Worst horror franchise killer

(No not the villain's or murderers or slashers) I'm talking about horror Movies that killed their franchises after their movie got poorly received, so bad it murdered (Killed) it's franchise for good.

Ewe, it's hard to come up with one that's completely killed a franchise, since few popular horror franchises ever truly die. They might have to hide in a corner and lick their wounds for a decade or so, but the ones that matter always find a way back.

'Rings' stands out to me the most since that movie not only ruined that franchises chances of reigniting itself, it's failure also persuaded Paramount not to make a new Friday the 13th movie while the rights briefly passed back into their hands. That was our last chance to get an official Friday movie before the lawsuit grinded everything to a halt. For a movie to be so bad that it not only kills your franchise, but another much more popular and lucrative franchise gets caught up in the crossfire... That's just impressive in all the wrong ways.

I wanted to say the remake of Psycho, but completely forget that Bates Motel exists. We haven't heard a peep out of Nightmare on Elm Street since the remake, but it's impossible for me to imagine Freddy won't be back eventually. Halloween 2 killed Zombie's vision of the franchise so badly that they had to reboot the series again for the fifteenth time... I can think of a hundred examples that put franchises into temporary stasis, but it might take more research to find true franchise killers.

The Ring (American Version): If no one knew this sequel to the American version of the Japanese Original it bombed badly at the box office so much that Paramount Pictures got scared and cancelled their Friday the 13th 2017 Film due to the idea of Reboots/Reboot Sequels being a bad idea.

This put TWO Franchises on Ice and for us Friday the 13th Fans it allowed the lawsuit between Sean Cunningham and Victor Miller which dragged it for 3-4 Years of nonsense.

Howling Reborn killed that franchise….. not that any were good after the original.

Valentine never got a sequel because it was DOA…..but had potential to be a franchise….if there was an actual good horror movie here.

The new I know what you did last summer show definitely killed that franchise.

Urban Legends 3 sucked and killed that franchise but in all fairness 2 sucked as well.

The newest Candyman may have killed that franchise as well.

OCT 31 1978 wrote:Howling Reborn killed that franchise….. not that any were good after the original.

Valentine never got a sequel because it was DOA…..but had potential to be a franchise….if there was an actual good horror movie here.

The new I know what you did last summer show definitely killed that franchise.

Urban Legends 3 sucked and killed that franchise but in all fairness 2 sucked as well.

The newest Candyman may have killed that franchise as well.

For Howling I agree

My Bloody Valentine was suppose to get a sequel but the company just said "Meh" despite it doing mildly good at the box office.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is beyond DEAD no offense to former Michael Myers actor Don Shanks...but the movie was BAD.

Urband Legends was just bad LOL

Candyman did good in my opinion and I wouldnt be shocked to see them announce a sequel it had a $25 million budget and made it back with $77 Million at the box office.

I just thought of another one... The recent 'Mummy' movie with Tom Cruise. I know that film leaned more into the action/Sci-Fi genre, but it was still a Pseudo remake of the Universal classic. That film was supposed to launch an entire 'Dark Universe' featuring most of the classic Universal Monsters, plans that have since been scraped. Can't think of another movie that bombed so hard that it wiped out an entire cinematic universe before it even had a chance to exist.

OCT 31 1978 wrote:Howling Reborn killed that franchise….. not that any were good after the original.

Valentine never got a sequel because it was DOA…..but had potential to be a franchise….if there was an actual good horror movie here.

The new I know what you did last summer show definitely killed that franchise.

Urban Legends 3 sucked and killed that franchise but in all fairness 2 sucked as well.

The newest Candyman may have killed that franchise as well.

The Howling is supposed to be getting a remake set for Netflix... I don't trust stories like this until the movie is actually being filmed, but there's a chance that franchise might be on life support and not quite dead just yet.

I tend to lump Urban Legend and I Know What You Did Last Summer in with the rest of the Scream Clones that came out at the time as a fad that burnt out quickly... Those franchises were kind of doomed from having any reasonable chance at longevity from the start since they all tried to copy Scream without understanding what made that film work, and quite frankly chased the wrong part of the audience. It felt like Hollywood crapped out as many of them as they could before the trend died, which it did pretty quickly. That's what happens though when you decide to gear an entire subset of films towards teenagers who liked Scream, most of which who likely weren't huge horror fans otherwise. Those films just didn't have enough substance to survive past the small window of time when they were trendy. I feel that Urban Legend could've worked if they actually put the focus on the Urban Legend part, rather than focusing on being just another Scream Wanabe with a differen't coat of paint.

I'm Not a Goalie wrote:I just thought of another one... The recent 'Mummy' movie with Tom Cruise. I know that film leaned more into the action/Sci-Fi genre, but it was still a Pseudo remake of the Universal classic. That film was supposed to launch an entire 'Dark Universe' featuring most of the classic Universal Monsters, plans that have since been scraped. Can't think of another movie that bombed so hard that it wiped an entire cinematic universe before it even had a chance to exist.

Yup it was suppose to also have prequels and stuff like Dracula Untold being apart of it all.

