It's practically inevitable the longer a film franchise exists, the more likely it is to be negatively influenced by fan popularity. It's hardly surprising. What's better for business than giving fans more of what they want? Well, put simply, fans don't make good writers. Nor do they often realise what exactly it is that they love about certain franchises in the first place. Even worse is that sometimes they don't really care about plot or characters as long as they're gratified by being pandered to. The more popular a franchise becomes, the more difficult it is to avoid such a fate. Film-makers and writers are under a lot of pressure to make sure their film is a success, which often means analysing what it is that audiences initially responded to. The result, however, can be fairly damning. What starts as funny can soon grow tiring. What began as exciting can soon become overblown and ridiculous. Here are eight of the worst cases.
8. A Nightmare On Elm Street Turned From Horror With Comedy To Comedy With Occasional Horror
When 1984's A Nightmare On Elm Street was first released, it became an instant icon of the genre. Audiences were captivated by Freddy Krueger, a unique villain with a darkly comic bent. It was the popularity of this humour, however, that ultimately derailed the franchise. Krueger's gags became the focal point of subsequent films, as the film-makers realised that this was what pleased fans. By 1987's A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, all hope was lost. The campiest moment in the first instalment is the scene in which Krueger sticks his tongue through the telephone saying I'm your boyfriend now, Nancy!. The moment is brief and played as shockingly funny. Compare that to the television transformation in Dream Warriors and you can see just ridiculous the character becomes; This is it Jennifer, your big break on TV! Welcome to prime time, bitch! But the reinvention of the character of Freddy Krueger was only a symptom of a much larger issue. The film-makers began to shift the tone of the entire franchise, changing the series from horror with humorous elements to practically straight comedy with scenes of occasional horror. All suspense and tension was dropped in exchange for anticipating the next big laugh, and it only got worse as the series progressed.