Perhaps more than any other genre, horror movies tend to grow rapidly, entry after entry, turning what could have been a fantasy standalone into a sprawling, underwhelming horror franchise.
It might be the relatively cheap price of making one horror movie compared to others, or the widespread appeal of being scared and loathed that drives studios to crank out these sequels, but here are five horror franchises who declined after the first film…
Seen
Now, before we get to the nitty-gritty, I love the Seen horror franchise for what it is. A horror filled with gratuitous gore with a loose story that is used as an excuse to see people brutally murdered.
That said, it’s hard to argue that over the course of the franchise, the story has gotten leaner and more absurd, while the trappings have gotten bigger, better, and bloodier. Half of the first movie’s appeal follows the characters as they find out what’s going on and why they’re there, as well as being introduced to Jigsaw in an accompanying story, before the two sides enter. colliding. this twist at the end. The sequels attempted to follow a similar plan with varying success, but with each movie comes a disappointing new twist and a reason to make another.
paranormal activity
The first film was a new take on horror based on possession and the mind, with what at the time looked like an ingenious take on the genre, making found footage and acting like a true story gave easier for the public to suspend belief. . The first was genuinely scary and unnerving in equal measure, but with each sequel came another side of the established story, complicating the first’s simple possession story into a group of women doing business with demons and so on. .
Related: 31 Days of Horror: 7 Scary Possession Movies You’ll Regret Never Seeing
Final destination
The franchise around the idea that death itself has a score to settle and goes after the individuals who managed to deceive it is not necessarily a new horror trope, but the way this franchise handles is really unique and interesting, at least at first.
With death chasing what’s due, it allows for a whole host of different deaths and setups that will make us bloodthirsty viewers happy, but the further you get in the franchise, the less invested you’ll be. While the most recent entry comes full circle and ends where the first began, the first film is the most interesting as we follow the characters trying to figure out the predicament they find themselves in, with no prior cases or articles. press to explain or help them. .
The purge
The idea of a crime-free society through a day of limitless chaos is laughable in the first place, whether it’s the idea of controlling such a thing, the involvement of the average person, or how a single day of crime mitigates crimes of passion, necessity, etc.
The staging of the introduction to this universe in a house of security employees as he and his family hide out for the eponymous night keeps the film tight and tense, but these later films sadly lose that in place of the action and showcase the wider effects on the world at night.
Related: 8 Movies Like The Purge You Should Definitely Watch
resident Evil
The first movie was actually decent compared to the rest of the franchise entries, and was also the closest to the source material, featuring both the mansion and the hive. After the first movie, we were treated to Nemesis in the second, but after that the writers seemed to ignore the source material and turn them into generic zombie movies with a super-powered protagonist in Alice.
The recent Netflix-produced series seemed to go the other way, relying heavily on source material for its current sections, with Umbrella and the Experiments featured, while future segments looked nothing like Resident Evil.
Related: Netflix Goes Back To Old Ways As It Cancels Resident Evil After Just One Season, Fans Say The Writing Was On The Wall
There are plenty of horror franchises that have lasted too long, and a few that haven’t lasted long enough, but do you agree with the entries posted here or not?
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