šŖ #222 - Sometimes they come back
Slashers, sequels, and avoiding diminishing returns.
āWe belong dead.ā
āFrankensteinās Monster
āCanāt do it, Frankie.ā
āUniversal Studios
Horror sequels are almost as old as horror movies themselves. But what about the tension between giving the audience more of what they liked before while keeping it from being too stale and obvious?
Jesse Hassenger drills down on Universalās run of films about Frankensteinās Monster, and how this early horror franchise acted as the Universal Monsters franchiseās Iron Man. While the character had several constant features, there were a variety of actors gluing on the neck bolts, as well as crossovers to give Frank some other monsters to play with.
Moving into the era of slashers, Braden Timmons argues that what keeps Michael Myers a horror icon is the simplicity of his basic character traits. He is a shape that appears out of nowhere, relentlessly killing like a force of nature:
And itās not always easy to lock in on what makes a solid sequel. Take a look at the long list of abandoned Friday the 13th sequels compiled by Matt Draper.
OneTake argues that Scream 2 undercuts the tropes of slasher sequels by taking focus away from the killers and putting it on the recurring protagonists. That reversal, using a revolving door of disguised killers instead of a singular, immortal fiend, adds novelty to the franchise. It reminds the audience that Ghostface isnāt the main character, and thereās a purposeful weight behind the kills:
Pimās Crypt tackles what makes the Saw franchise more than the sum of its death traps. Under the gore, thereās a recurring theme and an ethos being tested: Do people need to face death to learn to appreciate life?
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Previously on Innerestingā¦
In case you missed it, in last issueās most clicked link a website that measures your vision when deciding whether a color is blue or green.
What else is inneresting?
Matt Draper on John Carpenterās Apocalypse Trilogy (The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and In the Mouth of Madness).
Nathan Lee on Gregg Arakiās Teen Apocalypse Trilogy (Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere).
Damn The Man, Save the Empire!1
And thatās whatās inneresting this week!
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Post-Credits Scene
In this case the Empire is Scarecrow Video, currently raising funds to continue being an oasis for physical media.