So did everyone make it through Saw Weekend"" all right? That's great.
If it's Halloween weekend, then it's another ""Saw"" movie. ""Saw IV"" opened this past weekend, and fifth and sixth editions are in the planning stages, even though Jigsaw, the villain of the series, died in ""Saw III.""
The producers of vampire flick ""30 Days of Night"" are exploring sequel possibilities, and a third film in the ""Underworld"" series is likely arriving sooner than later. Despite the fact there are few calls for these sequels, horror franchises are somehow displaying durability that Freddy Kruger, Jason and Michael Myers would envy.
But these new franchises have a lot of catching up to do in the unnecessary sequel department. The ""Halloween"" series just released its ninth entry. ""Friday the 13th"" is currently getting a similar franchise reboot, two movies after ""Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday."" Freddy Kruger has continued haunting dreams, even though one sequel and one death match against Jason ago the title claimed ""Freddy's Dead."" There were three sequels to Alfred Hitchcock's ""Psycho."" Even ""Leprechaun"" had five sequels, including one set in outer space and another with the in-no-way-racist-sounding title of ""Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood.""
I sometimes wonder why these horror franchises have such a long life. Why do people keep making them and, more importantly, why do people see them? The most obvious answer on the production end is cost - horror franchises are cheap to make and don't need blockbuster ticket sales to be profitable. Since most of the cast in a horror movie dies anyway, actors can be replaced for cheaper ones. A cynic would argue screenwriters can recycle old ideas for brutal slayings that didn't make the last film in these new scripts and make money from them. Clearly, they can and do.
But what about the audience? Do we really care how Jason takes Manhattan or who really, really still knows what you did last summer? Do we care if Freddy or Jason wins, seeing as they've both been resurrected too many times to count? Well, yes and no. These sequels keep getting made, but the films we come back to aren't the sub-par franchises but the truly original, groundbreaking films.
I can't remember the last time I heard someone talk about ""Friday the 13th VI,"" but no serious film buff can forget the first time they saw ""Psycho."" We justifiably passed on ""Jason X"" as a society, but we revere ""The Shining."" We can even watch franchise originals like ""Saw,"" ""A Nightmare on Elm Street"" or ""Halloween"" and marvel at how well the scares hold up over time.
So, this Halloween, take an old favorite film out of that dark, gloomy attic, or unearth it from your convenient place under the creaky old stairs and leave their less-haunting sequels in the bargain bins. And if you really want a scare from a set of ghoulish creatures with disturbing habits, there's still a year left in the presidential campaigns.
If you've got a screenplay for 'Nightmare on Elm Street: Post Mortem"" send it to Brad at boron@wisc.edu.
