10 Horror Franchises That Need A Revival
Friday the 13th: Part 13 needs to happen.
In the last year alone, we've seen two iconic horror properties - It and Halloween - resurrected to enormous critical and commercial success, bolstering the viability of R-rated horror when it's handled with skill and respect for its audience.
It goes without saying that Halloween's resurgence in particular is sure to have studios sorting through their dormant horror franchises and attempting to resurrect as many of them as humanly possible. But which of them actually deserve to be given a shot of adrenaline?
While remakes of Candyman and Child's Play are already in the works and there are some horror franchises that should clearly never be revived - looking at you, Leprechaun - with the right cast and crew, these 10 franchises could certainly return to their fighting best.
Given the insanely iconic nature of many of these horror properties and their "mascots", it's actually pretty shocking that some of them have been out of commission for so long.
Off the back of Halloween, it's looking like we're about to enter a renaissance for the slasher genre and old-school horror in general, so where better to start than these hit franchises?...
10. Hellraiser
Though a shocking ten (!) Hellraiser movies have been released over the last 32 years, you can only really argue that the first two were actually any good.
In spite of an increasingly disinterested fanbase, Dimension Films has continued to periodically churn out micro-budget sequels in order to hold onto the franchise's rights, with this year's Hellraiser: Judgment costing just $325,000 (and, unsurprisingly, being pretty damn terrible).
Three decades ago, however, Hellraiser truly was something unique: a macabre, artfully gory brainchild of the legendary Clive Barker, brought to life with an iconic performance by Doug Bradley as Cenobite leader Pinhead.
Though it'll take some sure finesse for a contemporary filmmaker to translate its deep mythology and kinky thrills into a profitable horror film today, it can certainly be done. Hell, give the property to Blumhouse, get Barker involved with a new writer-director, bring Bradley back (who has long sworn off the franchise), and you're good to go.
Blumhouse could easily produce it for $10-15 million, ensuring its floor for profitability is extremely low. Considering that there have been tentative talks of a remake/reboot for over a decade, this really needs to just happen already.