At this point I don't think I need to tell you that the Cap'n loves horror movies. I devote an entire month to cover it, write about the films on and off during the year, and I bet if you were to break down the reviews on this site, I have a sneaking suspicion which genre would win out. While I devote a lot of digital ink and space to individual horror films, I rarely take the opportunity to talk about horror series. Let's amend that, shall we?
Before I begin, let's lay the groundwork for what constitutes a "series": my personal definition is any run of films with the same title that goes beyond four films. Why four? It is an admittedly arbitrary choice, but for the Cap'n it allows me to narrow down sets of films with sequels like Ginger Snaps, Maniac Cop, or Basket Case, that are fine on their own but don't necessary have the same kind of longevity that other series have. It does mean that I have to include the Final Destination films and the Wrong Turn films (at five and four, respectively), even though I'm far from caught up in the sequels. Let's move into some of the longer standing series:
I would imagine everybody knows the "Big Three": Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street which, not counting remakes, account for 26 films. They've continued to entertain fans in varying fashion for decades, and each has an iconic villain that just about everyone knows on a first name basis. Even if they've never seen a frame of any of the films, people can tell you about Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers. They've transcended horror and entered popular culture.
Debates rage between the Jason Camp and the Freddy Camp to such a degree that even a "vs." entry that joined the series together isn't enough to settle things once and for all. I happen to like both series for different reasons, but if pushed into a corner, the Cap'n enjoys more Nightmare entries (1, 3, 4, 6, and 7) than Friday films (1, 2, 4, and 10). That's not to say I don't like parts of the other Friday the 13th films, but the worst Nightmare (Freddy's Revenge) is still more watchable than Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning.
As for the Halloween films? Well, I like the first movie, get bored during Halloween II, appreciate the totally unrelated Season of the Witch, kinda like 4, don't like 5, hate 6, don't love or hate H20, and loathe Halloween Resurrection. The track record isn't spotty - it's at best a marginal decline in quality with a steep drop-off halfway in.
But those aren't the only series out there. There's one major series that gets left behind (with reason) and a whole host of series that are often forgotten to be series.
The forgotten sibling: Hellraiser. Here's why only die hard Hellraiser fans will ever point out that Clive Barker's evil puzzle box films deserve mentioning: after Hellbound: Hellraiser II, they become borderline unwatchable. There are a few people will stand up for Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, but I've yet to meet anyone who liked Bloodlines, Inferno, Hellseeker, Deader, or Hellworld. We won't yet discuss Hellraiser: Revelations (also known as Hellraiser: Placeholder, written, directed, and released to ensure that Dimension retained the rights to the series. Clive Barker disowned it and Doug Bradley [Pinhead] refused to appear in the film, leading to the casting of a fake Pinhead). While I gave Hellworld a pass for being really stupid, that doesn't mean I don't often forget that Hellraiser "counts" when thinking of series I enjoy.
There are four Scream movies? Oh really? Damn. Only one of them is watchable.
I grudgingly must acknowledge that the Saw series has (by virtue of coming out every year from 2003 - 2010) attain "series" status. While I haven't seen every entry (and probably won't), it is true that they share the same killer, the same basic maxi-storyline, and retain characters who come in and out of the narrative, convoluted as it may be. The Final Destination series is in a similar position - admittedly, I've only seen the first two, but since "Death" is the antagonist for each film and the most recent entry wraps the story around to the first film, it has a certain "Planet of the Apes" continuity that the Cap'n will grudgingly accept. I've only seen the first Wrong Turn film, and I understand that the hillbilly cannibals are the consistent thread over the series, so that fits the criteria once Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings hits dvd shelves.
In order not to go on forever, allow me to briefly touch on a few series that people rarely think of.
Lesser known:
The "Dead" series - People don't really think of it, but George Romero has sporadically released a "Dead" film from 1968 to 2009. While the narratives differ, they exist in a unified world where the dead have risen from the grave and are hungry for human flesh.The films are a series of political and social commentary wrapped up in the macrocosm of a world slowly falling into decay. How Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead really fit in doesn't make much sense to me, but they have overlapping characters (including one that might be in Land of the Dead).
Child's Play - Seed of Chucky makes five guaranteeing the cut. I won't lie - I don't like Child's Play 3 at all, but I do enjoy Child's Play 2 and really like the first film, Bride of Chucky, and the aforementioned Seed. The films more further into parody territory as they go on, but retain a good sense of gore and some clever twists in the last two. They do basically all tie together, although 1-3 are part of one story and 4 and 5 a separate narrative.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - So what happens when you have a series of films and most people won't acknowledge the last two? Some people even refuse to talk about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Tobe Hooper's decidedly more comedic take on his original. I happen to enjoy 2 for what it is, understanding that it's connection to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is probably tentative at best. I have no love for the Viggo Mortensen enhanced Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part III and even less for the Renée Zellweger / Matthew McConaughey crapfest that is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. Then there are the remake and the prequel to the remake. The less said the better.
Silent Night, Deadly Night - There are five Silent Night, Deadly Night films. I've seen one-and-a-half of them. Why one-and-a-half? Because Part 2 is comprised almost entirely of footage from the first film under the suggestion they are "flashbacks." One of these days I'll watch the other three, one of which is the work of Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop).
The Exorcist - While there are only four films in the series, there are technically six movies. You could argue that The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen is simply a series of cosmetic changes, but there are two different cuts of the fourth film. On the one hand, there's Paul Schrader's Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, and Renny Harlin's re-cut of that film, released in theatres as Exorcist: The Beginning. Both are lacking in different ways, but neither is as ridiculous and awful as Exorcist II: The Heretic. Then there's The Exorcist III, which is apparently waiting for its director's cut. It's just okay.
Leprechaun - Here are the Leprechaun films you need to see of the six available: Leprechaun 3 (in Vegas), Leprechaun 4 (in Space), and Leprechaun in Da Hood (in Da Hood). Of all the series listed in this entry, these get stupider and stupider as they go along. Fortunately, they also get funnier.
Puppet Master - I'm going to let Puppet Master stand in for all of the Full Moon direct-to-video series, including the Subspecies films, the Demonic Toys, and anything else I'm forgetting. If you're into Full Moon, then you haven't forgotten the never-ending series of films about evil puppets and Nazis.
Somebody told me there was a fourth Wishmaster movie, but I'm choosing to ignore that. It's a shame to leave off the Ginger Snaps, Re-Animator, and Evil Dead films, but they all top out at three. So be it.
Now it's your turn: what did the Cap'n forget? I always forget something...
No comments:
Post a Comment