Of course, Hollywood has always loved a good horror franchise, and for good reason. Sure, stuff like Jason X don't receive accolades and Certified Fresh ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, but horror movies are usually cheap and numerous horror franchises have the kind of brand loyalty numerous movies would kill for. Everybody knows about Leatherface, Freddy Kruger and Jigsaw (just a sidenote here; I'm not kidding when I say that I'm surprised how long Lionsgate has kept the Saw franchise dormant. I thought, at the latest, we'd have a reboot last year! Sometimes a movie studio just surprises ya in their restraint.), and many will go see a reboot/sequel/reboot/Broadway musical adaptation simply because it promises more Leatherface mayhem.
Early in the 21st Century, Hollywood got obsessed with remaking every single horror movie made in history. Everything from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Fright Night got some kind of remake in between 2004 and 2011. A couple of new horror franchises cropped up in this time period, like Final Destination and Saw, but for the most part Hollywood just stuck to revamping horror films of the past. What I find kind of interesting is that, despite many of them being insanely profitable, few of them got sequels. That Michael Bay produced Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake only got a prequel, while most surprisingly, the new incarnations of Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees (which came out in 2010 and 2009 respectively) didn't receive sequels at all. Of course, they won't stay dead forever; a reboot of Friday The 13th is coming next November.
But back in the 80's, it was like an assembly line when it came to Freddy and Jason flicks, with new ones being churned out constantly. I think that's partially budgetary reason (the 2009 Friday the 13th cost a reasonable $19 million, but somehow Freddy's 2010 venture cost $35 million), but perhaps they were afraid of competing with the newest horror franchise on the block: Paranormal Activity. Debuting in 2009, the original Paranormal Activity became a phenomenon, it's already massive $107 million gross only looking more impressive compared to its budget of only $15,000. The first two sequels made impressive amounts of cash, and even better, had a formidable presence overseas. But the fourth movie only made about half of what the 3rd one made in 2012, which would normally be the time any film series, horror or otherwise, would call it quits.
But you see, like I said at the start, horror movies can be so cheap, profitability can be practically guaranteed. That fourth ones $53 million gross is pathetic compared to it's predecessors, but on a $5 million budget,. it's still insanely profitable. That's why Paramount commissioned not only a fifth movie coming out in October, but also a spin-off movie called The Marked Ones that came and went in January. And yet, even that movie managed to be a success. Sure, it's $32 million gross was pathetic, but that $5 million cost assured us all that more found-footage shenanigans were afoot.
Hollywood has always loved a good horror franchise, but stuff like Paranormal Activity and The Purge take that love to the next level. Now, they're dirt-cheap to make and pretty much guaranteed to make coin whenever they step up to the plate. Freddy and Jason will return to cinemas in good time, but when they do, they'll need to take a cue from those masked freaks in The Purge and make sure to do it as cheap as humanely possible. After all, the only thing scarier than Jason chasing you through the woods is an unprofitable horror sequel!
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