Unexpected ’80s Horror Movie Gets New Sequel: ‘Spookies 2’ In the Works

Spookies 2 is officially in the works! Nearly than 40 years after the beloved ’80s horror film hit theaters, original Spookies co-writer and producer Frank Farel confirmed that he is currently working on a Spookies sequel.

“Remarkably, [Spookies] has done well enough in its revival that I’m at the start of raising financing for a sequel,” Farel revealed in an interview with The Barrens Hideout Podcast at Dark Arts Festival in Rhode Island earlier this month, per Bloody Disgusting, adding that his sequel script is a “love letter to the fans who have made it possible to make another Spookies movie simply because they responded so positively to the first one that was not readily available to see for many, many years.”

The project still seems to be in the very early stages, and no plot details have not been shared, but Farel said he is “looking to make a film that is almost an anti-sequel. I don’t just want to rehash what was done the first time. I don’t want to even make a typical sequel. I want to make something that’s an animal of its own. It’s different in so many ways. The way I’m doing it, it’s almost intended as a mockery of what happened to our original film.”

Originally beginning as a feature film titled Twisted Souls, written by Farel, Brendan Faulkner, and Thomas Doran and directed by Faulkner and Doran, the movie faced creative and legal issues during post-production. Filmmaker Eugenie Joseph was ultimately brought on to direct additional footage for the movie, which featured a different cast and was then edited into Faulkner and Doran’s footage. The result was a mish-mash film given a theatrical release under the title Spookies in 1987.

“To tell the truth, I hated it,” Farel admitted. “I hated what had been done to the film. It was not our film. It was sort of taken apart and reassembled. It was just not the film we had made. We did not like anything about what was done to it. However, Vinegar Syndrome brought it to Blu-ray, and suddenly the fans took to it.”

Starring Felix Ward, Dan Scott, Alec Nemser, and Maria Pechukas, Spookies follows a group of young adults who take shelter in a dilapidated mansion when their car breaks down and leaves them stranded in a remote part of New England. Unbeknownst to them, the mansion belongs to an ancient warlock named Kreon, and the group finds themselves trapped inside and fighting for their lives when the warlock unleashes his monstrous sidekicks on intruders. The film had a limited theatrical release in 1987 before it premiered on USA Network the following year, going on to air on the channel numerous times through 1991.

At this time, no cast is attached to the Spookies sequel. Farel did tease, however, that he is “hoping to get a couple of name horror actors into it.” He didn’t drop any possible names that he is eyeing for the film, and a possible release window for the movie hasn’t been announced.