There’s been a weird trend in recent years. In the past Hollywood could be counted on to reboot a movie franchise rather than give us an actual new story. The name remained the same because it was a remake.

And I get it. From a money perspective, a remake pulls more guarantee money than a new idea does. So we have gotten the obvious ones. Nightmare on Elm Street. Friday the 13th. Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

But the weird ones. Movies that have the same name as the original, but are actually sequels (of some number.) An interesting aspect of the term sequel is that we normally consider part 2 to be the sequel, but technically everything that comes after is a sequel. We just don’t often refer to Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors as a sequel. At that point it’s just another in the franchise.

So what are we talking about here? Specifically. The first one I recall noticing was Final Destination in 2011. When I saw the announcement for it I was confused. This clearly wasn’t a reboot, but was titled as though it was. Now don’t get me wrong, I really liked the Final Destination franchise. And technically they put “THE” in front of the fourth one. So you could say that it wasn’t the same title. Except that when doing things like shelving books or alphabetizing movies, you ignore articles.

Beyond that we had The Texas Chainsaw Massacre enter the fray with both a reboot with the same name and then a sequel with the same name (although this time they lost the “THE.”) And we had Hellraiser. The Thing. Candyman. I Know What You Did Last Summer. Halloween.

This has been something I have thought about often. Today though I watched the “I Know” franchise. I hadn’t seen the newest one yet, and wasn’t a huge fan of the franchise. But I have watched so many bad movies lately that I just wanted to watch something more polished. Where the acting was good. Production quality meant something. So many movies are made these days without those things because technology has advanced to the point where making a movie was easy. When I did filmmaking classes, there were standards to things. You had to put time and effort into it. Now they advertise that your cell phone is good enough to make a movie. But we all know the technology isn’t as important as the ideas and the skill of the creators.

I watched the newest and then rewatched the original. From the start, the new one had terrible acting. Everyone seemed to be posing for selfies on their influencer pages. The actors lacked the ability to overcome a terrible script. And when I say terrible I mean lazy. It is like 80% the same script as the 1997 original. Bringing legacy aspects to it was interesting, but not enough to overcome the lack of attempt for the other 80%. I mean, some scenes were identical.

At least with Hellraiser 2022 we had a new story. It truly felt like it was somewhere between a remake and a new installment. I really enjoyed that particular one and really hope that we get a follow up. Texas Chainsaw in 2003 gave us a reboot which was pretty damn good I’d say. But then blew it in 2022 by doing a really dumb movie that I wouldn’t be surprised if it put the franchise on ice for a decade.

Evil Dead has perhaps been the most confusing of them all though. As Evil Dead 2 was a sequel in name, but a remake in practice. Then we got a sequel in Army of Darkness that both is and isn’t part of it. Then in 2013 we get a remake that also wants to be a sequel. As a franchise I enjoy it, even if I don’t always know how to explain the story continuity.

It would be nice if Hollywood would work on new ideas. I had a conversation in 2004 with a man who was involved with Dimension films and greenlighting projects. It was at a horror convention where he was talking with writers and getting books to look for material to turn into a movie. It was a great conversation we had and it really encouraged me with the future of the genre, because there were people in the right places to get good things done. Two months later Dimension announced the Amityville Horror remake. A terrible blow for me to the integrity of the industry. Ten years later I met Josh Malerman prior to his debut novel Bird Box releasing and was thrilled to see it get a film treatment at Netflix. That turned into a massive success for both Malerman and Netflix.

The lesson here is that with the right idea and good production, a new property can be a success. For the industry to flourish we need more chances taken. We need more Bird Box and Talk To Me and less I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025) …