10 Horror Movie Franchises With No Bad Movies

by Andrew Pollard

1. Evil Dead

Ash Evil Dead Chainsaw
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

While some of the franchises already featured here aren't necessarily made up of solely great movies, that's where the wider Evil Dead series differs.

With 1981's The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi put himself well and truly on the horror map, delivering an ooey, gooey delight of a picture that introduced the world to Deadites and a certain Ashley J. Williams. By the time of Evil Dead II in 1987, Raimi and Co. had tweaked their formula to bring a smidge more comedy to the horror of the original, resulting in a picture that stands as the franchise's greatest outing to date. Considering the overall quality of Evil Dead's five films, that's quite the praise for Evil Dead II.

Evil Dead II may have served as a requel of sorts - proving to be a sequel and also a soft retreated of the first picture's plot - but Army of Darkness took the series in a completely different direction in 1992. Following on from the conclusion to Evil Dead II, this third effort saw Ash dumped in England in 1300 AD. Here, there was even more emphasis on comedy, with Army of Darkness bringing a sense of slapstick to the table.

All in all, the Evil Dead stood as an iconic trilogy. And then, well then came word in 2011 that the property was getting the infamous reboot treatment.

While horror hounds are conditioned to wince at the mere mention of a reboot, a remake, a reimagining or whatever the buzz word of the time is, Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead - which released in 2013 - was a cracker, capturing the sheer visual dread associated with the IP, but pulling back on the chuckles.

Again, fans were worried ahead of Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise arriving earlier this year. Those concerns were unfounded, though, with this film - which exists within the world of the Evil Dead, but isn't a direct sequel to any previous movie - taking the Deadite action to an apartment block and delivering one of 2023's genuine horror highlights.

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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 day job, 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/Saints, Jamie Hayter, 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. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.