Best Movie In a Horror Series

Hokay, here we go...

I liked the Friday The 13ths a lot more when I was younger. I still have a mild affection for them, formulaic and dumb as they are. I don't think any of them are especially good horror films but they all have their moments and as a whole the series is an amusing diversion for fans of "novelty kills". Jason himself is a horror icon, deservedly so, and the whole "campfire tale" feel of the series appeals to me. If I had to pick, I'd probably go with the cheesy sci-fi hybrid Jason X as the most fun film in the franchise.

The Halloweens are also a pretty mediocre series, though they too have their moments. I don't find Myers a particularly compelling villain unlike many other horror fans. I was never sure why he was quite so indestructible since he was basically just a psychopathic killing machine, not clearly the larger-than-life undead revenant seeking revenge Jason was or the demonic spirit violating the sanctity of the mind as Freddy was. Michael was just... a cypher. Anyways, the original Halloween is by far the best, though I did rather like H20, as well as appreciating the subtler shades of grey in Zombie's remake which attempted (misguidedly or no) to humanize "The Boogyman".

More thoughts soon....

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Friday The 13th Part 6: Jason Lives
Halloween (1978)
A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Saw
Scream
Aliens
Predator
Phantasm (only seen the first one)
Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn
Child's Play 2
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (again, only seen the first one)
Hellraiser
Final Destination (only seen the first one)
Paranormal Activity (saw the first, didn't like it)

The Screams.... I'll just get it out of the way quick by saying the first was the best overall. It was fresh at the time with its clever self-aware slasher satire. I loved the cast, the humor, the killer's costume, the neat moments such as the time delay scene at the party. I recall a local reviewer upon its theatrical release who (unfortunately for him) gave it a rather negative pass for mixing horror and comedy. Not for mixing them poorly, mind you; The reviewer was apparently opposed to the idea per se... so yeah. Anyways the sequels are fairly weak by comparison, IMO, but still fairly enjoyable as sequels go.

The Final Destinations are an easy favorite of mine, go-to favorites for their embracing of absurdly elaborate novelty killing as their raison d'etre. The first is undoubtedly superior but I dig them all and could probably watch a few more, at least, before my evil inner child tires of the Rube Goldberg-style deaths.

Another personal favorite series of mine are the Phantasms. I fell deeply in love with Phantasm II way back when and have been a loyal fan ever since. The series takes silly turns, its vision of the Tall Man's apocalypse is sadly hampered by its low budget, and it will likely never be satisfactorily concluded, but the films are just dripping with imagination and humor and gory fun. The 2nd is IMO the best but I adore the series overall.

More to come.

I'm a softee for the Friday The 13ths, not the smartest Horror movies but I find a good bulk of them are fun and some are even genuinely tense and scary.

I didn't like them until a few years ago. Now I really enjoy them because they helped me overcome something rather traumatic.

I'm curious to hear about that.

Summoar...

Best Saw? First.

Best Child's Play? First.

Best Texas Chainsaw Massacre? First one, but TCM 2 is rather brilliant in its own darkly humorous way. Bill Mosely invested his nasty character with a self-awareness that sent it a whole other level of discomfort.

Best Elm Street was the first of course, but I pretty much love the whole series although it got pretty hammy and goofy after the original Nightmare.

Best Hellraiser... I actually would say the first two are just about equally great. The only one that approached the quality of the first two was Bloodline, which was an intriguing but muddled attempt to fill in backstory and expand the Hellraiser mythos. The rest are quite crappy.

I'm still behind on the Hellraiser series, last I saw was Hellseeker, I think.

I think we should add REC to the list. I don't know how many people on here have seen them but they are coming out with a fourth one soon. My personal favorite is REC 3 because they ditched the found footage angle people have grown so sick of and make a legit possession movie. However, most people hated it for ditching the found footage thing 30 minutes in. I think even as a stand alone movie, it was really good.

I've seen the first two REC films and quite liked them, I even enjoyed 2 a little more than the first.

