Horror Franchise Thread

[Jingus]

I was never a fan of FD's "rules". How the hell does any of this work? Death seems like it can do anything it wants, why does it bother toying around with these people in such a sadistic drawn-out fashion rather than just getting it over with? When the incarnation of death is apparently unable to kill a bunch of people who are riding together in the same damn car at the same time, that's the most arbitrarily-written "villain" of all time.

Also, that kill in part 3 involving the tanning beds REALLY pissed me off. It felt like we were supposed to be laughing at those girls while they hideously burned to death, as if the dumb whores deserved it or some bullshit like that. Also, the way it was filmed was so Male Gaze-y in such a sleazy way that it also felt like there should be a "Start Fapping Now!" subtitle displayed at the beginning of the scene.

 

Are any of the Hatchet films any fun?

I'm a biased fanboy, but at this point I'd seriously argue that on a movie-for-movie basis, the Hatchet films comprise the best slasher franchise in history. All good entries, no bad ones. Great humor, epic gore. A killer that starts out as a fun goofy parody of movie slashers, and moves into being more of a genuine deconstruction. Kane Hodder finally acting and not just being a stunt guy in a mask. Really fun ensemble casts with a nice selection of bizarro-world guest stars. Proactive heroes who take charge and fight back and get up and DO stuff rather than wandering around oblivious or just running around screaming. And it's a slasher movie that finally has the balls to ask, "Okay, what would REALLY kill Jason/Michael/Freddy forever? What if you cut their head off? What if you burned the body? What if you collected the stuff/people who caused their Tragic Backstory and did some kind of ritual? How does this work?!?"

Admittedly, they never quite kick over the top into being genuinely GREAT cinema; there's nothing here that can match the likes of Alien or the original Texas Chainsaw or Dawn of the Dead in terms of pure artistry, social commentary, scariness, and all that stuff. But still, a slasher franchise where none of the movies suck is such an impossible chimera that I can barely even believe it exists.

[Brian Fowler]

I haven't seen Hatchet III yet, but the first one is brilliant, and the second one is pretty good.

 

Jingus and I may resume arguing over that.

 

Best horror franchise?  Probably Nightmare.  Sure, 4-6 are terrible, but it has a legit classic as it's first movie, a really strong part 3, and New Nightmare is the best multi-part sequel in horror film history.

 

Saw is a decent film.  Saw 2 is watchable.  Saw III is the most morally reprehensible film I have ever saw.  IV sucked.  V was worse.  I gave up there, but, unless VI and VII are, like, Halloween and The Exorcist good, it has no place even being in the discussion for best.  Hell, given the choice between all 7 Saws or all 12 Jason movies, I'd take Jason.

[Brian Fowler]

Oh, The Child's Play/Chucky movies deserve some credit for suddenly getting good at Part IV.  Not normal that the two best films in a franchise are, by far, parts IV and V.

[Brian Fowler]

http://www.amazon.com/Friday-13th-Complete-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B00DEQQK8S/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1375351622&sr=1-1&keywords=Friday+the+13th

 

Complete 12 film blu-ray box-set coming out in September for F13.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Chucky-The-Complete-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B00DTPRYY8/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_y

 

Complete six film blu-ray box-set coming out in October for Child's Play (including the new dtv Curse of Chucky that is released the same day.)

 

http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Anniversary-Blu-ray-Jamie-Curtis/dp/B00DOB3N56/ref=sr_1_11?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1375351622&sr=1-11&keywords=Friday+the+13th

 

35th Anniversary Edition of Halloween Blu-ray coming also in September.

 

Oh yes, it's almost that most wonderful time of the year when horror films get new spiffy releases.

[Newb82]

I'm curious Fowler, what makes SAW III, out of all of them, that terrible to you?

VI is essentially "Jigsaw VS the health care industry" and one of the victims is Eddie Winslow.

FINAL CHAPTER is a decent wrapping-up of the series (we finally find out what happened to Dr. Gordon) for the "A" plot, while the "B" plot is probably at least part of what you hated about III.

