10 Worst Installments of Popular Slasher Franchises, According to IMDb

Some of the most iconic movies in the horror genre are slasher films. Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th are classic slasher franchises that have frightened and entertained audiences for decades and continue to be praised and remembered even to this day.

With so many installments in these franchises, there was bound to be at least one weak entry that marked a series’ low point. These lackluster sequels were significant downgrades, got less fan praise and attention, and were sometimes forgotten. Here are the weakest installments from iconic slasher franchises, from Scream to Hellraiser, ranked by their scores on IMDb.

10 ‘Scream 3’ (2000)

IMDb Score: 5.6/10

Many fans could agree that the third installment of Wes Craven‘s iconic Scream series is the black sheep of the stellar franchise. Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox return as the series heroes as they try to stop a new Ghostface killer from picking off the cast members of a horror movie production in Hollywood.

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Studio interference and constant script rewrites attributed to the film’s convoluted story made the film feel like a run-of-the-mill slasher rather than an actual Scream sequel. With plot conveniences, poor character decisions, and a dull killer reveal, it doesn’t hold up to the other more superior installments that helped make the series so memorable.

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9 ‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’ (2021)

IMDb Score: 5.2/10

In 2004, James Wan‘s Saw quickly became a smash hit at the box office, kick-starting a long-running franchise that’s still going strong today with the recently released Saw X. However, the 2021 spinoff, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, received mixed reactions from fans who weren’t too happy with the story nor the fact that it doesn’t include its central antagonist, John Kramer (Tobin Bell).

While fans appreciated the film’s few impressive and gory trap kills, the story lacked coherence like the previous installments. Chris Rock, a fan of the series, tried his best in the leading role alongside acting legend Samuel L. Jackson, but their star powers couldn’t save the film from its lackluster box office results, making it the lowest-grossing movie in the franchise.

8 ‘Seed of Chucky’ (2004)

IMDb Score: 4.9/10

Don Mancini‘s Child’s Play franchise is a unique addition to the slasher subgenre, perfectly blending horror and comedy with the right amount of absurdity to let the viewers know not to take these movies too seriously. Unfortunately, the fifth installment, Seed of Chucky, went a little overboard with the humor and didn’t deliver any good scare.

Much of the film’s humorous dialog and meta jokes feel forced and take away from the horror and suspenseful aspects. Although it has a few clever lines and some wonderfully gory kills, it’s a mostly pointless entry in the franchise that sometimes gets a little too ridiculous.

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7 ‘Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare’ (1991)

IMDb Score: 4.7/10

A Nightmare on Elm Street was a masterclass in terror with a unique premise and an iconic antagonist in the form of the dream demon Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). However, as the series progressed, the franchise drifted into more dark comedy and saw Krueger become a goofy parody of himself. No film demonstrated this tonal shift more than Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Freddy’s Dead largely disappointed many fans due to its over-reliance on humor and dated ’90s references. It sees Freddy at his least intimidating as he acts less like a nightmarish monster and more like a cartoon villain, spewing cheesy one-liners any chance he can. It’s a perfect example of what happens to an iconic franchise that strays too far away from its original idea.

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6 ‘Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday’ (1993)

IMDb Score: 4.1/10

The Friday the 13th series saw its iconic hockey-masked killer, Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder), hack and slash his way to earning one of the highest body counts in slasher history. With over twelve entries, the quality of each film ranges from decent to mediocre. Still, the abysmal box office performance and critical panning of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday shut the nail in the franchise’s coffin for years.

Despite having a few impressive kills and gore effects, The Final Friday was mostly dismissed by fans who, for a while now, were starting to experience franchise fatigue. It also tried to introduce a family curse subplot and unnecessary additions to Jason’s backstory to make the film all the more ridiculous and not a great final outing.

5 ‘Candyman: Day of the Dead’ (1999)

IMDb Score: 3.9/10

When Candyman was first released in 1992, it had a slow, suspenseful build-up and a plot that oddly felt like a dark, twisted romance. Unfortunately, these unique elements didn’t transcend into the film’s unnecessary sequels. The weakest being the soulless and forgettable third installment, 1999’s Candyman: Day of the Dead.

Although it is fun to see Tony Todd return to his iconic role as the titular Candyman, his eerie performance unfortunately couldn’t save the film from its terrible plot and bad acting. It feels more like a generic slasher, lacking any resemblance to the original film and effectively killing the franchise until Nia DaCosta rebooted it in 2021.

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4 ‘Halloween: Resurrection’ (2002)

IMDb Score: 3.9/10

The Halloween movies helped boost audiences’ fascination with the slasher subgenre in the ’70s and ’80s. With the success of 1998’s reboot sequel, Halloween H20, fans were excited to see how the series would continue into the next century. Unfortunately, the follow-up sequel, Halloween: Resurrection, quickly became one of the most hated installments in the franchise.

Resurrection made the ultimate sin of killing off its famous leading star, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), in the first act, leaving a hole in the story that was never filled by the other bland and forgettable characters. With terrible writing, outdated early 2000s references, and rapper Busta Rhymes using ridiculous kung-fu moves, this is certainly not Michael Myers’ most dignifying Halloween film.

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3 ‘Leprechaun 4: In Space’ (1996)

IMDb Score: 3.5/10

The Leprechaun series doesn’t have the best track record of good-quality films. They can all be considered bad, but they are at least entertainingly bad and make for a fun viewing experience. The fourth installment, Leprechaun 4: In Space, takes the series’ ridiculousness and turns it up to eleven as it follows the Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) on a wacky adventure in outer space.

All the absurd qualities of the Leprechaun films are on full display within this film, including the bad acting and laughable special effects. While the movie is mediocre, it doesn’t try to be anything else and comes across as a “So Bad, It’s Good” film.

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2 ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation’ (1994)

IMDb Score: 3.3/10

Tobe Hooper’s low-budgeted 1974 masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, helped change the horror genre forever and garnered much acclaim from fans and critcs. It’s a shame that the sequels couldn’t match up to the original’s success, with the lowest-rated entry, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, being the franchise’s most infamous installment.

The film lacks any connection to the previous installments or features any good scares. It’s a bizarrely convoluted and acted film that trades much of its horror for absurd moments that feel unnecessary and relatively uninteresting. Had the cast not included future Oscar winners, Matthew McConaughey and Renée Zellweger, it’s more likely the film would have easily been forgotten.

1 ‘Hellraiser: Revelations’ (2011)

IMDb Score: 2.7/10

Clive Barker‘s popular Hellraiser franchise started strong with a few impressive and gory films but eventually saw a rapid decline in quality as the later sequels began to go straight to home video. Eventually, it hit rock bottom with the entirely forgettable and hastily made ninth entry, Hellraiser: Revelations.

The original actor who played the iconic lead cenobite Pinhead up to that point, Doug Bradley, firmly turned down the chance to return for this installment due to its terrible and unfinished script. The end product of its half-completed story, with its lousy makeup effects and rushed shooting schedule, resulted in a complete disaster of a sequel many consider one of the worst horror films ever.

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