10 Horror Movie Trilogies That Have The WORST Endings

Horror seems to lend itself tooth and nail to franchise development more than any other genre out there. Hell, there are 13 Halloween movies, 9 Nightmare on Elm Streets, and 5 Terrifiers in the pipeline - and don't even get me started on Dracula. Nevertheless, while the promise of a first film is enough to inspire desire in audiences for more, the quality of sequels tends so often to decline, merely capitalising on the property without putting in the effort to make something worthwhile, and this goes doubly for trilogies.

It can be tricky to stick the landing on the third film if the second film has been bad, but even more so if it has been good. Horror sequels that are good enough (or make enough money) to warrant a third outing have a lot of work to do to make what so often wasn't imagined as a trilogy into one. Yet, in many cases there isn't even an attempt to develop characters or create a narrative through-line, with their production process spotty and ramshackle and often helmed by multiple different people, with multiple different studios. 

Thus, third films frequently miss the mark and end their trilogy on downbeat, disappointing and downright awful terms. No matter where these franchises ended up in the future, these are 10 threequels that failed to satisfy fans, satiate critics or do themselves any justice whatsoever.

Long before Eli Roth was making disastrous sci-fi video game adaptations, he was known as something of a splatter legend, helming the likes of Cabin Fever and, of course, Hostel. Roth helped make the sub-genre mainstream, delivering shock and gore that global audiences lapped up, despite dividing critics down the middle. 

The first film plants itself in the place Americans fear most - rural Eastern Europe - and offers up some unsuspecting backpackers to an underground torture club. Part II returns to Slovakia with a new cast, more money and a few more elaborate set pieces. Despite not being as raw, surprising or inspired as the first, and killing off the first film's only survivor early on, it manages to put enough meat on the bone to sustain the series.

Enter Hostel: Part III. Roth has jumped ship and, recognising that yet another Slovakian nightmare might put audiences to sleep, new director-writer team Scott Spiegel and Michael D Weiss transplant the action to Vegas (with half the previous film's budget). Once again, there's no character continuity, and the direct-to-video vibe is strong from the outset, featuring a bunch of TV and no-name actors. The film feels more Saw than Hostel, with room after room of yawningly "creative" kills strung together on a string-and-Sellotape plot. Needless to say, this flaccid third entry killed the franchise for good.