8 Movie Sequels That Ruined A Perfect Franchise Ending
6. Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Speaking of latter-day horror sequels, let's talk about Friday the 13th because no franchise knows how to botch a finale with a follow-up quite like Friday.
With several alleged 'final chapters' to its name, there's any number of installments one could go with here, but for our purposes, let's focus on the one-two combo of Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and its immediate follow-up, Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning.
The Final Chapter was something of a highwater-mark for the franchise, introducing fan-favorite characters like Tommy Doyle, bringing back make-up legend Tom Savini to great effect, and sending Jason out with a genuine bang. But despite the promises of it being the final installment, Paramount jumped at the chance to do another one immediately following this film's success, resulting in A New Beginning, which came out *less than a year* after Final Chapter.
New Beginning doesn't feature Jason per se, instead focusing on a copycat killer who's just dressing up as Jason. Or at least that's what the narrative claims. In reality, it's just a piss-poor excuse for another sequel (and a bad one at that) without immediately blatantly contradicting the prior film.
You can put a fresh layer of paint on a piece of sh*t but it's still a piece of sh*t.