It's been a while since we've seen a true sequel at Midnight Madness. Despite what some might think, Banlieu 13 wasn't a followup to Banlieus 1-12. Trust me, I checked IMDB.  But that isn't to say sequels and re-imaginings haven't always been a big part of the madness.

Check out this comprehensive site of Madness History and you'll see that sequels frequently pop up in the lineup.  And while I'm not a big fan of remakes, I'm a sucker for sequels. There's something fun about watching a familiar villain dispatching hapless teens in increasingly clever ways. So if the plot doesn't always hold together it's okay because not every sequel is following the Godfather II model. But nobody will argue that the best sequels are the ones that further a riveting narrative established by a preceding chapter. Whether you're a fan of reboots, continuations, or "more of the original with a 2 on the end" then it looks like this year's madness has something for you.

Just to make sure you aren't going in blind and in case you haven't had time to Netflix all your homework this year, here's some background based on what I remember:

WARNING SPOILERS BELOW!!!

SERIOUSLY IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS STOP READING NOW!!!

Seriously Darryl, turn back now! 

[REC] 2 is a direct continuation of [REC] which saw a documentary crew, firefighters, and residents of an apartment complex fall victim to a zombie-like virus. The final 2 survivors spent the last few minutes exploring what looked to be an abandoned apartment where it looked like the virus originated. WARNING: DO NOT WATCH [REC] ALONE.

In Diary of the Dead Romero re-imagined/rebooted the origin of the zombie virus that started in Night of the Living Dead and culminated in Land of the Dead. While Diary played out like a Documentary, Survival is a straight narrative feature which doesn't prominently feature any of the main cast from Diary.

Ong-Bak 2: I'm gonna have to plead ignorance on this one. I saw Ong-Bak at TIFF and I have the DVD but I'm always too floored by Tony Jaa's Ass-Kickery to really follow the plot. I think there was a gangster who stole an idol from a village...  There might have been some elephants somewhere... Oh forget it, Tony Jaa jumped through barbed wire, fought bad guys with his legs aflame, and ended the flick with a jaw dropping fight atop a giant Buddha. I'm hoping 2 is more of the same!