10 Horror Movies That Changed Their Franchise

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]No genre of film is as widely associated with franchises as the horror genre, with certain horror series even hitting double digits, such as there somehow being 15 puppet master films, 13 Halloween movies, and an extremely mixed bag over 11 Hellraiser pictures. Of course, the initial kernel of an idea that launched the franchise isn't always necessarily adeared to with each new feature, and some films outright change their respective franchise. Be that the tone, direction, or wider narrative of the series. Sometimes those changes were very much for the better. But other times, yeah, maybe not so much. So, with that in mind, I'm Andrew from Culture Horror, and here are horror movies that changed their franchise. A Nightmare on Elm Street for the Dream Master.

[00:00:46]Admittedly, the Elm Street franchise had a smidge of dark humor to it, dating all the way back to Wes Craraven's 1984 original film. The problem is, as the series progressed, the genuine dread and nerve shredding terror got put more and more on the back burner in place of at times just outright slapstick comedy.

[00:01:04]The film that cemented this change, that was Renie Harland's A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. This was the Elm Street movie that fully embraced the mainstream and did it all to present Freddy Krueger as a knowing winking villain who was in on the joke. This pattern of chuckles over scares would only become more prevalent with The Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child the following year to the point that this horror franchise had nowhere left to go but to kill off Freddy Krueger in 1991's Freddy's dead. Jaws 3D, the third Jaws movie, was notable for taking the focus off Roy Shider's Martin Brody. In fact, Brody isn't even featured in the film whatsoever. This marked the start of change of direction for the franchise. But going one step further than its predecessor, Jaws the Revenge would actually explain that Brody died from a heart attack in the time since Jaws 3D. Instead, these third and fourth films focused on other Brody family members. Jaws 3D seeing the Brody sons Michael and Shawn in the spotlight and Jaws the Revenge centering on Martin's wife Ellen and Michael and his young family. Given how pivotal Roy Shider's excellent performances were to Jaws and the hugely underappreciated Jaws 2, yes, it's fantastic. Any movie lacking his Chief Brody would feel like a shell of those first two films. And that was indeed a case. Of course, in reality, Roy Shider himself refused to return for either Jaws 3D or Jaws the Revenge, and he was only involved with Jaws 2 due to a contract dispute with Universal. Candyman 2021. Bernard Rose's 1991 Candyman is an utter classic.

[00:02:34]introducing the world to Tony Todd's hook-handed Daniel rubber tale.

[00:02:38]Unfortunately, 1995 follow-up Candyman Farewell to the Flesh was so so absolute best. And 1999's Candyman 3: Day of the Dead was just a total stinker. Not only was Nia D Costa's 2021 Candyman thankfully a great film in its own right, but it also changed the foundations of the franchise. With artist Anthony exploring the legend of the Candyman and Cababrini Green, his quest for artistic inspiration starts to take a sinister turn when dead bodies mysteriously begin to turn up. All with ties to the Candyman. D. Costa's movie has two notable reveals. The first being that Anthony was the young boy Helen L sacrificed herself for in the first Candyman. The second being that there's a Candyman hive made up of black men who' fatally faced racial injustice over the years. As the 2021 picture concludes with Anthony Blaine for a slew of murders he didn't commit. Him being gunned down by the police cementss the character as the latest member of this hive. Meaning he can be summoned simply by looking in a mirror and saying candyman five times. I'll always know what you did last summer. Not only did I'll always know what you did last summer change its franchise, it pretty much just tanked it. The initial plan for this prequel was for it to directly follow the prior two last summer pictures. picking things up with Julie James and Ray Bronson as they once more find themselves presumably in the crosshairs of a hookwing killer fisherman. Due to various issues though, it took eight whole years for I'll Always Know to finally arrive. And when it did, the film received a straight to DVD release, had zero to do with the first two movies, and took the franchise in a bold new direction. That new direction? Why, that would be to turn the series villain Ben Willis into a supernatural entity. Yep. So rather than a standard slasher franchise, The Last Summer franchise suddenly became a spooky ghostly one. Unsurprisingly, I'll always know what you did last summer was a total dud. As in just one of those total duds that you just remove from your memory, pretend never happened.

[00:04:35]Evil Dead 2. In 1981, Samurai introduced audiences to the world of The Evil Dead and Ashley J. Williams. With Evil Dead becoming one of horror's great franchises and Ash becoming one of the genre's great heroes. When watching this classic back, the Evil Dead World and Ash Scene are both vastly different to what we now associate with the series.

[00:04:56]That film is a genuinely intense, graphic, brutal movie that ended up banned in various countries due to its content. This was and is a visceral horror picture that serves as an allout assault on the senses. For 1987's Evil Dead 2, though, a slightly different approach was taken. Namely, Randy and Co. injected a far greater sense of comedy. Sure, there was still plenty of terror, but Evil Dead 2 veered on the slapstick with Campbell turning the cheese up to 11 for his return as Ash.

