10 Horror Franchises That Spectacularly Bounced Back

In a move that nobody saw coming, 2021's Slumber Party Massacre was a low-key marvel of a movie.

Designed as a parody of sorts, the original 1982 Slumber Party Massacre is a solid slasher that sees a drill-wielding killer stalking a group of high school kids. That was followed five years later by a sequel that's bizarrely a song 'n' dance musical, this time with the previous film's killer resurrected and reimagined as a crooning 1950s greaser. By the time of 1990's SPM3, we have yet another bland slasher most famous for killing off one of its victims with a sex toy. Yes, really.

Away from those films, the wider Massacre franchise also consists of three dull Sorority House Massacre movies, two Cheerleader Massacres pictures, and even a Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre spin-off - none of which particularly had hopes high for a new Slumber Party Massacre offering a couple of years ago.

As it happens, 2021's Slumber Party Massacre - which is part reboot and part direct sequel to the original - is a blast, picking up with the daughter of one of the original film's survivors. This time out, though, the final product is a smart, stylish slasher which plays with its audience and with the familiar tropes of the subgenre.