Sequels are all too often dismissed by cineastes as being recycled piffle for the great unwashed. Movies with a number in the title rarely win awards, but we, the great unwashed, keep going to see them. Why? Because they’re great: Here are 20 movies that were at least as good as, if not better than, the first in the series.

20: Bride of Frankenstein

In Time magazine’s rundown of the 100 greatest films ever it was described as "one of those rare sequels that is infinitely superior to its source". Certainly in terms of its influence (you will still see Elsa Lanchester’s lightning-struck hairdo wherever big-budget Hallowe’en parties are thrown) it’s one of the few movies of the 1930s great efflorescence of horror that is still watchable today.

19: Magnum Force

The movie that brought David Soul to global attention would have to do a lot wrong not to feature on a list of great sequels, and Magnum Force does nothing wrong. The screenplay's great strength is how satisfyingly it establishes ‘Dirty’ Harry Callaghan’s moral standpoint. Eastwood’s maverick cop is on the right-hand edge of the law, not outside it, and his conflict with a group of young vigilantes defines that position in a way that a straight cops’n’robbers narrative never could. Of course, the other key lesson that the film establishes beyond all dispute is – Don’t be Harry’s partner.

18: Dawn of the Dead

Undeniably a more thrilling and horrifying movie than its dark ancestor, Dawn of the Dead improves on Night of the Living Dead in almost every way. Cineastes can see important lessons about the consumer society in its tale of a tiny band of humans holed up in a shopping mall surrounded by ravenous zombies but the rest of us will just watch it for the now much imitated viscerally undead action.

And besides, any film that inspired Shaun of the Dead can’t be all bad.

17: Clear & Present Danger

Movie nitpickers can argue all they like whether this is a sequel or not. It is. Third in a series of movies featuring Tom Clancy’s CIA superman Jack Ryan, but only the second to feature Harrison Ford in the role, it’s grimmer, more action-packed and less idealistic than Patriot Games and better – so much better – than either of the non-Harrison Jack Ryan adaptations.

16: Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

The second Bill & Ted movie is less highly regarded than its freewheeling, time travelling forebear, but it is due a cinematic rehabilitation for sheer its exuberance, imagination and silliness. Factor in the daftest reference ever to Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and you’ve got a perfect ‘end of the weekend, let’s not think about tomorrow’ Sunday evening comforter.

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