8 Movie Franchises That Should Have Quit While They Were Ahead

8. Saw

When It Should Have Quit: Saw III

It's easy to forget that the first Saw is actually really good. It's not blunt torture porn, but an extremely violent, low-budget mystery thriller that takes the idea of detectives hunting a "moral" killer from Se7en and makes it even more intense. Sprinkle in one of the best twist of the 2000s and it's hardly surprising its director is still one of the most crowd-pleasing presences in Hollywood today. The second one's not total dreck either, with some properly gruesome traps (I flinch just thinking of the needle pit) and a fairly cohesive plot. The third one... well the third one was where it started to turn, but it still managed to bring itself to a satisfying conclusion.

And by "conclusion" I do mean end - this is clearly meant to be the cap on a trilogy, with Jigsaw dying and major plot threads paid off. However, because by this point it has become a Halloween staple ("If it's Halloween, it must be Saw") instead it kept on going and going, with imitators vying for Jigsaw's legacy and increasingly sadistic traps with no moral centre. There's moments of merit in these, but for the most of part it's a lost cause.

It was a franchise for gore hounds and teenagers, and with that a defining horror went from lauded to a cheap-y hit of its time.