20 Great Movie Franchises That Became Unwatchable

As something of a spoiler for this list, this is the first entry of a few surrounding a horror franchise that started off so strong and became weaker and weaker over the years until it became laughably bad. Seriously, why can't studios just let these stories go?

In 1974, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre released, and horror was never the same. There were aspects taken from this film that have become staples of the entire genre to this day, including in some of the other most influential outings of all time. The slasher subgenre was ushered in with films like this, Halloween, and Black Christmas, and it's painful to see how far TCM has fallen over the decades.

Like everything in cinema that is profitable, those in charge have tried to drain every last penny, in this case starting with a standard sequel and threequel, before the property was rebooted, reshaped, reimagined, and brought to screen in just about every conceivable way.

The series now has multiple different timelines, prequels, different versions of the same story, and after over 50 years, all of this has added up to just one good film, the original, and the smart money suggests that the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Legacy won't do anything to buck that particular trend.