10 Horror Movie Sequels That Killed Franchises
1. The ABCs of Death 2
The ABCs of Death is a frustratingly short-lived horror anthology franchise centered around a simple but fun gimmick, with each installment consisting of 26 short films, with one short inspired by each letter of the alphabet. Say, "T is for Toilet."
The first film received wildly mixed reviews but still did well enough for a sequel to be produced, which, while rated more positively than its predecessor, was a commercial flop, with producers blaming fans who opted to pirate the film en masse rather than pay to watch it.
As a result, a planned ABCs of Death 3 was never made, with producers opting to develop ABC's of Death 2½ instead.
The first two ABCs of Death movies each had a "competition slot," where one short was chosen from open submissions, and so ABC's of Death 2½'s 26 shorts were comprised entirely of films submitted for the letter M in the previous film.
This was clearly something of a Hail Mary pass - a stop-gap to see if the franchise had any juice left in it without investing time or money in producing new shorts- but considering that the spin-off came and went without making much of a dent in 2016, it's safe to say that it didn't pay off.
It's a shame because the series' concept is so damn fun, and it's basically begging for some sort of a revival on a streaming service like Shudder.