Four Franchises That Died and Inevitably Came Back From the Dead

Ding dong, the 600-lb pink elephant in the death trap is dead! News comes from Latino Review that this year's entry into the Saw franchise will indeed be the last one. How do we know this? It's gonna be called Endgame!

Except, that hasn't really ever stopped a horror franchise from truly staying dead. Just like any Final Girl worth her shriek knows, you can't keep a moneymaker down. So to say so long to SAW, let's take a glance back at the franchises that were...and then came crawling back into our lives.

A Nightmare on Elm Street
# of Total Films:8
Spin-Off Materials:Comic books, TV Show

Arguably, Freddy Kruger is one of the icons of modern slasher films: the sweater, the knife-glove and his reputation for throwing out puns while he's stalking you down is legendary. After all, he's inspired the rest of horror's quipping villains to spout off enough lame one-liners to make us shake our heads in annoyance. But there's something to Kruger, both as character and through Robert Englund's performance, that resonates over the years.

Perhaps most interesting is his transition from a calused murderer to a boogeyman accepting his role as a wisecracking maniac that became the basis for self-parody until Wes Crave decided in The Final Nightmare to make him "scary" again. But it didn't work. By then, Freddy Kruger wasn't frightening; he was funny. Sure, he was going to explode your ear drum, but he'd be entertaining to the viewer and that became more popular than seeing who'd survive. Freddy vs. Jason perfectly shows the pinnacle of why these characters needed to be put down: they were pop-culture candy that genre nerds greedily lap up as long as Englund winks at the camera before he turns into a pot smoking worm.

Franchise Reboot Release Date: April 30th, 2010

What'll Be Different: Robert Englund out. Jackie Earle Haley in. Not to mention the reported sub-plot that Freddy isn't a child killer this time, but a child molester that is falsely accused by the other parents to mask their own crimes. So out go the quips, in come the "darker, edgier" reboots.

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Friday the 13th
# of Total Films: 14
Spin-off Materials:Only-in-name TV Series, Comic Books

Jason Voorhees is best known for giving us the "HA HA HE HE, HA HA HE HE" sound clue that someone's about to get mauled, maimed or get an STD in the form of a machete through the chest. Nothing ever really mattered in the Friday universe: Jason is an unstoppable juggernaut of death with mommy issues; horny teenage kids are horny and that makes Jason feel all tingly. Then the death happens.

This got old rather fast, so Jason went from being unstoppable killer to an unstoppable killer meme that could transcend death. Then Jason is brought back to life thanks to iron and electricity. Then Jason is chained below the lake. Then Jason gets resurrected. Then Jason goes to Manhattan. Then only another Voorhees could kill Jason. Then Jason goes to space.

Honestly, the character turns into a means rather than an end. And if space has taught us anything, it's the perfect dumping ground for cheesy movies, the worst we can find.

Franchise Reboot Release Date: Feb, 13 2009

What'll Be Was Different: It was basically the same premise as the original Friday the 13th and its' sequel, except with prettier kids. And with luck, it'll get rehashed over and over for another decade with prettier children.

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Star Trek
# of Total Films: 10
Spin-off Materials:Multiple TV shows, Cartoon, Multiple books, Las Vegas theme park ride, two documentaries and a fanbase so rabid they have to fight Star Wars nerds just to feel alive.

There's nothing technically wrong with the Star Trek series, except people just get burnt on it. Well, to be clear, "regular people" get burnt out. The Trekkies wait in various stages of full uniforms and communicator pins on their messenger bags from the old series to the next generation.

For Trek, it really is just a matter of swinging in and out of everyone's consciousness depending on the talent involved. The original Trek was firmly carried by the duo of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy into the 1990s, until The Next Generation TV series gave the franchise enough muscle to power through a few reboots.

Franchise Reboot Release Date: May 8, 2009

What'll Be Was Different: J.J. Abrams relaunched the entire franchise and proved you could marry silly sci-fi tropes with a decent cast. But really, he made one of the break-out films of 2009 just by retelling a thirty year old thing. Bluntly enough, it's the same shit but made to look incredible. And, you know, it was really cool.

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The Entire Star Wars Franchise
# of Total Films: 6 live-action (theatrical)
Spin-Off Materials: Uh. A metric fuck-ton of material. Honestly.

It's fucking Star Wars. It's one of the most bloated franchises bursting with material and so many rabid fan debates that there's an entire documentary, The People vs. George Lucas, at SXSW's Film Festival this year.

Franchise Reboot Release Date: n/a

What'll Be Different:Currently, The Clone Wars airs on Cartoon Network, but there's been long gestating rumors of a live-action TV series. Of course, it doesn't matter much, since Star Wars the brand has continued on into books and video games, where it sort of transcends the need for films.

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So, ultimately, what are we getting at?

Yes, Saw may appear to be over for now. But with a sequel coming for Paranormal Activity, being directed by the same director as the final two Saw films mind you, we're not too worried about future franchises. Because in the world of genre film, if you don't remember the past, you're doomed to make countless reboots of it until you may something slightly different. Then you'll just remake that and forget the past.