[S.K.o.S.]

I'm curious Fowler, what makes SAW III, out of all of them, that terrible to you?

 

I don't want to steal his thunder, but I did find it disturbing on a level that most horror films don't reach.  That doesn't make it a bad movie, though.  

 

Then, yeah, for parts 4 through 7 you're in dreary, "should've been direct to dvd except that it was making all this money" territory.

[Niners Fan in CT]

The tanning bed scene was indeed sleazy but I'm not sure it was any more sleazy that chicks skinny dipping prior to meeting their maker ya know?

[Eivion]

Is it odd that I have never seen any Saw films, Scream films, Halloween films, or the Exorcist?

 

Haven't seen a proper Jason/Friday the 13th film either outside of Jason X and Jason vs Freddy. Only seen one or two Child's Play films, but I never cared much for it. Same with Leprechaun. I seem to enjoy the campy stuff like Nightmare on Elm Street more than anything else. It and Puppetmaster are the series I think I seen watched the most from.

[Burgundy LaRue]

I haven't seen any of the SAW films, though I own the first one.  Just haven't stopped to watch it yet.  So no, you're not strange.

[JRGoldman]

Nightmare is probably the best series, because it has one of the strongest first entries of all the horror films, and I would say that it's the only franchise to have sequels that are actively good movies (Dream Warriors and New Nightmare). 

 

Halloween would be my pick for best overall entry in any of the franchises. 

[Newb82]

How does everyone feel about the re-boots? I was pretty impressed by THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and FRIDAY THE 13TH was a decent high-gloss representation of those. I liked the first new THE HILLS HAVE EYES, but I haven't seen the original to be able to compare the two.

I hated A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. I have expressed my disdain for Rob Zombie's HALLOWEENs several times. PROM NIGHT is just...there. It's not connected to the original series (who themselves were barely connected except for II & III).

I have EVIL DEAD in from netflix. Will post some thoughts after I watch it.

[jaedmc]

Halloween is a Top 5 Horror film and I'd say out of all the franchises Halloween is one of the least interesting. At least until Jamie Lee Curtis came back. But by then I was kind of over the whole mess. The more they dug into Michael the less scary it became. 

 

I think Rob Zombie's remakes are actually okay. And I like that he just went for whatever he wanted in the second one. I think it's a more interesting film than a lot of the Halloween sequels.

[Newb82]

My problem with Zombie is that he didn't make HALLOWEEN movies. He made Rob Zombie movies and slapped the HALLOWEEN title on them.

[Tele-Viper]

Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 is pretty great.

 

Any love for the Exorcist series? Exorcist III scared the crap out of me when I saw it on cable as a teenager. I dig the two version of the Exorcist prequel as well.

[jaedmc]

If someone remade Halloween and tried to film it like John Carpenter did, I'd be bored. I'd rather just watch the original. Superior directors like Gus Van Sant and Michael Haneke have done this and it doesn't really add anything to the experience. Zombie had fun and tried it his way, and I think he made a couple of okay movies and in the end reinforced the superior qualities of the original. 

 

Now if Rob Zombie isn't your cup of tea, I totally get that. He's got some dialogue issues that drive me fucking batty. But I don't think I can hate a re-imagining of film, just because it's a re-imagining.

[J.T.]

I was never a fan of FD's "rules". How the hell does any of this work? Death seems like it can do anything it wants, why does it bother toying around with these people in such a sadistic drawn-out fashion rather than just getting it over with?

 

I chalked it up to a feeble attempt to utilize the Hitchcockian Fourth Wall of Suspense model.  Let the audience see everything and keep the character oblivious of the danger in order to buld up the suspense.

 

Once the audience got hip to the camera angles, the series introduced a lot of bait and switch.  You'd follow the obligatory ominious trail of water on the ground going to short out a fan or a generator or something and right before you assumed that the victim would die from electrocution, they'd slip on the water and fall into the street to be hit by a car.

