Halloween. Scream. Hellraiser. The three franchises described above and others are all part of a wave of reboots, sequels, prequels, and reimaginings that are either reviving rather stale titles for new generations of fans or putting the final nail in their crooked old coffins.
The explanation for this is simple: if you thought Hollywood coveted intellectual property (IP) before the pandemic, you should know that now that the COVID-19 pandemic has almost completely eliminated the theatrical film industry and is still leaving it on shaky ground, the major studios are even more eager to gulp down and regurgitate as much IP as they can.
However, familiarity may foster hate just as much as it can generate box office revenue, as the proverbial adage goes. Audiences will undoubtedly turn out for a fresh Halloween or even a Friday the 13th, but they must believe they are getting their money's worth. That entails paying homage to the series and its narrative without demeaning our brains and while offering a new perspective.
The best course of action is to employ true fans to work on the material, as seen by the franchises listed below. You might get what you deserve at the ticket counter if you throw together some sort of cash grab with the hack of the week in front of the camera—perhaps a brief spike in business over opening weekend and then silence.
But if you give Hellraiser or Scream to directors like David Bruckner, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, and Tyler Gillett, who have a genuine love for the franchise and the genre, the movie might still not work, but at least there's a passion there that's lacking from, say, 2010's awful A Nightmare on Elm Street remake.
Because there are no absolute laws in this world, each of the top-shelf genre brands below has seen its own highs and lows. Legacy horror is still around for the time being, but it remains to be seen whether or not those legacies will shine brightly or become irreparably tarnished.
1. Halloween
We would have celebrated the revival of the Halloween tale four years ago, when David Gordon Green directed (and co-wrote with Danny McBride). His 2018 reimagining, which was a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original, reframed the entire narrative to focus on the generational fallout of facing unfathomable evil, which was a timely and hard-hitting breath of fresh air.
However, in 2023, we are forced to reconsider that choice because Green's two sequels, Halloween Kills from the previous year and Halloween Ends from this year, were a complete failure. The latter introduces a whole new main character and carelessly adds the Halloween aspects in its final third, whereas the former was a hastily assembled collection of fan service, unjustified subplots, and excessive gore. Both films startlingly give Jamie Lee Curtis nothing to do, and even Michael Myers is given a strange supporting part in Ends. The most depressing thing is that, despite our conviction that the brand won't go away for good, we are unable to envision how it might ever move forward from this point.
2. Hellraiser
The first and second Hellraiser films, known respectively as the original and Hellbound: Hellraiser II, are regarded as classics and deserve sequels. Fans of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth exist as well, and despite significant studio involvement in the final edit, Hellraiser: Bloodline, the final of the films to be released theatrically, has managed to develop a cult following.
It's no secret that the now-defunct Dimension Films simply kept churning them out to hold onto the rights, even taking existing non-Hellraiser screenplays and grafting the mythology onto them to create the films. Fans may find some merit in the next six entries, all of which went direct to video, but it's possible that they will find something to enjoy here and there.
3. Scream
The Scream series is one of those exceptional franchises where the original creators remained active for the majority of the runtime. The late Wes Craven directed the first four instalments, while three of the first four pictures were written by Kevin Williamson. The three original lead actors—Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox—have all returned for the most recent instalment, Scream (also known as Scream 5), which had a successful run earlier this year.
As a result, the franchise has managed to maintain a remarkable level of consistency in terms of tone, aesthetic, mythology, and the ability to adapt each new film to themes that are pertinent to the time in which it is released, even though your mileage and the quality of the various instalments may vary. Although Scream 6's forthcoming filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are great, ardent fans, Campbell's decision to abandon the project over financial difficulties still leaves a significant void in the movie.
Like Scream, the Evil Dead series has continued to be managed by its creators. Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi, together with their business partner Rob Tapert, have been in charge of supervising all sequels to the 1981 film that launched their respective careers. Because of this, the series—four movies, a TV program, and a fifth feature on the way—has maintained its initial over-the-top energy and dependably wacky blend of humor and horror, much like Scream.
It's evident that Raimi, Tapert, and Campbell are protective of the name "Evil Dead," even if Raimi himself hasn't helmed anything with the name "Evil Dead" on it since directing the Ash vs. Evil Dead series pilot back in 2015.
4. The Exorcist
We all know how The Exorcist ends: William Friedkin's 1973 original picture (adapted by the book's author, William Peter Blatty) is a stone-cold masterpiece, probably the best horror movie of all time, and it still is despite Friedkin and Blatty's occasional tinkering. The 1990 film Exorcist III, directed by Blatty, is a minor masterpiece in and of itself and unquestionably the one that most closely resembles the original in spirit. The three others, Exorcist II: The Heretic from 1977, Exorcist: The Beginning from 2004, and Dominion: A Prequel to the Exorcist from 2005, are all failures in their own right, while the 2016 two-season TV series The Exorcist received more positive reviews than any other adaptation since the original.
5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
As with so many of the movies on this list, Tobe Hooper's original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is still regarded as a seminal work in the horror genre, with major antagonist Leatherface emerging as an iconic figure. Hooper's film has never been surpassed for its surreal, unrelentingly nightmare aesthetic (not even by Hooper himself, who opted for more of a black comedy vibe with 1986's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2); the subsequent mish-mash of sequels, prequels, and remakes have proven to be largely devoid of anything worthwhile, with one or two exceptions.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on Netflix, the newest addition to the franchise, was a drab, unprofessional, and obnoxious mishmash that screamed "cash grab" throughout its too long 83-minute running time. Oddly, the same director (Fede Alvarez) who created the 2013 Evil Dead reboot was also engaged in developing the idea for this, but without the oversight of anyone who cared, we can envision more careless filmmakers snatching up this property.
6. Child’s Play
After seven movies, a remake, and a TV show, fans old and young are still fascinated by the unbreakable doll known as Chucky. The first film, which made Chucky (and the voice actor who played him, Brad Dourif) an enduring horror symbol, is a minor masterpiece. The interesting thing about Child's Play/Chucky is that, under the direction of its creator Don Mancini (who wrote all seven of the original series' films and directed the last three), the series developed from largely straightforward genre fare into a sort of campy, self-aware, frequently darkly humorous comedy-horror hybrid.
The uninspired 2019 remake, which omitted Chucky's well-known supernatural origins in favor of a new high-tech narrative, was not a collaboration between Mancini and Dourif. Even though reviewers were a little more forgiving, it didn't really catch on with audiences, earning only $45 million globally. For the SyFy series Chucky, which has just started its second season and is set in the same universe as the original movies, Mancini, Dourif, and Jennifer Tilly have all made comebacks. As a result, Chucky and his friends continue to exist and possibly even flourish.
Film District UK is an award-winning and creative film and video production company in the UK. The company has been operating in Dubai and Mumbai since 2010. Film District UK is a video production company that specializes in video production, film production, corporate video production, promotional video production, commercial and music video production, live event video streaming, live event video production, virtual event video production, social media video production, testimonial video production, and animated explainer video production.