10 Bad Movies That Killed Great Horror Franchises

3. Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation Renee Zellweger Matthew McConaughey
Paramount Pictures

Having killed Jason Voorhees off in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, the F13 franchise so nearly lost its fanbase one year later in 1985 with Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. Of course, A New Beginning is infamous for how its hockey mask-adorned killer is not Jason, but is instead irked paramedic Roy Burns.

Still, the series managed to get fans back onside in 1986 with the aptly-named Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Doing exactly as it said on the tin, Jason Lives brought Voorhees back in a fan favourite franchise entry which featured Thom Mathews as the adult Tommy Jarvis.

For those hoping for Part VI to serve as a springboard for continued success, those hopes were well and truly dashed with Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood.

Given how the Elm Street franchise by that point had started putting superpowered kids up against Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th followed suit by introducing telekinetic youngster Tina Shepard in The New Blood.

Some may argue that Jason Takes Manhattan was the film that sunk the F13 franchise, and others will rightly lambast Jason Goes to Hell as being the worst film of the bunch, but the movie which really started the decline was the horrendous Part VII.

By the time of The New Blood, the Camp Crystal Lake formula of the franchise was getting a tad stale, but telekinetic chicanery was not the answer. Plus, fans were left disappointed by the removal of a great protagonist in Mathews' Tommy.

Still, at least Part VII had some brilliant SFX work at play for its unmasked Jason.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.