The 10 Worst Slasher Movies From Major Franchises, Ranked

From the 70s to the 2000s, the slasher film was one of the most prominent subgenres of the horror genre. From Halloween to I Know What You Did Last Summer, there is no shortage of popular slashers that ended up spawning a lucrative franchise. However, despite the widespread critical and audience acclaim from the franchise’s first entry, many of the later entries in these franchises end up falling victim to the gradual decay of quality that so many franchises enevitably suffer from.

The slasher genre is no exception, with movies such as Hellraiser: Revelations failing to catch the magic of the original through their pale imitations. With that in mind, here are the ten worst slasher movies from major franchises.

10 ‘Candyman: Day of the Dead’ (1999)

Directed by Turi Meyer

Candyman: Day of the Dead is a supernatural slasher film first released in 1999. It is the third entry in the Candyman franchise. Directed by Turi Meyer, better known as a writer on films such as Wrong Turn 2: Dead End and Chairman of the Board, the story follows a descendant of the original Candyman named Caroline McKeever, played by Donna D’Errico, who also appeared in Austin Powers in Goldmember, as she finds herself trying to survive against him.

The lore of the Candyman character had been thoroughly established in the previous entries, but that lore is completely contradicted here. For example, Candyman had been portrayed as a tragic character before this, but here he is portrayed as a generic slasher villain, the tragedy behind his untimely death and the loss of his beloved fully ignored throughout. In addition, a weakness to having his paintings destroyed is also implemented. However, not only has nothing like this ever even been hinted at before, but the way in which this sequence is executed comes across as abruptly silly, adding to this annoying carelessness regarding the lore.

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

Directed by Adam Marcus

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday is a supernatural slasher film first released in 1993. It is the ninth entry in the Friday the 13th franchise. Directed by Adam Marcus, who also wrote Texas Chainsaw 3D, the plot follows Jason Voorhees, played by Kane Hodder, who, after dying, finds himself as a parasitic creature that tries to find and kill one of his relatives before he can be killed.

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday relies far too much on plot contrivances. For example, one of the first people Jason possesses is a coroner that dives right into eating his charred, removed heart completely out of nowhere. This scene fully destroys the suspense of disbelief that a more fantastical slasher movie like this needs in order to keep the audience engaged, by having a character do something so blatantly outlandish while also failing to establish any reason for the character to do so. In addition, the decision to turn Jason into a sort of worm creature that lived in the heart of his previous body is very odd, as it turns him from a hulking menace and a physical powerhouse into a weird-looking effect and nothing more.

Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday

Release Date

August 13, 1993

Director

Adam Marcus

Cast

Kane Hodder , John D. LeMay , Kari Keegan , Steven Williams , Steven Culp , Erin Gray

Runtime

87

Main Genre

Horror

Writers

Jay Huguely , Adam Marcus , Dean Lorey

Tagline

Evil has finally found a home.

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

Directed by Rachel Talalay

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare is a slasher film first released in 1991. It serves as the sixth entry in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Directed by Rachel Talalay, who also directed Tank Girl and Ghost in the Machine, the story follows a psychiatrist named Maggie Burroughs, played by Lisa Zane, who also appeared in Monkeybone and Bad Influence, as she tries to uncover the past of a mysterious patient, only to find herself pursued by Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund.

The worst aspect of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare is the treatment of Freddy Krueger himself. For example, the ending sees Freddy being pinned to a steel beam and being beat up, blown up by a random pipe bomb, and dying, helpless to do anything. This ending reduces him from a somewhat campy yet terrifying threat to a literal punching bag, taking him from being the one to deliver punchlines to being a punchline himself. In addition, the plot point of Freddy’s child is needlessly complicated, with there being a character conveniently named John Doe being a walking red herring that the movie doesn’t really need.

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

Release Date

September 5, 1991

Director

Rachel Talalay

Runtime

89

Main Genre

Horror

Tagline

They saved the best for last.