I would have to say Return of the Living Dead Rave to the Grave killed the Living Dead series for me. The remake of Dawn of the Dead breathed sI me life back into it, but I preferred the stumbling, shambling zombie walk to the distance sprinters in the remake. I know the Living Dead is by no means the sole zombie franchise, but I grouped the original Night of the Living Dead with Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead 1, 2, and 3, plus Necroplis and Rave to the Grave, Land of the Dead, and City of the Living Dead, all Romero films. I know coming up with a fresh zombie outbreak movie would be tough as just about all possible scenarios have been done, but I'd hold on to the hope of something new like Walking Dead but fresh.

Jason Voorhees wrote:

OCT 31 1978 wrote:Howling Reborn killed that franchise….. not that any were good after the original.

Valentine never got a sequel because it was DOA…..but had potential to be a franchise….if there was an actual good horror movie here.

The new I know what you did last summer show definitely killed that franchise.

Urban Legends 3 sucked and killed that franchise but in all fairness 2 sucked as well.

The newest Candyman may have killed that franchise as well.

For Howling I agree

My Bloody Valentine was suppose to get a sequel but the company just said "Meh" despite it doing mildly good at the box office.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is beyond DEAD no offense to former Michael Myers actor Don Shanks...but the movie was BAD.

Urband Legends was just bad LOL

Candyman did good in my opinion and I wouldnt be shocked to see them announce a sequel it had a $25 million budget and made it back with $77 Million at the box office.

I agree 100%

My Bloody Valentine 3/D was very good I really enjoyed it….. and would love to see it come back in some form.
I was talking about the nose bleeding Cherub killer Valentine movie that was a part of the Scream clones you mentioned as well.

As for The new Candyman…..I enjoyed parts of it….and it definitely has some beautiful artistic storytelling going on….. but everyone I have talked to that watched it have not been kind in their criticism for it…. “Not scary” “ too preachy” “ really pushed the white people bad narrative.”” Has an agenda other than entertainment.”……I don’t think it left as positive a taste in the mouth of fans that it could have…. I will be surprised if another one gets announced and if it does I guarantee the box office will suffer because of this new one.

OCT 31 1978 wrote:
I agree 100%

My Bloody Valentine 3/D was very good I really enjoyed it….. and would love to see it come back in some form.
I was talking about the nose bleeding Cherub killer Valentine movie that was a part of the Scream clones you mentioned as well.

As for The new Candyman…..I enjoyed parts of it….and it definitely has some beautiful artistic storytelling going on….. but everyone I have talked to that watched it have not been kind in their criticism for it…. “Not scary” “ too preachy” “ really pushed the white people bad narrative.”” Has an agenda other than entertainment.”……I don’t think it left as positive a taste in the mouth of fans that it could have…. I will be surprised if another one gets announced and if it does I guarantee the box office will suffer because of this new one.

My Bloody Valentine Reboot definitely deserves a sequel because it opened a idea of new storylines.

Alot of people forget the original had the same subliminal message about black culture and me being mixed, I can understand most of the messages painted out and them taking modern issues is both a bad and good thing, I wasnt disappointed as I thought I would because again reboots are hit and miss and man the kills were fun for me.

I do hope if they have a sequel it does be more about killing than Politics because I get it that it was suppose to send a message but still its a slasher flick lol.

Tcm 4 the next generation was a franchise killer for the texas chainsaw franchise until the 2003 reboot revived the franchise.

Jasonvoorhees13th wrote:Tcm 4 the next generation was a franchise killer for the texas chainsaw franchise until the 2003 reboot revived the franchise.

That is actually one of my guilty pleasures. It is so bad and over-the-top that I enjoy it as a super dark comedy.

Soulbait70 wrote:

Jasonvoorhees13th wrote:Tcm 4 the next generation was a franchise killer for the texas chainsaw franchise until the 2003 reboot revived the franchise.

That is actually one of my guilty pleasures. It is so bad and over-the-top that I enjoy it as a super dark comedy.

I just watched this the other day…..for the first time in a long time.
It was surprisingly more entertaining than I remembered it…..still a terrible movie but held my attention till the very end…. It is still at the bottom of my TCM ranking for sure though.

OCT 31 1978 wrote:

Soulbait70 wrote:

Jasonvoorhees13th wrote:Tcm 4 the next generation was a franchise killer for the texas chainsaw franchise until the 2003 reboot revived the franchise.

That is actually one of my guilty pleasures. It is so bad and over-the-top that I enjoy it as a super dark comedy.

I just watched this the other day…..for the first time in a long time.
It was surprisingly more entertaining than I remembered it…..still a terrible movie but held my attention till the very end…. It is still at the bottom of my TCM ranking for sure though.

I watch it just for Matthew McConaughey.

I just thought of another...Puppet Master. I think Part 4 was the beginning of the end

SonofOdin6039 wrote:I just thought of another...Puppet Master. I think Part 4 was the beginning of the end

The Puppet Master franchise is a hit or miss category if we are gonna be honest!