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My Favorite Horror Franchises
The summer of 2015 is gearing up to be The Summer of Sequels. We’ve already had The Woman in Black 2, [REC] 4, Taken 3, and Avengers: Age of Ultron, and in the upcoming months we’ll be getting Insidious: Chapter 3, Jurassic World, Terminator: Genisys, Sinister 2, Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (and I’m sure I missed a few). So I thought this would be a good time to list the best horror franchises out there.
Please note that my criteria for a franchise is at least three films in a series (sorry Predator and Laid to Rest). I can watch all these franchises again and again without ever getting bored. This list isn’t in any particular order.
Romero’s Dead Trilogy
I’m of course talking about Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), and Day of the Dead (1985). Not only are these films the standard by which all other zombie films are measured, they also kick some serious ass. They are well-written, well-executed, well-acted, and Dawn and Day have some of the best gore around. I’m limiting this franchise to the first three films because, let’s face it, the other three Romero zombie flicks are pretty uneven. Oh let’s be honest, 2005s Land of the Dead sucked out loud!!
Hellraiser Trilogy
Once again, I’m limiting this franchise to the first three films (it’s my list and I’ll do whatever I want). Hellraiser (1987) is a groundbreaking film. Nothing like it was seen before. The first film also proved that Clive Barker is more than just a master of the written word. Hellhound: Hellraiser II (1988) is darker, gorier, and further explores the world and mythology of Pinhead and his cohorts. Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) has its flaws, but is overall a pretty damn strong movie that introduces a few new cenobites.
Friday the 13th Films
Say what you will about this franchise, but I’ll take this one over the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise any day. Jason is a stone-cold killer with no stupid one-liners, and after all the films in the series, Jason still manages to be scary. The first four films in the franchise are the best, but I watch all of them every time we get a Friday the 13th calendar day.
The Alien Films
This is another solid franchise, but to make it a great horror series, I’m removing Aliens (1986) from the rotation. Aliens is a fun action flick, but it most definitely is not a horror film. The original Alien (1979), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997) kick some major ass, though.
The Evil Dead Trilogy
Another classic franchise that is hugely entertaining, gory, and scary. I admit that I’m not as big a fan of Army of Darkness (1992) as most fans (it is way to campy with not enough gore for me), it’s still a terrific trilogy.
The Tremors Franchise
Did you know that there’s four Tremors films, with a fifth one coming out later in 2015? I just recently showed the first two to my kids (ages ten and seven) and they love them. Watching the Graboids snatch and eat up the cast is so much fun. I also love how the writers evolve the creatures in the sequels. They walk on land in Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996) and they fly in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001). I can’t wait to see what they do in part five!!
The Wrong Turn Films
This franchise may never win any awards, but it’s one of my guilty pleasure franchises (along with Final Destination, see below). I wasn’t really a fan of the original Wrong Turn (2003), but since that film, the filmmakers have settled into a pattern of creating some of the goriest and craziest horror films out there. If you’re looking for logic, solid stories, and character development, look elsewhere. If you want to see hot girls split in two, people torn apart, and other grizzly sights, then this franchise is for you. There are currently six film in the franchise and I don’t see an end in sight.
The Hatchet Trilogy
Thank you Adam Green for going back to the basics!! At the end of the day, the Hatchet trilogy is simply a slasher killing characters in the swamp. Victor Crowley became an instant horror icon for the new generation. What makes this trilogy so much fun are all the great practical effects, a great killer, and tons of genre cameos. Even more, though, is writer-director Adam Green. You can tell from watching his films that this man loves the horror genre. This franchise is both a throwback to the classic slasher films of the 1980s, and is Green’s love letter to the genre.
The [Rec] Franchise
This franchise admittedly has its ups and downs but is overall a tremendously fun and gory franchise. Are you sick and tired of the found footage-style movies? Well, you obviously haven’t seen any of the [Rec] films. [Rec] (2007) and [Rec] 2 (2009) are so damn good that as soon as they end you’ll immediately want to watch them over again (I did). [Rec] 2 is no doubt the best film in the series, but all the films in the franchise have over the top gore and fun stories.
Final Destination Franchise
This is my other guilty pleasure franchise on my list. Let’s face it, every sequel has been a remake of the first Final Destination (2000). What makes these films so damn fun, though, are the opening sequence, that always involves some kind of horrendous accident, and all the inventive deaths throughout the films. The filmmakers here don’t pull any punches either… most of the death scenes are gory and explicit.
The Saw Trilogy
You knew this was going to pop up on my list!! Ultimately I enjoyed all the films in this franchise, but I thought the first three were the strongest. Some of the later films felt rushed and didn’t do it for me. The first three films, though, are pretty damn amazing with great stories and great gore.
So, what’s your favorite horror franchises? Let me know in the comments section below!!
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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