A lesser-known series but I remembered the Warlock films. I've only seen the first two and remember quite liking both of them, the first a little more than the second, but it's been so long since I last watched them.

I may be mistaken, but I remember reading somewhere the second was actually a remake of the first. Just with a bigger budget. I've never seen either one from beginning to end though, just bits and pieces on TV.

Paranormal Activity 1
Aliens
Saw 1
V/H/S 1
Scream 2

The second pretty much is a remake, the studio decided to reboot the series since they felt not enough people knew of the original.

Friday The 13th---The first one with Mrs. Voorhees.
Halloween---The original John Carpenter one, Halloween II, and Halloween H2O. Have seen the Rob Zombie ones and did not like them at ALL.
A Nightmare On Elm Street---The original and #3: Dream Warriors (although I like all of them except Freddy's Revenge).
Saw---don't like this series.
Scream---the first, although I haven't seen the fourth one.
Alien---Aliens all the way.
Predator---the first.
Phantasm---I've only seen the first two, but I like the second one better.
Evil Dead---Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness...haven't seen the remake but want to.
Child's Play---the first.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre---the first two originals (as for #2, can't beat Dennis Hopper as a Texas Ranger with two mini-chainsaws strapped on like a gunfighter).
Hellraiser---only saw part of the second one but I thought it was interesting.
Final Destination---liked the first one and the third one (especially because of Mary Elizabeth Winstead...what can I say, I like the ladies).
Paranormal Activity---have only seen the first, so have to choose it now, but I intend to see the rest.
Ginger Snaps----have only seen the 3rd one, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, but I liked it enough to want to check out the rest when I get the chance.
Poltergeist---I like the second better, believe it or not. I thought the first was too much "everything but the kitchen sink thrown in and that's only because we couldn't get it loose."
The "Living Dead" series---totally the 1978 follow-up, with the S.W.A.T. team kicking butt.
Hammer Dracula films---I've seen all of them, but the first, Horror of Dracula is my favorite, followed by Brides of Dracula (with David Peel as the head vampire, not named Dracula) but still with the great Peter Cushing as Van Helsing.
Hammer Frankenstein films---the first, Curse of Frankenstein but they're all fun.
Universal Frankenstein films---Son of Frankenstein (Bela Lugosi was all kinds of fantastic as Ygor, the broken-neck caretaker of the monster.
Universal Dracula films---the first.
Universal Mummy films---the first.
Universal Wolfman films---the first, although, like the other films in the Universal series here and above, they're all highly watchable.
[REC] films---I like them all, but [REC] 2 is my favorite so far.
Pumpkinhead---the first is far and away the best. The second was excrement. The third and fourth (straight to video) were surprisingly pretty good.
Mimic---the first of the three.
The Howling----the first in the series, all others need not apply.
Resident Evil: the third, Resident Evil: Extinction (this is really an action series of films but with horror).
Underworld: the first one, but like the RE films, mainly action. I like both series, just for fun.
Jaws---the first of course...the second has some good scenes, mainly the ones with the late Roy Scheider, but 3 and 4 are pure mung.
Tremors---Tremors 2: Aftershocks. Fun stuff, with the creatures mutating, upping the ante.
Return of the Living Dead series---the first, although I liked the 2nd and 3rd also.

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No other creature has been made and remade
and inspired so many horror movies than vampires.



Bela Lugosi as Dracula (1931)

A lot of them I only saw one so here's the ones I did saw more films:

A Nightmare On Elm Street - The First (Only the first 3)
Saw - Saw I
Alien - The original, though Aliens is quite the contender
Predator - Predator
Final Destination - Final Destination 2


Other horror franchises:
Cube - Cube
The Dead Series - Dawn of the Dead (2004 remake) (Did not see the original Dawn of the Dead yet though)

Good call on Cube, I liked all three of them but definitely the original the best.

Another series I remembered and probably fairly obscure is Xtro. I've only seen the original, which is possibly the weirdest movie ever. Never saw the two totally unrelated sequels which had the same director back for both.

Mimic... scifi horror. Really liked the first.