What is the best horror movie franchise?

[newfan]

Originally Posted by The Deadman

The Nun does count, it's the demon that showed up in The Conjuring 2 and it shows up in a picture in Annabelle Comes Home.

I couldn't quite remember the connection, missed it in Annabelle comes home. Need to stop being on my laptop while watching movies

[Allio]

Originally Posted by newfan

Just trying to think how many fall under the Conjuring Universe, did the Nun count? (I didn't care for that) I think the 2nd Anabelle movie might have been the strongest of those for me, other two were not so great. Conjuring was okay, re-watched that yesterday as it came up Netflix. I liked the Insidious movies.

Even though they have continuity all over the place and some bad sequels, I am always up for a new Halloween Movie.

Edit: I watched the Saw movies due to watching with someone else, I wouldn't usually choose human torture but the stories were well written, this run was successful.

Conjuring 1 and 2
annabelle, creation and comes home
the nun
And despite them never mentioning it The Curse of La Llorona.

[neatoman]

Does anyone actually like Amityville? I've seen the first movie and it was the most boring horror movie I have ever seen. I get that the appeal was the whole "true story" thing (even though that has been debunked) but it's not really entertaining.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Voltron

I'm confused. Does it have to be straight horror? If there's shlock, then it's a no go? B movie stuff won't make the cut? Like Re-Animator or Killer Klowns from Outer Space?

If not, I'm going to throw Godzilla in there.

I would've put Re-Animator on there for sure if there was room. Good stuff. Killer Klowns wasn't a series, though I wish it had been.

[Leo656]

Fair points about Amityville. Remake wasn't bad. Given that the series is public domain and even I could theoretically make one, it's no surprise there's so much garbage.

I might have to change my vote for "worst", because "Amityville Dollhouse" is definitely, definitely terrible. There's probably worse within the same series but Lord knows I'll never see them.

[neatoman]

It sounded strange to me that Amityville is in the public domain, so I looked it up. It... Kind of is? It's really more like you can't trademark a real place or claim copyright over events that (allegedly) really happened (Jay Anson probably has copyright to his book though).

But it's kind of like saying any movie with "New York" in the title is part of the same series, not really sure that counts... Although the idea of "Escape from New York" crossing over with "Hercules in New York", "Gangs of New York", "King of New York", "Sherlock Holmes in New York" and "Tarzan's New York Adventure" intrigues me...

[Leo656]

I'd watch "Sherlock Holmes Escapes From New York" but only if Henry Cavill and Kurt Russell were both in it.

[Voltron]

Originally Posted by Allio

Conjuring 1 and 2
annabelle, creation and comes home
the nun
And despite them never mentioning it The Curse of La Llorona.

The Curse of La Llarona has the priest from Annabelle make a cameo in it. He mentions the doll.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I'd watch "Sherlock Holmes Escapes From New York" but only if Henry Cavill and Kurt Russell were both in it.

What about Arnold as Hercules?

[Leo656]

I'd give it a shot.

[Allio]

Originally Posted by Voltron

The Curse of La Llarona has the priest from Annabelle make a cameo in it. He mentions the doll.

I know. But it doesn’t seem like they still count it as part of the conjuring universe. Still just listed as “from producers of the conjuring” on the box instead of “from the conjuring universe” like the other films.

[Leo656]

Watched "Nightmare" 3, 4 and 5 in a row. Yeah, I gotta say this is almost certainly the most consistently upper-quality horror franchise. 4 and 5 are generally considered near the bottom of the list, and there's a lot of good reasons for that, but they're both better than I remembered them being and they're far from being "bad movies" in any respect. They're just weaker Freddy movies. Particularly because they both end in ways that make you feel like they just didn't know how to end them. There's still a ton of good stuff IN them, the whole in either case just doesn't add up to more than the sum of its parts.

"Freddy's Dead" is the only true clunker and that's not a bad average out of nine movies. Although I certainly have my problems with "Freddy vs. Jason" but it almost doesn't seem fair to criticize that one too much and I do enjoy the movie, for what it is. They explicitly weren't making a movie, they were making a theme park ride. It's not how I would have done it, but most of its problems can be handwaved as simply as, "They were going for pure spectacle." Nobody expected much, and therefore it didn't try very hard but still gave people everything it promised. That said, aside from the fights it's mostly-junk. But again, it hardly seems fair to point that out. They weren't even trying to make a "real movie" and... they didn't.

[Allio]

I didn’t mind Freddy being jokey as I used to, but I honestly felt like the later films declined because of the fact.

