the first time a sequel had been promised during a movie’s end credits. Cinema is filled with promises of sequels and big follow ups. Some films have gambled on their potential with fans, announcing sequels (“Buckaroo Banzai,” anyone?) and potential follow ups (Still crossing my fingers for “Kill Bill Vol. 3”) only for nothing to happen.

Here are five of the most infamous.

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Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022) [Digital]

After four “Hotel Transylvania” movies it’s pretty obvious that by now, even Genndy Tartakovsky. I think despite his name being plastered all over this new sequel that he probably didn’t have much to do with its creation. Now that the series is four movies deep, along with a short lived TV series, “Transformania” feels so much less like a high stakes sequel, and a lot more like an extension of the TV series. Watching it, it felt like the studios merely took four scripts for the cancelled series, and stapled them together to create this hodgepodge adventure.

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Dracula 2000 Or: Before Gerard Butler was a Meme

Dammit I love “Dracula 2000.”

I’m not too sure what the ultimate plan was for the Dracula character in the larger scheme of things, except the fact that everything had to be rebooted in the new millennium apparently. Everything had to press the reset button, including Dracula. This Dracula was a hunky vampire for the modern age where he would once again roam free to build his army, and do battle with Van Helsing. And he would do it set to rock music that ruled the radio, wreaking havoc to the tune of System of a Down, Linkin Park, and Disturbed, to name a simple few.

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The Bootleg Files: Doom of Dracula

BOOTLEG FILES 775: “Doom of Dracula” (8mm reissue of sections from the 1944 “House of Frankenstein”).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: No perceived commercial value.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:
Not likely.

In the years before video cassette recorders invaded living rooms in the late 1970s and early 1980s, movie lovers who wanted to own copies of their favorite films relied on portable projectors that screened the 35mm or 70mm Hollywood theatrical fare in the much smaller 16mm, 9.5mm, 8mm and Super 8 formats.
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Super Hot (2021)

I think it is possible that director Taylor King has created one of my favorite indie films of the year. I didn’t entirely know what to expect going in to “Super Hot” but it ends up being such a great horror comedy, despite some small flaws here and there. “Super Hot” has its inspirations close to its chest, combining “Booksmart” with “The Craft” to form this unusual amalgam that works shockingly well.

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Bela Lugosi Forever

Just in time for Halloween! This episode of “The Online Movie Show” celebrates the life and legacy of Bela Lugosi, peeling away the urban legends and highlighting the iconic actor’s greatest achievements. Film historian James L. Neibaur, author of “The Monster Movies of Universal Studios” and an upcoming biography on William Beaudine, a frequent Lugosi director, is the guest on this episode, which can be heard here.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]

Hammer always approached their version of Dracula with a serialized attitude, making every chapter of his emergence as something unique and entertaining. After 1958’s “Dracula” which shown his battle with Peter Cushing, he is defeated and left to basically stay as ash in his old castle in England. Of course, as we learn with all of Dracula’s Hammer exploits, he eventually is revived by some human error or devotion to his powers that amount to his re-emerging in “Prince of Darkness.”

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