8 EXACT Moments Classic Horror Franchises Should Have Come To An End
Sometimes less is more.
When it comes to blood 'n' guts, body counts, gratuitous nudity, and cheering on the villain, horror hounds simply cannot get enough. So much so, that the constant demand for horror offerings has led to so many long-standing franchises dominating the genre over the years as familiar faces and familiar premises are revisited time and time again.
Now, while the whole concept of an ongoing series is something that lends itself well to horror, it doesn't take a genius to realise that sometimes these horror franchises become their own worst enemies. As in, they just don't know when to quit.
The easy money generated by churning out sequel after sequel makes horror a relatively low-risk genre for production companies and investors, and even more so these days when the profit margins generated by horror can be so high due to the low cost of financing said pictures in comparison to big-budget blockbusters.
To take a look back through the pantheon of legendary horror franchises, then, here are the precise moments where fan favourite franchises should've seen sense and just called it a day. And for some of them, that may even have meant not becoming a franchise in the first place.
8. Jaws Ends With Brody Rescuing His Sons
For some reason, 1978’s Jaws 2 always tends to get bogged down as an awful sequel that tarnished its predecessor.
Is Jaws 2 as good as Steven Spielberg’s Jaws? Of course not. But Jaws 2 is a genuinely good movie on its own merits, and it works as a great sequel to the 1975 offering. It also happens to be the moment that the Jaws franchise should’ve come to a close.
As Chief Brody sails to the rescue to protect his sons and their pals from the threat of a giant great white shark, that is the moment where the Jaws series should have finished – with Brody electrocuting the shark, saving the kids, and then sailing off into the distance.
Instead, Jaws 2 would lead to Jaws 3D, which led to Jaws: The Revenge. For the latter two films, they saw the awful 3D of the ‘80s used, and The Revenge in particular was a bonkers feature that saw a shark have a grudge against the Brody family – despite each and every prior shark being killed off.
Considering just how brilliant the first two movies were, the Jaws franchise delivered two utter stinkers with its final outings.