 

You'd think that Wile E Coyote was the Grim Reaper by the way that some of the death scenarios played out.

[Newb82]

I don't like RZ's style at all. I didn't care for HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES either.

It's funny, he's on the 25 YEARS OF TERROR doc chiding the sequels for having "faceless" victims, he then turns around and manages to make the Laurie Strode character pretty "faceless" in the first, then both over-compensates and takes the lazy route with her in the second one. His Dr. Loomis sucks too.

He can do individual scenes pretty well (kid Michael beating the bully to death is fucking terrifying), but lets his own interests and obsessions get in the way of building good movies. I was actually impressed by his wife in the first one too.

[Newb82]

I was never a fan of FD's "rules". How the hell does any of this work? Death seems like it can do anything it wants, why does it bother toying around with these people in such a sadistic drawn-out fashion rather than just getting it over with?

 I chalked it up to a feeble attempt to utilize the Hitchcockian Fourth Wall of Suspense model.  Let the audience see everything and keep the character oblivious of the danger in order to buld up the suspense. Once the audience got hip to the camera angles, the series introduced a lot of bait and switch.  You'd follow the obligatory ominious trail of water on the ground going to short out a fan or a generator or something and right before you assumed that the victim would die from electrocution, they'd slip on the water and fall into the street to be hit by a car. You'd think that Wile E Coyote was the Grim Reaper by the way that some of the death scenarios played out.

The only part of 4 that I liked was the end, when the lead posits that the visions and all the saves are actually part of the design for death to get them where it really wanted them. It really is the only way the visions make any kind of sense.Tony Todd having different theories on how to "cheat" death in the FD movies he's in is weird, especially since, in cannon, he appears to have gotten it right the first time.

[Curt McGirt]

As far as 'franchises' go, I'm not sure if the Living Dead series counts as a 'franchise' since it's never really been made for money but that's clearly the winner. For greatest legit franchise it's a tossup between Halloween with one classic three solid sequels (2/4/5 and 3 though not canon is actually awesome) and TCM because the first is in the top three horror films of all time and the second is simply one of MY favorite films of all time. If anyone else loves Texas Chainsaw 2 as much as me, please speak up. 

 

Gonna have to check out Hatchet. 

[Newb82]

TCM 2 is a fine sequel. You can't go wrong with Dennis Hopper being crazy. That series goes off a cliff with LEATHERFACE and I've been warned about THE NEXT GENERATION.

I think what disappoint me most about the NIGHTMARE remake is that it, of all of them, had the most potential to be a legit great movie, and take back the Freddy character from the sequels.

[Jingus]

I've been warned about THE NEXT GENERATION.

You haven't been warned ENOUGH. Astonishingly awful movie, right up there with The Spirit in terms of bewildering betrayals of their source material while also being unwatchable standalone flicks. The only reason to even see it at all is to shake your head in pity at young Renee Zellwigger and Matthew McCougnahy embarrassing the shit out of themselves as the scenery-chewing leads.

[Curt McGirt]

Next Generation is pretty poor but to see McConaughey and Zellweger in it is a trip and the end has a real goofy ending involving aliens. It also has a wimpy crossdressing Leatherface personality which is just absurd and would have fit in well with the second film. But yeah... you don't need to watch it.

 

New Nightmare could have taken back Freddy from the sequels but I don't think either Craven or the fans wanted that to happen, for their own reasons.

[Newb82]

Eh, "Freddy" in NEW NIGHTMARE isn't meant to be Freddy.

[Newb82]

Just finished the new EVIL DEAD. It was alright and a fine beginning for a new series, if the plans for such actually move ahead.

It's not THE SCARIEST MOVIE YOU WILL EVER SEE like the poster claims, but you could do a lot worse.

[Brian Fowler]

HALLOWEEN 5 IS NOT A SOLID SEQUEL.  IT IS AN ABOMINATION FROM THE PITS OF HELL THAT GETS EVERY SINGLE THING WRONG EXCEPT ONE SCENE.

 

Fuck that movie.