Horror Franchises Are Getting Stale

As a genre fanatic, the cult classics are a staple in my collection of horror films. While Jason Voorhees, Micheal Myers, and Ghostface have been rebranded, over the last decade for the benefit of the studios, the rest of us sit back and roll our eyes. New fans rave about the gore aspect in particular, but at this point, it’s way too much. So much so, that it takes away from the actual story. Sure, technological advances attribute to some awesome kill scenes, but being gross for no reason puts me off the rest of the film.

The newer adaptations of classic horror films are pretty bad … borderline horrible. With the desperate attempts at social commentary to appeal to the younger generations and old character reprisals that fall short, it makes the new Halloween and Scream movies unbearable to watch.

Most recently, I went to see Halloween Ends (that was my first mistake). The storyline with Corey was interesting at first until the movie became all about him. I sat there confused from start to finish like, “When is Micheal coming out?”. He did eventually … for 20 minutes total. Everyone in the theater was laughing! This new “passing the torch” concept is a hard pass for me. Without seeing Halloween Ends, think Micheal Myers and Training Day mixed together. Instead of leaving well enough alone, we’re now even stuck with Billy Loomis’s long-lost daughter to replace Sidney Prescott – who is an awful actress, by the way. And with the release date of the 6th Scream movie looming over us, I can only imagine how much worse this one will be, compared to the last. Oh, and it takes place in New York City! Been there, done that with Jason Takes New York and we saw how great that one did.

On the horizon, we have a remake of The Exorcist, which might be OK, as long as it sticks to the original and refrains from too many absurd effects. For now, I find peace in rewatching the earlier adaptations of such classics to keep me from totally turning my back on the franchises.