10 Horror Movie Sequels That Subverted Their Own Franchise

The horror genre has long been one of the most dynamic corners of cinema, turning in a slew of creative ideas that receive more sequels than any other genre. Naturally, with so many of these movies following the same old formula with each new entry, some directors have made a point of switching things up. Perhaps more than any other genre, horror audiences have grown accustomed to sequels that offer a stark departure from established lore, whether through new settings or entirely new characters.

Unfortunately, while horror is a place where creators have the freedom to experiment, fans aren’t always receptive to these new ideas — and they often have a good point. Simply subverting a franchise’s core idea doesn’t always make for a good story, but it can make for an interesting shift. These movies aren’t perfect, but they deserve respect for challenging the expectations of moviegoers, even if they don’t stick the landing.

10 Jason X Gave Voorhees An Upgrade

The Friday the 13th franchise tells the story of Jason Voorhees, the resident serial killer of Camp Crystal Lake. Driven to vengeance by his own drowning and the killing of his murderous mother, Jason stalks the camp counselors and party goers of the camp, murdering them with his signature machete — or anything else that comes in handy. Jason X picks up the story as Jason is held by the US military for research purposes. After escaping, a woman in charge of his captivity successfully freezes him, but is caught up in the process herself. Over four hundred years later, they’re picked up by the crew of a salvage starship, who transport them through space.

Jason X subverts its franchise in a few ways, namely its turn into science fiction, taking Jason to space and giving him a nanotech upgrade. The film also offers its series a time skip: chronologically, it takes place after the events of Freddy vs Jason, but the movie was released three years prior. For a franchise that had been so firmly defined by its backwoods summer camp setting, taking the slasher to space was completely ou of left field — but it made for one of the most enjoyable Jason stories.

9 I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer Was Better Off Unmade

In 1997, horror fans were treated to I Know What You Did Last Summer, a film that focuses on a group of friends who, after covering up a hit-and-run, are stalked by a mysterious killer one year later. Receiving a slew of notes telling them “I know what you did last summer,” the four friends try and investigate the man they ran over so they can get a clue as to who might be seeking revenge. The movie’s main characters, Julie James and Ray Bronson (Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr), returned for a sequel, which followed Julie and her friends being stalked on an island resort.

Rather than letting the story sit as a great duology, the franchise was turned into a trilogy with the direct-to-DVD I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. Where the first two films had been about Ben Willis seeking revenge for having almost been killed, the third movie introduced a completely unwanted supernatural element to the story. After all, the charm of the past two movies had been the mystery behind it, leaving viewers to question whether it was Willis or someone avenging him. Turning him into a supernatural, undead killer took the mystique out of the franchise, making it an inferior duplicate of ’80s slashers.

8 Jeepers Creepers Reborn Ended A Dying Franchise

Jeepers Creepers Reborn continues the story of the Creeper, Florida’s resident demon who hunts people for their body parts. When a group of people in Louisiana win a contest to stay in a plantation house that’s been converted to an escape room, they are hunted by the Creeper, fresh from having woken up. As the main character, Laine, is abducted by the Creeper for a bizarre ritual, the others fight for survival against the monster.

Jeepers Creepers Reborn is, unfortunately, the worst movie in the series, and it isn’t even close. The introduction of the cult devoted to the Creeper took away the monster’s independence, now suggesting that he requires worshipers to get his victims. A complete abandonment of the terror behind the character, the film wasted a great opportunity to revive a franchise, instead turning in one of the worst horror films of all time. It’s clear the creators wanted to try something new with the character, but some things are better left unexplained — and the Creeper didn’t need the new twist he got.

7 Army of Darkness Went Beyond Cabin in the Woods Horror

Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies follow Ash Williams and his friends as they spend a night in a remote cabin in the woods. While there, they discover a recording from a historian reading from the Necronomicon ex Mortis, which awakens a demonic entity that begins possessing the friends, turning them into Deadites. After losing everyone from his girlfriend to his sister to the creatures, Ash narrowly avoided becoming a Deadite himself, eventually being forced to cut off his own hand and replace it with a chainsaw.

Army of Darkness transformed an ’80s cabin in the woods supernatural horror into a medieval dark fantasy comedy-action movie, following Ash’s quest to vanquish the Deadites and return to the present. As one of the biggest franchise heel-turns in horror history, the film embraced the idea of turning Ash into a superhero-style protagonist, using his chainsaw arm and boomstick to become a medieval hero.

6 Hellraiser Hellseeker Turned Its Final Girl Into A Killer

The Hellraiser films are centered around a variety of characters as they become the target of Cenobites, a group of sadistic demons who torture those who summon them as a form of pleasure. While the first two films document the story of Kirsty Cotton as she comes to face-to-face with Pinhead and survives a trip to Hell, the third film is famously bad, reimagining the villain as a campy slasher. In the sixth movie, Kirsty made a comeback in a story that revolves around her corrupt cop husband, as he investigates a slew of murders.

