10 Status Updates On Famous Horror Franchises

Who doesn't love a good scare? Since the dawn of film, audiences have turned out in droves to be frightened, and whether it's thanks to the classic Universal monsters, invulnerable slashers, supernatural creatures, or anything in between, they've always gotten their wish.

All too often, though, horror movies arrive only to disappoint and disappear. It takes a special kind of magic for a horror movie to hit the sweet spot with audiences - and critics, for that matter - and be remembered and cherished forever, let alone spark an entire franchise to itself, but over the years we've been gifted with many that have permanently transcended into pop culture, their imagery, their music, and their characters becoming rightfully iconic.

Even when franchises burn out thanks to an endless cycle of sequels, those initial strengths are what people remember forever, and nowadays few popular horror franchises go long without being rebooted or revived, either with another film or through a new television series.

And now, with the Halloween season upon us, it's the perfect time to check up on some of these very franchises that have stood the test of time and see what, if anything, their future holds...

Last Entry: Hellraiser: Revelations (2011)

In 1987, Clive Barker introduced audiences to Pinhead and the Cenobites, and they've returned every few years since, with a further eight films under the franchise's belt up through 2011, the last of which was the much-derided Hellraiser: Revelations.

A rushed production through and through, Revelations was the first entry to not feature actor David Bradley as Pinhead, which upset many fans even before the final product was dropped in their laps, a derided film that few, if any, enjoyed.

Flash ahead to 2017 and the franchise's latest installment, Hellraiser: Judgment, is on the way, written and directed by the writer of Revelations, and features former A Nightmare on Elm Street star Heather Langenkamp in the role of a landlady and Paul T. Taylor as Pinhead. The plot involves a trio of detectives investigating a series of murders that, inevitably, lead them into the gore-filled, bondage-infused world fans of the franchise know, though no release date has been set yet.

It's no secret, though, that Barker himself has been trying to get a remake off the ground for years to get the franchise back on track and out of the direct-to-video hell it's been stuck in for almost two decades now, but despite his efforts, it seems he has only continued to be shut down. As recently as this past March, Barker confirmed via Twitter that he turned in a script years ago that has only gone ignored, dashing hopes for the foreseeable future that fans will see the series returned to its former glory.