10 Awesome Horror Movies With Disappointing Sequels

The Saw franchise was arguably the launchpad for the ‘torture porn’ subgenre of horror, where the primary appeal is exaggerated onscreen brutality, although creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell reject this label. But before its reputation for shameless, sadistic splatter, Saw began as an original, tense indie thriller that generated scares more from the anticipation of the sawing and chopping and maiming than the depiction of such horrors.

Though Saw II was a solid enough follow-up - introducing some defining characteristics of the franchise, with villainous mastermind John Kramer (Tobin Bell) placed in more of a prominent role - the original’s subtlety and creativity was lost amid the amped-up gore, convoluted plot and thinly-written characters; all of which the later sequels would double down on, with diminishing returns.

There have been nine Saw movies so far, with a tenth on the way this October. What started as fresh and frightening, soon became dull and repetitive, with a new instalment releasing every Halloween for six years with the tagline "If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw". While some fans enjoyed this ritual, the shock of seeing paper-thin characters dismembered by elaborate contraptions got old fast, no matter how hard they tried to outdo themselves.