Horror franchises rein, especially in October. It would make sense if each tentpole horror franchise put out a movie in October, because they are guaranteed money makers, and they only have to be mediocre at best. Some of the franchises have taken long down periods, but they should really keep pumping them out, it does not even have to be for theatrical release, it could be for straight to streaming, but either way, they would do well. Two major franchises decided to release new scares this October, but many opted not to do so, and it just does not make sense.
The first to come out was Hellraiser. This was released straight to Hulu on Friday. There have been quite a few Hellraiser films. The first one came out in 1987, and they have released others intermittently; the most recent one coming out in 2018. I have only watched the first one, and the one that came out on Friday, and they are not quite for me, but that does not mean that they are not successful. A franchise does not end up with eleven movies without having a following.
The newest addition had an excellent director taking control, David Bruckner. He was the director of one of my favorite films last year, and it was by far the best horror film last year, The Night House, which coincidentally was filmed in Skaneateles, just 30 minutes away from where I live. He was also the director of Southbound and V/H/S, which are both horror anthologies. They tell multiple stories, all of which are spooky. I could and probably will do a whole paper on the V/H/S franchise one day. The original was streaming on Netflix when I was in high school, and it was one of the films that my group of friends and I watched at a sleep over to spook each other out, and it did so in an incredibly effective way, so much so that I still think about it regularly in varying situations.
Not to mention that he also directed The Ritual. This was a Netflix original movie, but it was based on an Adam Nevill novel. If you are unfamiliar with Adam Nevill, look him up and read one of his books. He is known as the British Stephan King, and he has some scary ideas for his books. Recently I read The Last Days on vacation at the beginning of summer, and it was so terrifying that I had nightmares in the secluded cabin we were staying in, which is a good sign for effective horror. Also The Ritual was right up my alley, a group of friends go into the woods for a backpacking trip, someone gets hurt, so they try to take a short cut, but instead they end up trapped in the snares of a cult, who use them to release a monster, which sadly looked like crap, but every other part of the movie was good at producing tension.
So clearly Bruckner knows what he is doing, but the new Hellraiser just does not seem like his kind of horror. He does well with supernatural and cult horror. Yes, his other films do not shy away from violence, but the violence in the other films is different. It is a hard thing to explain, but the supernatural elements in this film come from the Cenobites, the group of tortured demons, and these people are gross and tough to look at due to their torturous wounds, but as gross as they are, they just do not make for a scary movie. It is gory for sure, and as is the original, but the original was better, and the gore in the original was grosser, there is something about pre 90s super gore that was just next level nasty. So did I think this new installment was good? No, but I am glad they did it.
The other big franchise that is releasing a film this October is Halloween, my personal favorite franchise. In recent years, they created a new trilogy of these films, and the one coming out on Friday will end the trilogy. The first one was renamed Halloween, but it was not a reboot. It still took the original as canon, and it brought back Jamie Lee Curtis as one of the main characters. The Halloween Kills also kept her around, and they brought back some of the other original actors as well, and now the trilogy ends this Friday with Halloween Ends, which should undoubtedly rule the box office.
This week I was lucky enough to get to see the original Halloween in theaters last Friday, which is one of my favorite films of all time. As far as scary movies go, it has probably been the one I have watched the most. I have watched it every year since early in high school, and I plan on continuing to do so. It is a classic, and I bet the three other people in the theater would have agreed with me!
There are at least two other massive horror franchises that should also be releasing movies every year that have not had a release in a few years, and those franchises are Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. The better of the two is Friday the 13th, there have been so many of these movies made, and they are very consistent, the viewer knows what they are going to get when they are watching a Friday the 13th movie. It could even be argued that as a franchise due to their consistency that it is better than the Halloween franchise. I mean after multiple movies, and then you have Jason Goes to Hell, Jason goes to Manhattan, and Jason Goes to Space can it really be argued?
Nightmare on Elm Street also has many releases, and I spent a week earlier this year watching them all, and there are a couple of them that are good, but for the most part, they are not. This does not mean that they should stop making them. The premise for Nightmare on Elm Street is genius. So if they keep trying, undoubtedly they will eventually hit with another killer film.
Another franchise that added to its collection this year was Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but that was much earlier in the year. It also feels like there should be some new Conjuring Universe movie coming out or a new Insidious, but both of these have passed this October. It would even be great if there was a new Sinister movie, the first two were great scares, so there is no reason not to run the idea into the ground with numerous sequels!
One film I watched this week that also released a sequel this year was Terrifier. The first one came out in 2018, and the second one released recently, but I had never heard of it, so I watched the first one, and it was something… It was a total gorefest, probably the goriest film I have ever seen. It had a gritty late 90s feel to it, even the camera resolution seemed like it was old school. The killer clown was one of the scariest villains I had seen in a while, and it had some jump scares as well. To be honest, it was deranged and at times hard to watch, but it was less than 90 minutes, and it was very effective with its time. I wish I had the chance to see the second one in theaters, but it was only in there for a weekend, so I did not have the chance to see it.
Other Movies This Week:
I have been posting all of my watches on my Instagram story, so tune in there, otherwise I would have way too many of these to fill out.
New Rankings:
Suspiria: 3 Stars
Hocus Pocus: 2.5 Stars
Hocus Pocus 2: 3 Stars
Hellraiser (2022): 2.5 Stars
Werewolf by Night: 3 Stars (A great werewolf killing scene)
The Redeem Team: 3 Stars
Halloween (1978): 4 Stars
Terrifier: 3.5 Stars
The Witch: 5 Stars
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone: 2.5 Stars
The Exorcist: 2.5 Stars
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