[Leo656]

I mean, by part 5 they were blatantly marketing the character to kids, as screwy as that is, and it showed in the material. Even by Part 4, a little... I mean, by the time your main villain is starring in a rap video with The Fat Boys, there's hardly even a pretense that this is anything more than a joke. A dark joke, sure, but... still a joke. Part 5 gave Freddy his OWN rap song, and... yeah. Now he's a cartoon. "Freddy's Dead" had a few bright spots, but it was SUCH a self-parody that it felt less like a movie, and more like a series of Freddy-centric MadTV skits stapled together. I liked it AS a kid, because it fit my interpretation of what the character was, based on how he was presented in magazines and on MTV and such, but I'd also only seen the originals a few times. But seeing it again as an adult it's like, "Wow, this is a goddamn farce." A few good moments, as is the case every time out, but... bad movie. Barely even a good "Freddy movie".

I generally really don't like "Wink at the audience" stuff in movies. When I watch horror, especially, I don't like to be "in on the joke". Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" is one of my "favorite" horror movies of all time (despite the fact I can hardly stand to watch it often) because good Lord, there's certainly nothing goofy about THAT sh*t. Sh*t like that happens every day and it's horrific in the purest sense of the word. I definitely don't think EVERY horror movie should be like that, but I definitely appreciate that approach more than "Isn't this all just a lark?" Stuff like "Jason X", for example, I just gag. Way too "cute".

For NOES 4 and 5, it wasn't even really just that he became a jokester, it's that the staging of scenes was a bit too bright and clean across the board. I mean when he's standing on a beach in broad daylight wearing shades, it's like yeah, this is very silly. The "grit" was gone. Although the motorcycle scene in Part 5 was definitely a strong attempt to get things back where they needed to be.

To say it fell off JUST because Freddy got silly is an oversimplification. It didn't help, but there were other problems in the execution along the way that combined with the added humor just really diluted the entire premise by 5 and 6.

"New Nightmare" went right over my head as a dumb kid but it's easily Top 3. I really appreciated the sincere attempt to make Freddy a straight villain again, but sadly nobody else did. They were too conditioned for "Funny Freddy" by that point. It also probably came too soon after "Freddy's Dead", I remember there being some gripes about that at the time.

It's a series with Ups and Downs like all of the ones listed. But "Freddy's Dead" is the only one that's PURE cringe. Between that and "Jason Goes To Hell"... New Line wasn't doing so hot by then with their horror icons. THAT is a goddamn awful movie right there.

[Andrew NDB]

The RLM guys just talked about Friday the 13th 4 and 6.

[Shark_Blade]

I wonder if Little Shop of Horrors is a horror film too. It’s got “horror” in its title so it’s gotta be. And plenty of murders and bodily mutilation too.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

I wonder if Little Shop of Horrors is a horror film too. It’s got “horror” in its title so it’s gotta be. And plenty of murders and bodily mutilation too.

Eh... I'd call it a horror movie. Probably in the same way Gremlins would be. Though "Little Shop of Horrors" isn't much of a franchise.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Not unless you count the original one. The Moranis movie was a remake, after all.

I kind of have to agree with Leo regarding NoES as the best overall. Evil Dead franchise and Chucky are my other top picks, simply because even while not all scary, they were all always at least entertaining, imho. I'd also day the Gremlins SHOULD count, since there were two, and there WERE plans at one or two points to do more, they just never panned out.

[Leo656]

How were Evil Dead 1, half of 2, and the remake "not at all scary"?

Granted, the poor production values on 1 and 2 hurt them, but c'mon. If you suspend disbelief even a little bit that sh*t's positively nuts.

I've had people get up and leave the room on me during the first one. Granted, they're pussies, but still. Some people get all whiny about chicks getting raped by trees. Feh!

Only reason I don't entirely count the series is that, as stated, the most well-known movie in the series is a straight-up comedy flick and that breaks the consistency and "flow". But I can't take horror points off of the rest of the series.

Especially the remake. Brrrrrrrr. Finally a good horror remake and "all" it took was some dizzy broad hacking her own face off. Nice. Nice.

[neatoman]

So since there was some discussion about Amityville being Public Domain, would you consider Night of the Living Dead to be as well? The first movie is quite literally considered Public Domain and Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Living Dead 3D, Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn, Mimesis: Night of the Living Dead, Night of the Living Dead: Resurrection as well as Zombi 2 are all derivative movies that don't involve Romero or anyone else from the original production staff nor under license by anyone.