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With the Scream franchise now boasting five movies and a TV show, it seems that the slasher genre may finally be experiencing a renaissance. Slashers are often considered to be cheap or mindless horror, so to come up with new ideas to keep the story going is no easy feat.
As it is, horror movies tend to underperform at the box office and consistently get rated lower by critics. No matter how well a new slasher film does, the sheer amount of passion and dedication from both creators and fans that it takes to keep a horror franchise alive is well worth celebrating.
7 Children Of The Corn
After seven films, a remake, and two reboots, it would be fair to assume that the Children of the Corn series is running out of steam. On the contrary, in 2020, this prequel (which was also called Children of the Corn) was released into theaters. Its plot revolved around the ruined cornfields and the subsequent massacre of irresponsible adults by the town's children.
Children of the Corn has a 4.5/10 on IMDb and few reviews anywhere online. Some that did see it complained that it wasn't a prequel, but in fact, only tangentially related to the original movie. Overall, Children of the Corn wasn't bad so much as it was unremarkable.
6 Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The killer is the foundation of any slasher franchise. Victims will come or go, but the killer stays the same. The latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, Leatherface, was about how the series' iconic slasher came to be. Screenwriter and Producer Seth M. Sherwood wanted to make a movie about identity and explore why Leatherface lacked any sort of personality in the films. It premiered at FrightFest 2017.
Leatherface's current IMDb score is a perfectly average 5/10 as many critics believe that the movie didn't cater to any particular audience. It was less gory than the previous entries in the franchise and focused more heavily on the story. It still had enough gore to put off the general audience, but there wasn't enough to live up to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre fans' expectations. Still, it deserves credit for trying to do something fresh.
5 Child's Play
The Child's Play franchise got a lot of longevity out of one little doll. First seven films, then a reboot, and now a TV series. The reboot, Child's Play, was released to mixed reviews. The newer film took advantage of the improved technology available to make a higher-tech version of Chucky as opposed to the original voodoo doll. Instead of containing the transferred consciousness of a serial killer, Chucky is now a malfunctioning artificial intelligence.
Chucky fans are split over the 2019 reboot. Some think the series needed a fresh start while others say it was hardly a Chucky movie at all. Reboots can be hard to juggle. The divisive results are apparent in Child's Play's 5.3/10 IMDb rating. Clearly, it was good enough since it garnered its own TV series.
4 Wrong Turn
The Wrong Turn series was six movies deep when it was finally rebooted. The plot of the film involved a group of hikers being lost and terrorized in the woods, just like the previous installments in the franchise. The antagonists were the big change here. While the original Wrong Turn featured deformed cannibals, the 2021 remake took a different approach. The villains were a cult called The Foundation, whose organized approach to hunting down the hikers was arguably more sinister than the mindless cannibals.
Most of the reviews agreed that it was a decent standalone movie, but a bad Wrong Turn movie. Many were unhappy with the lack of cannibals. Still, it did fairly well. Its IMDb rating of 5.5 is only a little lower than the original's and higher than the rest of the sequels.
3 Halloween
2021's Halloween Kills had a lot of hype to live up to. Audiences were particularly excited about the roster of characters. It had the most returning castmates of any Halloween film and the trailer was promising. It also directly followed the story of 2018's Halloween, which was generally well-received.
In Halloween Kills, Michael broke out from confinement and went on another rampage. Many characters formed an angry mob to track him down, and it was all downhill for them after that. Reviewers enjoyed the sense of nostalgia the film invoked, along with the wide variety of kills.
Many were disappointed with the characters, saying they were unrealistic, and the dialogue was flat. What bothered everyone the most, though, was how Jamie Lee Curtis's Laurie Strode spent the whole movie in the hospital and didn't get involved in any of the action. Its IMDb score of 5.6/10 shows just how far a franchise can get with nostalgia and a good villain.
2 Candyman
The original Candyman brought new ideas to the slasher genre. Seeing protagonist Helen's life slowly unravel after each attack was its own kind of horror. The Candyman was portrayed as a romantic, tragic figure betrayed by society. He had a genuine love for Helen and anger at the racial injustice he saw. He was the complete opposite of the faceless, emotionless, unstoppable monsters audiences have come to expect. Actor Tony Todd called Candyman "my own personal Phantom of the Opera."
Neither of the sequels were too well-received, but they didn't sink to the depths of mediocrity that some do. Nevertheless, times have changed, and the story needs to change too, even if the lesson remains the same. Jordan Peele's work on Get Out showed that not only could he make good psychological horror, but also impart the messages of systemic racism intrinsic in Candyman.
Sitting at 5.9/10 on IMDb, the soft reboot didn't light the world on fire. Positive reviews mentioned the gorgeous visuals, ominous atmosphere, and excellent expansion of the original story. Those with negative reviews believed that the movie was too politicized and Jordan Peele sacrificed the plot to make room for a message.
1 Scream
The hype for the newest Scream movie was palpable even before Neve Campbell joined the project. Trailers highlighted the return of the original survivors and the nostalgia tied to the franchise, along with the rules of horror established in the previous installments. With a fresh new cast to be terrorized and three jaded veterans returning to the fight, the film merged the old and new. Anyone would get hyped at the line "I'm Sidney Prescott, of course I have a gun."
Released in January 2022, the movie received overwhelmingly positive feedback. Fans complimented the film's self-awareness and ability to still surprise them after all this time. The main negative was that it wasn't as funny as the previous movies. The reason reviewers loved and hated it was exactly the same: it was incredibly similar to the first Scream.
On the one hand, some people wanted a more original story, but on the other, the plot can only stray so far before it stops being a Scream movie. Overall, Scream absolutely killed it on IMDb with a 7.2/10 rating. That beats the three previous sequels and the TV series and is only barely beaten by the original.