The Youre Next Sequel That Never Happened Wouldve Been Killer

Publish date: 2024-07-23

The Big Picture

Back in the '80s, the most popular form of horror was the slasher. There are many theories as to why '80s society found the concept of a masked murderer killing teenagers so compelling, what with the rise of stranger danger and an increasing parental fear for what sons and daughters were getting up to on the weekends. Regardless, the slasher just isn't what it used to be. In recent memory, particularly in the 2010s, horror fans haven't really gotten any new iconic slashers except for the rapidly popularizing Terrifier franchise and its hilariously horrible killer clown called Art. However, there was one particular slasher flick in 2011 that wowed audiences and critics alike with its brutal kills, manic killers, and sick sense of humor: Adam Wingard's and Simon Barrett's You're Next.

Yes, the 2010s saw the rise of the Blumhouse "haunted house" style of horror as the most commercially viable format in the genre, with films like The Conjuring blurring the line between mid-budget horror and summer blockbuster through its decade-defining sales. As You're Next writer Simon Barret himself said in 2014: "It seems like The Conjuring is the best example of where things are headed." Either way, that didn't stop You're Next from being, at the very least, a moderate success among critics and audiences alike. Barrett and Wingard observed the popularity of their "splatstick" gore-fest with excitement and even went as far as establishing an outline of what the film's sequel would entail... But alas, that sequel never came to be. That doesn't mean we can't reminisce about one though!

You're Next
R

When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

Release Date September 10, 2011 Director Adam Wingard Cast Sharni Vinson , Nicholas Tucci , Wendy Glenn , AJ Bowen , Joe Swanberg , Margaret Laney Main Genre Comedy Writers Simon Barrett

'You're Next' Took a Known Horror Concept and Completely Twisted It

It's quite ironic, but the subversion of expectations (or the attempt of, more accurately) is almost a cliché in the horror genre at this point. To make a horror film is to try to scare and/or disturb the viewer in some way, and that can't be done if the audience has seen the same scare tactics or genre tropes before. That's why it's increasingly difficult to create a horror film that can actually surprise the viewer with its twists and turns as there are only so many ways of setting up a ghostly jump scare or gory slashing before a seasoned horror veteran can see it coming from a mile away. For these reasons and more, You're Next is made all the more impressive. The film takes the simple, tried and true concept of an isolated house being violently invaded by masked murderers, and then proceeds to completely twist said concept on its head, becoming an almost entirely different film at half-time to define its own unique identity in contemporary horror.

This is thanks to the film's absolutely badass final girl, Erin (Sharni Vinson). Erin is the new girlfriend of one of the Davison sons, and she's come along to the family reunion to meet her new in-laws. Unlike the Davisons, Erin seems sweet, innocent, and aloof... But she's far from it. Now, most horror films have a final girl, and most of the time, she manages to kick the butt of her nefarious pursuer by the end. Leading up to the final girl's victory though? She will, in most horror films, more than earn the genre title of "scream queen" as she'll be pursued and forced to blast her lungs out by the (at first) much more capable creature that's after her. With Erin, though, it's the other way around. In a hilarious mid-film twist, the slashers are quickly shocked and violently overwhelmed by Erin's unbelievable knack for killing, not holding back as she brings the slaying right back to the slayers. It's a hilarious change in pace, as the slashers start taking their masks off and become terrified of the mystery girl whom they didn't expect to be at the house. She also sets up traps in what feels like a gory homage to Home Alone.

'You're Next' Is Funny Without Sacrificing Scares

Speaking of hilarity, You're Next is noticeably funnier than most horror films, being more of a scary black comedy thanks to its central family of despicable characters, the Davisons, akin to the douchebaggery of the It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia gang. They're just the worst, and once the killing gets going, the viewer is almost relieved. With that said, calling the film a comedy-horror wouldn't really be accurate, as comedy horrors tend more toward the comedy than the horror, limiting themselves to scary elements rather than downright scares. It's very difficult to plunge the audience into the depths of terror after trying to make them laugh, lest the filmmakers run the risk of tonal clashing, but in You're Next, the humor never feels goofy or overly scripted. It's more minimalist and natural with deadpan sensibilities, and as a result, it doesn't get in the way of the more disturbing moments. The kills here are definitely brutal, and the practical gore effects are wince-inducing. Overall, the first You're Next succeeds in the "slightly funny, mostly scary" formula to an extent not really seen outside the Scream franchise, and deserves more attention (and more entries in its series) for both that and its unsuspecting final girl becoming the slasher of the slashers, putting the original killer's body count to shame.

