The first one was just a movie, but this is REAL
October 8, 2011 8:36 AM Subscribe
I need my memory jogged on movie series where the sequel film takes place in the "real world" and the original was a movie. (Spoilery examples inside)
In The Blair Witch Project 2 the plot is that the Blair Witch Project was a hit and so a bunch of uber-fans go visit the filming site and get tormented by a monster.
In Human Centipede 2 a man obsessed with the film Human Centipede tries to re-enact the film's crimes.
In both those movies the first installments are treated as if they were just films, not "in continuity" if you will. I know there are more examples of this type of storytelling gag, but I can't think of them. Can you?
In The Blair Witch Project 2 the plot is that the Blair Witch Project was a hit and so a bunch of uber-fans go visit the filming site and get tormented by a monster.
In Human Centipede 2 a man obsessed with the film Human Centipede tries to re-enact the film's crimes.
In both those movies the first installments are treated as if they were just films, not "in continuity" if you will. I know there are more examples of this type of storytelling gag, but I can't think of them. Can you?
Though not a movie, another instance of that "storytelling gag" is Don Quixote. So it goes back a long way.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 8:44 AM on October 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by villanelles at dawn at 8:44 AM on October 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
While I haven't seen the movie, this happens in the Anne Rice vampire novels. In the second installment, I believe called the Vampire LeStat, the main character reads the first novel, called Interview with a Vampire.
In the Thin Man movie series, Nick and Nora Charles are famous in the sequels because people have seen the movies
In Sherlock Holmes, again more writing based than movie based, Holmes is famous for the stories that Watson is publishing.
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 9:07 AM on October 8, 2011
In the Thin Man movie series, Nick and Nora Charles are famous in the sequels because people have seen the movies
In Sherlock Holmes, again more writing based than movie based, Holmes is famous for the stories that Watson is publishing.
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 9:07 AM on October 8, 2011
In Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead, George Romero is a mentioned as a documentary maker forced by the military to fictionalise his account of an actual zombie outbreak, which became the movie Night of the Living Dead.
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 9:14 AM on October 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 9:14 AM on October 8, 2011 [1 favorite]
There's an interesting second distinction here.
In "The Vampire Lestat" we see a world where "Interview with the Vampire" is a published book, believed by most to be a work of fiction, but in fact describes a series of true events. As a result, the action of "The Vampire Lestat" does in fact follow on the action of "Interview." Likewise in "Blair Witch 2" and "Don Quixote."
In "The Human Centipede 2" however the sequel takes place in a world where the original is indeed nothing more than a work of fiction that is heavily relevant to the plot. In an interesting sense this makes it no more a sequel to "The Human Centipede" than, say Timothy Findley's "Headhunter" is to "A Heart of Darkness" (except, of course, for the fact HC 1&2 were both written by Tom Six).
posted by 256 at 9:48 AM on October 8, 2011 [2 favorites]
In "The Vampire Lestat" we see a world where "Interview with the Vampire" is a published book, believed by most to be a work of fiction, but in fact describes a series of true events. As a result, the action of "The Vampire Lestat" does in fact follow on the action of "Interview." Likewise in "Blair Witch 2" and "Don Quixote."
In "The Human Centipede 2" however the sequel takes place in a world where the original is indeed nothing more than a work of fiction that is heavily relevant to the plot. In an interesting sense this makes it no more a sequel to "The Human Centipede" than, say Timothy Findley's "Headhunter" is to "A Heart of Darkness" (except, of course, for the fact HC 1&2 were both written by Tom Six).
posted by 256 at 9:48 AM on October 8, 2011 [2 favorites]
The Scream series (also by Wes Craven) includes the conceit that the real events from the first movie become fictionalized in a movie-within-the-movie called "Stab," and that the creation of "Stab" propels the plot of the sequels.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:58 AM on October 8, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:58 AM on October 8, 2011 [2 favorites]
The third of Koji Suzuki's Ring novels (the basis for the movie Ringu and its American remake The Ring) is based on the idea that the first two books took place in a computer simulation. Unfortunately, it looks like it hasn't been made into a movie itself.
posted by baf at 10:26 AM on October 8, 2011
posted by baf at 10:26 AM on October 8, 2011
I'm not sure if this falls into the category of a true sequel but Rumour Has It was a film about a woman who discovers her father was the true life inspiration for Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate.
posted by cazoo at 11:02 AM on October 8, 2011
posted by cazoo at 11:02 AM on October 8, 2011
not "in continuity" if you will
Oh...so, um, nevermind
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 11:03 AM on October 8, 2011
Oh...so, um, nevermind
posted by rakish_yet_centered at 11:03 AM on October 8, 2011
The TV show Supernatural has done a bunch of variations - novels based on the main character, an alternate universe where everyone is actors, etc.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:33 PM on October 9, 2011
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 4:33 PM on October 9, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Bromius at 8:41 AM on October 8, 2011 [2 favorites]