In a particularly meta moment in the oh so meta Scream 2, Randy (Jamie Kennedy) tells us “Sequels suck!” and “By definition alone, sequels are inferior films!”. Classmate Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) disagrees “It’s bullshit generalization. Many sequels have surpassed their originals.” He suggests T-2, another classmate played by Joshua Jackson thinks “Aliens. Far better than the first.” While I don’t totally agree, I prefer The Terminator to T-2, and love Alien and Aliens equally, there are however, some horror sequels and second films is series that I prefer to the first:
Bride of Frankenstein (1935): I love the original, but the sequel has the edge. Together cinematographer John Mescall and art director Charles D. Hall, director James Whale created Expressionist masterpiece that isn’t just a horror movie, it’s also a social satire and a comedy. The greatest of the Universal horrors. 
Dawn of the Dead (1978): George A. Romero’s masterpiece came a whole decade after the original film, Night Of The Living Dead. Tom Savini (who also appears in the film) provided the zombie makeup that makes the film so effective. The allegory of modern consumer society is more and more relevant as time passes. A film that manages to be both a truly gruesome horror and a clever satire. 
Evil Dead II (1987): Bruce Campbell returns as Ash in Sam Raimi’s sequel to The Evil Dead. It is essentially more of the same from the first film but more polished, more gory and a hell of a lot funnier. 
Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966): Most fans will tell you the first Hammer Dracula, Horror of Dracula from 1958 is the best. While a great film and one of the studio’s best, it is a retread of Bram Stoker ‘s original often told story. Prince of Darkness is an original story, and a really effective one. It lacks Peter Cushing as Van Helsing (except a prologue recap of the previous film) but Andrew Keir’s Father Sandor is a suitable substitute. Famously, Christopher Lee doesn’t speak in this film (as the dialogue in the script was so bad), this makes his performance is more chilling. A true horror that has a feeling of dread from start to finish. 
Blade II (2002): Wesley Snipes is perfectly cast as the half human, half vampire “daywalker” vampire hunter. Predating the MCU, Blade (1998) proved what Marvel movies could be. It works as both a horror, and an action movie, with suitable amounts of both gore and humour. How could you make this better? Hire Guillermo del Toro to direct it! del Toro brings even more style, but also, as always he plays with the idea of who the monsters are. 
The Devil’s Rejects (2005): Admittedly this one has something of low bar, 2003’s House of 1,000 Corpses wasn’t great, but this second instalment of the (mis)adventures of the Firefly family is a really solid grindhouse inspired gore-fest. By far the best Rob Zombie directed movie, and the end is fantastic. A third instalment 3 from Hell is in post production and due out in 2019. 
10 Cloverfield Lane (2016): Totally different to the original, telling a very different story, and dropping the now tired found footage gimmick. Most of the film is a claustrophobic three-hander; John Goodman is fantastic, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is even better. 
I have only included horror movies, there are plenty of examples from other genres, I have also stuck to examples where I think the sequel is better than the original movie, not merely good sequels.
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