An Annoying New Trend, by Nicholas Montelongo

I guess I am starting to get old and crabby. Well. . .I've been crabby for several years now but let me jump into the actual topic here. In the past few years, we have witnessed a resurgence in horror movie franchises: Halloween, Scream, Candyman, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Overall, this is a positive thing. The negative part is that is that each of the new sequels have the same exact titles as their originals.

It creates confusion for one thing and you have to clarify by saying the "old one" or the "new one." By keeping the titles simple, it's almost like studios don't want to distinguish these films from the originals or they are simply afraid of marketing these films as sequels. Most likely, this decision was based on some trend where people are turned off by a title with a two, three, or even a six at the end of it. I don't get it.

It's almost as if the studios are ashamed of calling them sequels outright. To me, this is a silly attitude to have when they are making horror movies. I can see where they were coming from with Halloween because it's an alternate sequel but that's not the case with the others I mentioned. Anyway, if I carry on like this I'll be beating the proverbial dead horse but I might as well weigh in on the films I mentioned.

Halloween was excellent. It did what a sequel should have done. If sequels don't surpass the originals, they should build upon them and the newer Halloween does that. It's sequel Halloween Kills continues the story fairly well but the title sucks.

Candyman was also great. It wound up being an intelligently made sequel to the first and added to the Candyman myth. It could also be seen as a commentary on how myths are born and how they change over time. It was a chilling and engaging movie.

In regards to the new Scream ( Aka Scream 5), I have no interest in seeing it. I felt that the story had enough and didn't need another sequel. Having another film stretched my credulity a little too far. That and having rumors of Stu coming back turned me off even more. There's no indication that he would survive and unless they could come up with a plausible way for him to snap out of his injuries while escaping the notice of medical professionals then I don't want to hear about it.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I heard from most people that this movie was one of the dumbest things ever made and it doesn't surprise me. Leatherface is supposed to be in his 60s and he's still running around (he's supposed to be older). From what I gather, he spends the film knocking off obnoxiously woke intruders which sounds pretty standard. I'm not incredibly loyal to this franchise, so my attitude is biased.

Thanks for bearing with me on my rant. I make remarks on movies occasionally and thought I would put in my two cents.

Written by Nicholas Montelongo