Rather than follow a heroic character trying to escape the Cenobites, Hellseeker instead explores a man already trapped by them, explaining how he got there. The movie is also one of the few times a final girl returns in a less than heroic light, with Kirsty offering to bring Pinhead five souls in exchange for her own. Rather than explore one last showdown between the pair, it instead made Kirsty almost as bad as the monsters.

5 Texas Chainsaw Massacre IV: The Next Generation Is Simply Bizarre

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise follows a variety of characters’ encounters with Leatherface, a chainsaw-wielding cannibal who murders people to feed his sadistic family. After three relatively consistent films, the fourth started out like any other, following a group of friends who become the target of the killer. It takes a detour, however, revealing that the killers work for a secret society that uses terror to try and give victims a “spiritual experience.”

The Next Generation is, without a doubt, the single most bizarre entry in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise, as well as one of the strangest slashers overall. The prior were isolated slashers about a family driven to cannibalism out of desperation — the fourth film turned the story into a horror-infused conspiracy theory, something that hadn’t even been hinted at in past entries. The film remains the most divisive in the franchise, with some fans respecting its genuinely original direction, while others hate the impact it had on Tobe Hooper’s vision.

4 Friday the 13th A New Beginning Refused to Bring Back Jason

The first four Friday the 13th movies established and built up the legend of Jason Voorhees, from his vengeful mother’s murder spree to his own return. The fifth movie follows a now adult Tommy in a halfway house, where he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. After the brutal murder of a fellow patient at the hands of another, the area is suddenly plagued by a spree of killings seemingly committed by Jason.

The fifth Friday the 13th movie famously ends with the revelation that Jason had indeed stayed dead, and that the masked killer had been a paramedic named Roy, the father of the film’s first victim. After seeing his son’s remains, Roy was driven to rage and revenge, targeting everyone in sight, planning to frame Tommy as the killer. The movie actually pulls a double whammy, with the very last scene seeing Jarvis put on the Jason mask himself, hinting that he was about to become a killer himself — though that was ignored for the sixth movie.

3 Halloween Ends Did the Unthinkable

In 2018, director David Gordon Greene rebooted the Halloween franchise, erasing all the sequels and delivering a direct continuation of only the first film. With Laurie Strode no longer Michael Myers’ sister, she was reimagined as preparing for the killer’s return, training her daughter in survivalism so they’d be ready for him. When his psychiatrist stages a breakout, the villain returns to Haddonfield, where he goes on another killing spree, seeking out Laurie. In Halloween Ends, the third in the rebooted trilogy, the story takes an almost unthinkable turn as an outcast man, Corey Cunningham, teams up with Michael Myers.

Halloween Ends is one of the most disliked sequels in the slasher genre due to its treatment of signature villain Michael Myers. Here, the supernatural angle behind the character is called into question as he’s overpowered by Corey, who dons the mask to commit murders by himself. The film went where no prior film had gone before, both in the idea that Michael would partner with someone else and in killing him for good.

Wes Craven’s Nightmare On Elm Street franchise is centered around Freddy Krueger, the vengeful spirit of a child killer who is able to murder people by invading their dreams. While audiences generally loved the first and third movies, it took a noticeable dive in quality as the sequels continued, though fans were happy to keep showing up for more Freddy. After the sixth movie seemingly concluded the franchise, Craven released his New Nightmare. Here, things took a welcome and unexpected turn.

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare focuses on the actors and crew involved in making the movies, casting them as fictionalized versions of themselves. As Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy Thompson, begins seeing Freddy in the real world, she begins to wonder if he’s real after all — despite Robert Englund being her friend. Abandoning a fictional narrative for one that walks the line between film and reality, the movie is one of the most interesting projects to date, and was perfectly on-brand for Craven’s dive into meta horror during the ’90s.

1 Halloween III Season of the Witch Abandoned Michael Myers

John Carpenter’s Halloween originally told the story of Michael Myers, a serial killer who, after escaping a mental health facility, returned home to Haddonfield, where he stalked Laurie Strode and killed her friends. After the incredible box office success of the first two films, the franchise pursued the idea that Carpenter originally wanted, an anthology film series that explored different ideas. This came to fruition in the third film, Season of the Witch, which follows a doctor investigating a toy corporation after he traces the murder of a patient back to them.

Despite it having been the plan all along, Season of the Witch came out of nowhere for many fans, who viewed the franchise as being synonymous with the name Michael Myers. Not only did the third film remove him from the story, it actually made it clear that its events take place in a different world, and that here, Michael Myers is just a movie character. The film is an interesting science fiction-infused horror mystery, and is worth a watch even if only for its catchy music. The film remains the face of horror sequels that try something genuinely new — even though it was punished at the box office for it.