What Would the 'You're Next' Sequel Have Looked Like?

As fans of the first one will know, You're Next ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, not knowing what the fate of our final girl, Erin, will be. In an interview with IndieWire discussing the creative partnership's body of work from The Guest to Godzilla vs. Kong, Wingard and Barrett delved into the outline they put together for a sequel to You're Next. It would have revealed Erin's fate, as well as seen her face off against the crew of animal mask-wearing slashers once more. As Barrett reminds us, the ending of You're Next implies that Erin may still have to face another, entirely different battle: She is the lone survivor of the Davison household massacre. Not only that, but an investigation would reveal that she also killed most of the corpses in said massacre, including a police officer... So of course, she's the prime suspect. "If we ever had a sequel, that’s where we’d go", says Wingard. Fans of You're Next are gifted more treats during the interview, as Barrett and Wingard reveal that they tossed ideas around and came up with the outline of the plot for this hypothetical sequel.

If the You're Next sequel ever happened, it would have gone something like this: Erin would be found guilty of the insanely brutal massacre that took place in the first film and transferred to a high-security prison to await sentencing. Erin would find herself on a prison bus in the film's opening being transported to her new barb-fenced stomping grounds and chained to a cast of other colorful femme criminals. Erin wouldn't know it, but the bus making it to its highly guarded destination would be in her best interests, as Lamb Mask, one of the previous film's manic killers, survived the knife wound Erin inflicted on his head and he's coming to hunt her down for revenge. Oh, and he's got company.

Remember how the slashers turned out to be theatrical hitmen whom one would hire if they wanted to feign a senseless murder with no motive? Well, it would've turned out that Lamb Mask, Tiger Mask, and Fox Mask were just three pieces of a larger, much more violent network of masked murderers for hire. With Lamb mask surviving Erin's wrath and returning to his crew with his two co-workers dead, one of which being his own brother, he would have gathered another batch of psycho killers to go out after Erin before she could be sealed away in the safety of a jail cell. Not only that but Barrett and Wingard would've given the sequel's villain a hilariously over-the-top advantage thanks to Erin stabbing him in the face the first time around: "With Lamb Mask, it was going to be that because of the stabbing, now he couldn’t feel pain" says Wingard, with Barrett adding "Yeah, because of the damage to his frontal lobe, he couldn’t feel pain. And is basically “Darkman.”

Sounds like Barrett and Wingard wanted to turn Lamb Face into an unstoppable killer akin to Jason Voorhees or Terminator. Lamb Face would've taken his crew of killers to ambush the bus on which Erin is being transported, forcing her and her fellow prisoners to flee into the woods. An interesting twist at this point is the fact that Erin and co. would've been chained together, forcing them to think outside the box and come up with clever ways of maneuvering around and away from the killers. As a finale, Wingard and Barrett liked the idea of the crew of female prisoners finding shelter in a meth lab deep in the forest, where they would gang up with the meth cooks they encounter to stand off against the invading gang of killers. Barrett concludes this look into their sequel that never came saying "We had a really concrete idea and if anything it would have been more action-oriented."

All in all, many would surely agree that this sounds like an awesome movie and a worthy sequel to You're Next. Between the idea's promised high-octane carnage and the return of one of horror's coolest final girls to kick more slasher ass, it really is a shame we never got to see it come to the screen. But hey, at least we've gotten other great horror films from the Barrett and Wingard duo, with more on the way! We can only hope to see Erin's return to cinemas one day.

You're Next is available to stream on Max.

Watch on Max

ncG1vNJzZmibn6G5qrDEq2Wcp51kxrDB0Z5kp52oqXq0sdCunKVn