10 Movie Franchises That Wasted Their Perfect Ending
7. Saw
The Saw franchise is very, very far from perfect, but the original run of movies did arrive at a completely organic conclusion at the end of the third film.
If the first Saw was a relatively contained, low-budget horror that bamboozled audiences with a stunning plot twist, Saw II offered up a slightly more expansive remix of that formula while giving Jigsaw aka John Kramer (Tobin Bell) a sidekick in protege Amanda (Shawnee Smith).
Saw III, then, begins with Kramer in extremely dire health, and it's made clear early on that he likely won't survive the events of the film.
And as the end of a trilogy, Saw III basically pulled out all the stops: it boasted some of the most memorably wince-inducing traps of the series - particularly The Rack - while actually committing to killing off both Kramer and Amanda.
It felt like the loop had been closed - even with a cheeky cliffhanger ending which left test subject Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) searching for his missing daughter - but of course, that wasn't the end.
It soon enough became apparent that the filmmakers, who evidently wanted to keep the series going, basically regretted killing Kramer off, because every sequel that followed tripped over itself looking for ways to keep him in the periphery.
From keeping him "alive" through tapes recorded before his death, to egregious amounts of flashbacks, revealing hidden apprentices working with him and even making one of the films a secret prequel, Saw has strained itself to breaking point keeping itself tethered to Kramer's legacy.
And with the upcoming Saw X reportedly set to revolve around Kramer once again, don't expect a radically new direction for the seemingly never-ending series anytime soon.