10 Horror Movie Franchises That Wasted Their Perfect Ending

One might presume that Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter would mark a natural end point for the F13 franchise. Despite its labelling, The Final Chapter was far from the final chapter, with it being followed by a further six movies, a crossover with Freddy Krueger, and a 2009 reboot.

Story-wise, The Final Chapter also introduces the hugely popular character of Tommy Jarvis, and the way this fourth film ends opens up the door for Tommy's story to be delved into further. For fans of the series, the fourth, fifth and sixth Friday the 13th pictures are often affectionately known as the Tommy Jarvis Trilogy. As such, it's with Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives where the perfect finale lies for this much loved series.

After teasing Tommy as an unhinged killer in the previous movie - it instead revealed that miffed paramedic Roy Burns was parading as a Jason copycat - Part VI picks things up with a Jarvis who is determined to prove that Jason is really dead. Of course, the opening scene of Tommy visiting the gravesite of his nemesis unexpectedly sees Voorhees reanimated.

Having to convince the townsfolk of Forest Green - as in, the renamed Crystal Lake - that Jason really is cracking skulls once more, it's only the sheriff's daughter Megan who believes Tommy. And it's Tommy and Megan who ultimately put Voorhees down, chaining him to the bottom of the same lake we saw him spring from in closing moments of the first Friday the 13th picture.

While your writer has a major soft spot for Jason Takes Manhattan and Jason X, the series should've wrapped up with Jason Lives. Also, Part VI's end credits play out to the utterly bangin' Man Behind the Mask tune from Alice Cooper...