10 Horror Movie Franchises With No Bad Movies

3. John Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy

Fear Street Part 2: 1978 Sadie Sink
New Line Cinema

Okay, it might be a little bit of a stretch to label these movies as part of a franchise, but they absolutely are part of a trilogy.

As per John Carpenter, The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness are all connected as part of what Horror Master dubs his Apocalypse Trilogy. And unequivocally, there's not a bad film to be found amongst that trio.

Obviously, 1982's The Thing is an all-time classic of cinema, period, let alone the horror and sci-fi genres. To this day, the tension and terrors drummed up by a shape-shifting, assimilating alien being on an Antarctica research centre remain masterful. Of course, so too does the jaw-dropping practical SFX work from Rob Bottin and his crew.

Five years after The Thing, Carpenter delivered the literal embodiment of evil with Prince of Darkness. By literal embodiment of evil, that means the liquid form of Satan himself. The ever-marvellous Donald Pleasence and Victor Wong lead the charge here as a priest and quantum physics professor, respectively, as they discover a canister of green goo that is the essence of Lucifer. It may not be The Thing - few films are - but this is Carpenter at his most bizarre, and in the best possible way.

Rounding out this Apocalypse Trilogy, 1994 brought In the Mouth of Madness, where Sam Neill takes centre-stage as John Trent, a man whose mental state starts to dwindle as he seeks out missing horror author Sutter Cane. This '94 picture is certainly quite the trip, blurring the lines between reality and fiction in what descends into an utterly bonkers final half-hour.

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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.