[00:05:25]This tone would become synonymous with the franchise, continuing on with Army of Darkness in 1992 through the various Evil Dead comic books and video games and clearly prevalent in the Ash versus Evil Dead TV series. In fact, this is also something that's become synonymous with Bruce Campbell himself, as shown by how so many of his roles to date have felt nothing if not a little ashlight.

[00:05:47]Alien 3. By the time the much maligned Alien 3 came to a close, the three most popular characters in this franchise, plus Android Bishop, had all been killed off, leaving the Alien series in a place it's, let's be honest, a struggle to ever recover from. There was so much in Alien 3 that not only changed the basis of the series, but just outright soured fans. First and foremost, by bafflingly killing Hicks and N offscreen in that movie's opening. Then came franchise lead Ellen Ripley, who threw herself to a fiery death at the film's close, which essentially took Ripley off the table for any further sequels. Alien 3 meant that if the franchise was to continue, it would need to either veer in a different direction or completely wcom what had gone before. As such, that's why we ended up with Alien Resurrection taking place 200 years after Alien 3 and with a Ripley clone at its core.

[00:06:36]Resident Evil Apocalypse. The first Resident Evil movie was actually a fairly decent slice of action infused horror. The problem is it wasn't much of a Resident Evil movie. Yes, the Umbrella Corporation was involved, and yes, Raccoon City was a thing, but that was about it. Rather than any familiar characters, we had fresh creations headed up by Mia Yorovich's Alice. While Yorovich does a solid job and Alice is an intriguing figure, it was tough for Resident Evil fans to fully invest when the film felt so distant from what had become associated with the Resident Evil name. With Resident Evil Apocalypse though, the franchise was changed in several different ways. Firstly, we actually got to see certain characters from the games with Jill Valentine, Carlos, and Nikolai, not to mention the full transformation of Matt Addison into Nemesis. Granted, these weren't exactly video game accurate portrayals, but at least the series was looking to appeal more to the diehard Resident Evil fans.

[00:07:30]The other major change, of course, in Resident Evil Apocalypse is that for better or worse, the film went a bit more, well, nuts than its predecessor, amping up its action, embracing a more cheesy tone, and laying the foundation for the insanity that would follow in Extinction: Afterlife: Retribution, and the final chapter, Halloween 5, The Revenge of Michael Myers. Several entries in the Halloween series could rightly be accused of changing the franchise. Still, the films get the nod here. is Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. With Halloween 5, Michael now had a psychic bond with his niece Jaime. And with the arrival of the mysterious Man in Black at the film's close, that brought with it the awful, awful, awful Cult of Thorn underbelly, which would be expanded on in the dreadful dire Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Of course, Curse is the movie which was so negatively received it caused the franchise to recalibrate entirely with Halloween H20, but that decline was originally put into motion with The Revenge of Michael Myers. Bride of Chucky. Ronnie Hugh's Bride of Chucky completely changed the face of the Child's Play franchise, moving it away from being solely Chucky focused. With its opening sequence, Bride introduces to Jennifer Till's Tiffany Valentine, the lover of Charles Ray. Tiff starts Bride by heading to a police station and stealing Chucky's remains. Using a voodoo spell, she manages to bring this most infamous of good guy dolls back to life, only for Chucky to kill her before Tiffany later has her own spirit placed in a dot. Not only did Bride of Chucky introduce the world to Tiffany Valentine, though, for the movie also concluded with Tiffany giving birth to a child who would be fully brought to the four as Glenn and Glender in 2004's Seed of Chucky, Friday the 13th, Part Two.

[00:09:09]The first Friday the 13th movie famously features Pamela Vohees slicing her way through the counselors of Camp Crystal Lake on a skewed mission of revenge for the death of her young son Jason years prior. For Jason, he tragically drowned due to the counselors of the day being too busy having sex, getting stoned, drinking beer, and doing that party and stuff. And in that 1980 film, Mrs. Vory's rampage is brutally brought to a halt when she's decapitated by Alice Hardy. While Jason would later jump out of the lake to startle Alice, it's implied that this was merely a hallucination. So, while Friday the 13th establishes that Jason has been dead for years, things clearly change vastly when Friday the 13th part two rolled around one year later. Here, of course, we find the adult hulking form of Jason Vores as the one cracking skulls at Camp Crystal Lake. And this would reshape Friday the 13th in a way that has made it one of the most successful franchises in horror history. It would take until Friday the 13th, part 3 for Jason to get his iconic hockey mask, of course. But there was part two which first put the character in center stage and changed the literal face of the