April 18, 2016

As we all know, even when a horror sequel has got the word “FINAL” somewhere in the title, it’s never really the end. Sometimes, a new beginning emerges, or perhaps a reboot or versus movie. Any way you slice (and dice) it, when it comes to our beloved movie maniacs, they’ll always be back.

But as I discussed with my co-hosts and guests on last week’s episode of the Killer POV podcast, do “final chapters” close out their respective franchises on a high note? Or do they usually come one movie too late? On Friday, I tackled all the biggest heavy hitters such as Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers in my “When Franchises Call It Quits” piece, but I ended up shrugging my shoulders and giving up after about 7 picks, mainly because the majority of them are not worth discussing. But what about the franchises that do manage to end fairly well? After a weekend to rest and think it over, I wanted to chime in with a few more titles…

PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING

When you’ve exhausted all potential story options in a franchise, where is there left to go? Well, back to the beginning of course! And PSYCHO IV: THE BEGINNING brings back Anthony Perkins to reprise his most famous role as Norman Bates who calls in anonymously into a radio talk show where the topic is matricide. Over the course of a very long and tense call, he opens up to the host (and the millions of listeners) about his teenage life with his domineering mother and explains how it drove him to murder her. In the flashback sequences, Norman is played by Henry Thomas with Olivia Hussey taking on the flesh & blood role of “Mother” aka Norma Bates. Directed by Masters of Horror creator Mick Garris from a script by Joseph Stefano, who penned the screenplay for the original Alfred Hitchcock film, this sequel closes off the series in style and truly brings the story of Norman Bates full circle.

Yay or Nay? Yay.

CURSE OF CHUCKY

The CHILD’S PLAY franchise had been dormant for nearly a decade when CURSE OF CHUCKY finally debuted on Blu-Ray, both as a standalone release and also as part of a collection that, for the first time ever, collected all the films of the entire franchise in one set. It’s initially hard to peg CURSE at first. The opening 30 or so minutes feel like a semi-reboot to the series as the comedic, meta tone of the last two entries are absent and it’s instead going for the creepy thrills and suspense of the earlier movies. But what’s so brilliant about it is by the end, it manages to weave all the threads from all previous entries into one story and become both a satisfying new movie and sequel. The unrated cut features a bonus post-credit scene that most certainly shows us the capper to the Chucky saga, but series creator and director Don Mancini is promising us at least one more movie that takes place before that scene. So for now, this is the final entry… but with a little luck, it won’t be for long.

Yay or Nay? Yay.

THE OMEN III: THE FINAL CONFLICT

In the first movie, we were given the arrival of the infant anti-Christ. In DAMIEN: OMEN II, we meet Damien as he’s coming of age as a teen where he learns about, and eventually embraces, his destiny. In this, THE FINAL CONFLICT, Damien Thorn is now an adult and played by Sam Neill. He’s taken complete control of Thorn Industries, embedded himself an ambassador of Great Britain and is preparing for the second coming of Christ by sending out his followers to murder all the new-born baby potentials. That’s right, folks. There’s a whole lot of baby murder in this sequel. It does end with the only logical conclusion, as crazy as it may seem to see, but it’s there. And for doing some pretty outlandish things, ala the last movie, and wrapping up the series, it’s a worthwhile closer.

Yay or Nay? Yay.

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION

Sad to say that the 4th entry in the CHAIN SAW franchise is not only the worst of the bunch, but technically the end of the original franchise. It gets a bit confusing as Part 2, Part 3 and this can all easily be a direct sequel to the original. But minor discrepancies aside, you can definitely thread enough similarities to see these four as part of the same wacky universe. The two Platinum Dunes movies follow a completely different family than the Sawyers and the most recent entry TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D it a weird hybrid reboot/sequel only to part one. So the last entry from the original franchise would be the one that introduced the world to Renee Zellwegger and Mathew McConaughy. Kim Henkel, co-writer on the original would write & direct this entry, which very loosely feels like a remake of the first one, but with some sort of bizarre illuminati connections to the Sawyer family. Either way, star power and weird plot twists aside, it’s not enjoyable in any sense. The only place to go after this on was a do-over.

Yay or Nay? Nay.

LAND OF THE DEAD

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was George Romero’s calling card and masterpiece. It embodied late 60’s paranoia, whereas its sequel DAWN OF THE DEAD looked at the 70’s obsession with consumerism under a satirical lens. The 80’s underlining hopelessness and darkness gave us the third entry in the “Living Dead” series DAY OF THE DEAD. George may have sat out the 90’s, but in 2005, he gave us the fourth and final entry in his epic zombie saga, LAND OF THE DEAD. After 30 years of dealing with the deceased coming back to life and eating us, society has shifted and divided into different social classes that all treat the dead the same way they would the homeless. The rich hide out in their towers completely ignoring the problem, while the working class do the dirty work on the ground level. But the evolution of the “zombie” becomes even more sophisticated when Big Daddy leads a group of the dead into a revolt. It may sound slightly silly as you read it, but it’s the logical and fitting climax to the series that George set up, especially after introducing Bub in DAY. He made a few more zombie films after this, but his follow-up DIARY hit reset and began concurrently with the events of NIGHT. Every time I go back and watch LAND, I appreciate and like it a little bit more, because I truly believe it was way ahead of it’s time.

Yay or Nay? Yay.

I’m sure there are plenty of other satisfying conclusions to your favorite franchises. In all fairness, I can’t recall what happened in CRITTERS 4 or GHOULIES GO TO COLLEGE, so forgive me for omitting them from this or my previous list.