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7 ‘Seed of Chucky’ (2004)

Directed by Don Mancini

Seed of Chucky is a black comedy slasher film first released in 2004. It serves as the fifth entry of the Child’s Play franchise. Directed by series creator Don Mancini, the story follows Chucky and Tiffany as they go on a murderous rampage through Hollywood after being resurrected by their child Glen, played by Billy Boyd, best known for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Glen’s introduction into the series was handled absolutely horribly. For example, while Chucky and Tiffany are enjoyably crazy, Glen rarely speaks, and barely displays any personal style of his own. While this difference in personality could have led to some interesting family drama between criminal parents and a relatively sane child, any attempt at having these three just leaves their relationship feeling hollow rather than dramatic or even entertaining. The meta comedy is also tired and unfunny. For instance, Jennifer Tilly, the voice actress for Tiffany, is targeted by the doll family to be used as a vessel for them, leading to a series of dull jokes that try far too hard to get the audience to recognize this obvious meta nature.

Seed of Chucky

Release Date

November 11, 2004

Director

Don Mancini

Runtime

87

Main Genre

Comedy

Writers

Don Mancini

Tagline

Deliver us some evil.

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6 ‘Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers’ (1995)

Directed by Joe Chappelle

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a slasher film first released in 1995. It serves as the sixth entry in the Halloween franchise. Directed by Joe Chappelle, who was also a producer on The Wire and CSI: Miami, the story follows a man named Tommy Doyle, played by Paul Rudd of Ant-Man and Friends fame, as he tries to protect the baby of the niece of Michael Myers.

Although Rudd is a beloved actor now, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was his first movie role, and this is quite obvious in his performance. For example, there is a scene in which he is running away from Michael, and during this chase sequence, he shouts toward Michael in such a way that makes him sound less like he’s being chased by a deadly serial killer and more like a child shouting “You’re it!” during a game of tag. In addition, the Cult of Thorn subplot adds unnecessary complications to the plot. For instance, this cult is shown leading Michael to a house to kill the baby, when it would have been much more effective keeping his motives ambiguous like earlier entries did.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Release Date

September 29, 1995

Director

Joe Chappelle

Runtime

87 Minutes

Tagline

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5 ‘The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1995)

Directed by Kim Henkel

The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a black comedy slasher film first released in 1995. It is the fourth entry in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. Directed by Kim Henkel, who had co-wrote the original movie with Tobe Hooper, the story follows a group of teens that find themselves captured by a cannibalistic family after becoming stranded in the Texas countryside.

The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre has a cannibal family that are both extremely unfunny and lack any threat whatsoever. For example, Vilmer, played by Matthew McConaughey of Interstellar and Dallas Buyers Club fame, spends most of his time grunting in a manner similar to a Tusken Raider. In addition, Leatherface is portrayed as a hysterical woman who almost never even uses a chainsaw, and any other types of violence are virtually nonexistent for this character as well. Characterizations like these provide confusion and annoyance rather than laughs or scares, thus failing at both of the things that a comedic slasher film should do while also boring the audience with this waste of time pretending to be characters.

The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Release Date

September 22, 1995

Director

Kim Henkel

Cast

Matthew McConaughey , Renée Zellweger , Robert Jacks , Tonie Perensky , Joe Stevens , Lisa Marie Newmyer , John Harrison , Tyler Shea Cone , James Gale , Chris Kilgore , Vince Brock , Susan Loughran , David Laurence , Grayson Victor Schirmacher , Jeanette Wiggins , Carmen Nogales , Lisa Caraveo , Les Martin , Adam White , Bill Wise , Loren Guerra , Derek Keele , Debra Marshall , Geri Wolcott , Axel L. Schiller

Runtime

87 minutes

Producers

Robert Kuhn

Character(s)

