10 Horror Movie Sequels That Killed Franchises

10. Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin

2015's Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension was the sixth and apparently final entry into the phenomenally successful found footage franchise, and frankly, it was about damn time.

The law of diminishing returns had firmly kicked in by the fourth movie, and so this "finale" was an utter mess of scarcely coherent storytelling slapped with a garish 3D gimmick for added financial desperation. The film's box office underperformance indeed seemed to confirm that it would mark the end of the series, then, but in 2021, Paramount decided to release a seventh film: the standalone sequel Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin.

This direct-to-streaming found footage romp felt warmed-over from top to bottom, a tepid, unoriginal, laughably cliched addendum that added virtually nothing to the franchise. It was bad enough that even the movie's own producer, Blumhouse head Jason Blum, called Next of Kin "terrible," and assured audiences that Paranormal Activity had now been put on ice.

While Blum added that he wouldn't be against resurrecting the franchise if a horror auteur pitched a compelling take, he wasn't interested in making more movies just because.