10 Horror Franchises Where The First Movie Is NOT The Best
4. The Grudge
The best instalment: Ju-On: The Grudge
This might be a confusing inclusion at first, but Ju-On: The Grudge isn't the first film in this long-running Japanese Horror franchise. It was the first film to get a theatrical release but it's actually the third one in the series, with the first two films being released direct-to-video. Anyhow, the 2002 film remains the most famous film in the series by far - it's also arguably the best.
Light on narrative and characterisation, Ju-On comes out swinging with just one key goal: to terrify everyone. And, with its sinister ghosts and brilliant scares, it does just that. Another great move was its use of a non-linear narrative, which means that the film's story is like a labyrinth the characters - and viewers - are stuck in, further increasing the overwhelming sense of dread dripping through every frame of the film.
It's also one of the few jump scare-based horror films that is actually frightening, thus proving that this oft-maligned scare tactic can actually work when given to a filmmaker that can use it well.
The Ju-On franchise continued on for many years, with its most recent entry being a Netflix show called Ju-On: Origins. Some of the other instalments are solid but none of them reach the heights of this. The one that came closest to doing so was 2009's Ju-On: White Ghost.