A second look into how sequels affect the disappointing quality of horror movies, resulting in their decline in popularity.

Randy Meek had it all right at the beginning of Scream 2 as he was ranting and raving in his film class. Joshua Jackson (in some random cameo) claimed that the movie House II: The Second Story was far superior to the first House movie. Amid the student’s boos and groans in response to this horrid example, Randy (one of my favorite horror movie characters!) gave his rebuttal to this statement: “The entire horror genre was destroyed by sequels!”

Sure, there is a wide variety of evidence to support Randy’s claim, but as much as I respect the knowledge of Mr. Meek (it didn’t save him from getting knifed by Ol’ Ghost face), I must reiterate that not all horror sequels are bad… I use special services to chat with strangers to meet new people and collect their opinions on such debate topics as this. So it’s just that certain franchises ruin the genre for the viewers and give little hope for other films to flourish. If you watch these films (much like I do) just for the sheer enjoyment of the campiness, do not let this article stop you from doing so.

Curse of the Quadrilogy and Beyond

It’s okay if a sequel is made to tell a little bit more of an elongated story (Halloween II). It is also acceptable if a trilogy is established to expand the story again and bring it to a decently established conclusion (Scream 1, 2, and 3). But once you start getting into “part 4’s” or “part 5’s”, that’s when things truly start getting out of control.

When you take specific franchises like Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Saw, in which each has more than five sequels, did the quality of the movie ever improve after those fourth or fifth films? If you said yes, then you have issues. The only contributions these extended sequels gave to these once terrifying movies are characters that we don’t give a damn about, complicated storylines, and a villain who gradually loses their terror ability. Unlike the “miracle pill for the middle-aged man”, Viagra, there isn’t enough of anything for “part 4’s” or “part 5’s” in a series that could be deemed as the “miracle film for the sagging horror franchise.”

Villain Resurrection

Horror fans don’t mind if a sequel wants to bring back a notorious horror movie villain. Who would want to go see a Friday the 13th movie it didn’t have Jason (well… there is Friday the 13th Part 5) or a Halloween movie in which Michael Myers was missing (again… there is Halloween III). These characters are what make the intolerable sequels “tolerable” and keep the series memorable. It’s like going to see a Ben Stiller movie just to see when Owen Wilson pops up.

However, when you attempt to resurrect a killer for the sixth or seventh time (each time, in a completely different way), you, as the viewer cannot help but feel cheated by this, especially when the resurrection is completely lame (Freddy’s return in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4 or Jason’s revival in Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives). Fiery dog pee and bolts of lightning surely don’t satisfy this horror fan. Couldn’t the writers have come up with something better? Sometimes, the unexplained return of a horror baddie is the scariest bombshell of them all (like the Tall Man in the Phantasm movies). The villains come back just because “they can.”

As you sit in the movie theater or your living room and the filmmakers pull this crap on you, you can’t help but feel that they might as well have put a giant middle finger on the screen, pointing directly at you. The Scream movies never had a problem with this. When one killer died at the end of the movie, all they had to do was conjure up another for the next one. It’s as simple as that. Kevin Williamson, this is why I respect you as a writer!

Pointless Humor

Humor has a very limited role in the horror genre. There are usually two places for it to be effective, quick comic relief (the tin foil helmets in Signs) or in a Keenan Ivory Wayans parody (Scary Movie 1 and 2). In very small, perhaps microscopic doses, humor can enhance one’s fear. It can give you a false sense of safety, only for the rug to be pulled out from under you a short time later. But too much humor can only be a distraction and confuse the audience as to what kind of a movie you’re trying to make… a horror or a comedy?

A Nightmare on Elm Street was home to one of the greatest horror movie villains of all time, Freddy Krueger. Just the thought of him at the height of his popularity would have kept any 8-year-old awake for the night. But after the third movie was made (one of the scariest in my opinion) and part 4 came to light, Freddy developed a new type of presence. Instead of eerily lurking about the dreams of Springwood teenagers, Freddy would purposely inject more humor than fear into his methods.

Wearing sunglasses at the beach. Posing as “Super Freddy”. Appearing as a witch on a broomstick (clearly a Wizard of Oz reference). The infamous “power glove” scene (thank you, NES Systems!). All of these things completely took the fear out of Freddy. When he starts acting more like he’s the Cryptkeeper (Tales from the Crypt) and less like he was in the first Nightmare on Elm Street, you know that something is wrong in Springwood, and this time, it’s surely not the sleeping habits.

In Conclusion

For these franchises that get worse and worse as they go on (most of them, for sure), I just keep asking myself one question… Why? Why must they keep making these movies? Why must these pompous filmmakers keep leaving skid marks on the legacies of such enjoyable and scary movies? Is it too hard to just let the killers, monsters, and boogeymen rest in peace (or at least in pieces)? Would it be too much to ask for them to not release a sequel every single year? Sometimes, as viewers, we need a little time to rest in-between one embarrassing disgrace of a movie to the next one. It’s movies like these that would make poor Randy Meeks roll over in his shallow, fictitious grave.

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