No, the Child’s Play franchise isn’t as successful as Friday the 13th, Halloween, or A Nightmare on Elm Street. Yet its history might be more interesting. And Don Mancini’s creation has shown remarkable longevity. Following a ‘so so’ remake, Mancini got a new series off the ground last year that’s actually pretty damn good. With […]
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A decade passed between what was supposed to be the end, Scream 3, and Wes Craven re-visiting his creation in 2011 with Scream 4. Plenty had changed in the horror genre and Craven found a new voice for his belated sequel. Yet despite better-than-expected results, audiences largely stayed away. Ultimately, Scream 4 was the lowest […]
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Here we go, again. When Halloween found success going back to basics, it was only a matter of time before other horror franchises followed. Technically, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre already went this route. Before we were calling them legacy sequels or ‘re-quels’, the awful Texas Chainsaw 3D positioned itself as a direct follow-up to the […]
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As an individual movie, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remains among the greatest horror movies produced. Unfortunately, the legacy of its sequels, prequels, and remakes is checkered. In between Hooper’s misunderstood sequel and the crater-sized disaster that was Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, New Line Pictures took a more straightforward approach to the […]
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Based on Clive Barker’s novella The Hellbound Heart and made on a relatively small budget, Hellraiser surprised enough at the box office to earn an immediate sequel. Its follow-up, Hellbound: Hellraiser II, performed a little below its predecessor at the box office. In addition, critics were less impressed with the results this time around. Not […]
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In the 1970s, Wes Craven directed two landmark horror movies – The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes. A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream followed in the 80s and 90s. That’s an impressive legacy. Yet somewhere in between The Hills Have Eyes and Elm Street, Craven struggled to connect with […]
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Despite a January release date typically reserved for studio leftovers, Escape Room was a breakout hit in 2019. Even if it was a bit derivative of Saw, Escape Room’s box office numbers told a more accurate story than its critical reception. Director Adam Robitel (Insidious: The Last Key) made a fun, if not completely implausible, […]
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Following the surprise critical and box office success of Don’t Breathe, a sequel was inevitable. Ghost House Entertainment and original director and writer Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead) took a little longer than expected to get the ball rolling. And the COVID-19 pandemic delayed its release by over a year. But Don’t Breathe 2 finally hit […]
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