Vilmer , Jenny , Leatherface , Darla , W.E. , Heather , Sean , Barry , Rothman , Rothman’s Chauffeur , I’m Not Hurt , Jenny’s Mother , Jenny’s Stepfather , Grandfather , Woman Eating Chocolates , Girl in Red Dress , Brenda , Heckler , Bud’s Pizza Attendant , Cop at Bud’s Pizza , Woman in RV , Man in RV

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4 ‘Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood’ (2003)

Directed by Steven Ayroomlooi

Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood is a black comedy slasher film first released in 2003. It is an indirect sequel to Leprechaun in the Hood and the sixth entry in the Leprechaun series. Directed by Steven Ayroomlooi, the plot follows a group of friends that discover a pot of gold and soon find themselves being pursued by a leprechaun, played by Warwick Davis, who also played Wicket in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi and Flitwick in the Harry Potter franchise.

Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood blatantly reuses the urban setting from the previous movie, demonstrating the extreme lack of creativity that permeates throughout the rest of the film. This creative bankruptcy can also be seen in the lack of creative kills or visual gags. For example, in Leprechaun 3, there is a scene in which the leprechaun inflates a woman’s various body parts until she explodes. In Back 2 tha Hood, however, one of the relatively few kills in the entire movie is when a woman is killed on a massage table with a generic strangulation death.

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3 ‘Hellraiser: Revelations’ (2011)

Directed by Victor Garcia

Hellraiser: Revelations is a slasher film first released in 2011. It is the ninth entry in the Hellraiser franchise. Directed by Victor Garcia, who also directed Return to House on Haunted Hill and Mirrors 2, the plot follows the families of two friends that go missing after coming across and unlocking the Lament Configuration while on vacation in Mexico, summoning the Cenobites.

The Cenobites gradually appeared less and less as the series went on, but they appear in this one even less before or since, not appearing until the last act. This is because this film had an extremely rushed production, leading to the Cenobites being awkwardly inserted into a movie forced to work around them. In addition, the ending is horrible. For example, there is an abrupt and unnecessary plot twist revealing that Steven, one of the missing, is actually the other missing, Nico, wearing Steven’s skin, though this fails to leave any impact, as due to the fact that both Steven and Nico opened the Lament Configuration, either’s presence could have been used to justify including the Cenobites.

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2 ‘Prom Night’ (2008)

Directed by Nelson McCormick

Prom Night is a slasher film first released in 2008. It serves as a remake of the cult classic 1980 film of the same name and is the fifth and currently final entry in the Prom Night franchise. Directed by Nelson McCormack, who had also directed episodes of The West Wing and Prison Break, the story follows a group of teens being hunted by a serial killer on prom night.

Prom Night is shot like a Disney Channel movie from the era it released in, with bright hues in well-lit areas, providing a visual discrepancy between the violent murders and the pop music video-style cinematography, showing that the team behind Prom Night had no idea how to shoot a tense death scene that slashers should have plenty of. In addition, the killer is far less effective than in the original. For instance, in the original, the killer was the witness to the accidental death of a child years prior killing off the other witnesses, while he was simply an escaped killer in the remake, which is a far more generic angle.

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1 ‘I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer’ (2006)

Directed by Sylvain White

I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer is a supernatural slasher film first released in 2006. It is the third entry in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise. Directed by Sylvain White, who also directed The Losers and Slender Man, the plot follows a group of teens being hunted by a zombiefied Ben Willis, played by Don Shanks, who also appeared in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

The franchise serial killer, Ben Willis, is completely changed for absolutely no reason. For example, in the first two movies, Ben would only target those directly related to the inciting hit-and-run from the original film, and any other kills were those trying to protect this group or just in his way. In I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, however, not only does Ben target people that had nothing to do with the aforementioned incident, but also hundreds of miles away from where this incident took place. This change is made even worse by the fact that the new Ben is just a generic Jason clone, as opposed to the urban legend-inspired killer he had been before. Out of all the dark spots in successful slasher franchises, this is by far the worst.

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