A title can do a lot for a movie. It can affect our initial opinions of what the story will be about and whether or not we have any interest in seeing it. This can be particularly true with sequels, with a lot of common and cliché titles coming into play. “Returns”, “revenge”, “resurrected”—these are some of the most overused words thrown into a sequel title. It can indicate that what is featured in the movie has already been seen in its predecessor and that it’s going to be a trite rehash that’s not really worthy of your time and money.
I’m going to have to begin with the worst offender when it comes to bad movie titles: the Halloween franchise. First of all, we have three movies named “Halloween“. It’s unnecessarily confusing yet weirdly necessary for two of them. It’s not uncommon to give the title of a remake the same as the original; otherwise, people won’t know it’s a remake, and there’s no market value. But when you make a direct legacy sequel, what is the thought process behind giving it the same name again? We’re basically just slapping the year at the end to tell them apart, which is stupid.
“Halloween II” is a perfectly simple and acceptable name, so we can give that a pass. Unfortunately, it was followed by “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch“. I still maintain that’s why the movie flopped at the box office and pissed off generations of fans for years to come. “Halloween: Season of the Witch” or “Season of the Witch” would have been better choices. Both take away the idea of it being a continuation of the series. Then you have “Halloween H20“. I get what they were going for, but they’ve essentially just named it “Halloween Water”. Maybe 2018’s Halloween should have been “Halloween H40″—I doubt I’m the first person to say that. The eighth installment wasn’t any better; in fact, it’s pretty redundant. It’s too late in the game to go with “resurrection”.
When we get to the “Thorn Trilogy,” it becomes clear that they ran out of ideas and just started ripping off Pink Panther titles. It’s even chronologically correct.
Let’s look at each title individually to see how each one is a cliché all on its own. First, “return” is the most common way to indicate that the killer is back or that we’re going back to the original location.
“Revenge” tells you that the killer is serious in their mission to murder for whatever vendetta they have against whoever it is they have it against.
Lastly, “curse” indicates something supernatural, which of course Mikey My-My is at this point.
I’m going to use the example of “The Amityville Curse” as a very well executed and thought-out segway into the most oversaturated franchise. Things begin to get very ridiculous, particularly with three very specific elements. As a quick disclaimer, as of writing this, I have only seen the 2005 remake but fully intend to watch the original. I am in no way planning on venturing into this franchise, so I’m working blindly here. First, the unusual location change in an effort to add some attempted creativity, even though it doesn’t really make sense.
Secondly, they delve into madcap premises that are stupid beyond belief.
Finally, there are the two holiday movies, neither of which are Halloween.
When it comes to the rest of the franchise, the titles are either generic or completely random. And of course, you need the obligatory 3D third entry from the 80s.
I’m going to go back to what I said about the three “Halloween” movies. Other franchises have done this, particularly slashers. Most recently, there was Scream and 5cream.
Then there was the Candyman legacy sequel.
And there are four Texas Chainsaw movies that practically have the same title, with the occasional “the” or “massacre” omitted. It doesn’t remove the confusion, you know.
Whenever a franchise or series decides to go back for a prequel to tell the backstory of our antagonist, the tried-and-true formula always seems to add “beginning” in some variation, usually with a “the” in front of it.
At the other end, a movie might include “final” to assure us that this is the end. Two of the big slasher franchises of the 80s lied to us with this false advertising; in fact, one of them did it twice!
One of the best horror movie sequels—by general consensus—is the 1935 follow-up to James Whale’s Frankenstein. Unfortunately, it opened the door to the “bride” title, which is mostly used as a sequel name to suggest that our main antagonist will find a murder mate.
Finally, there are the movie titles that use numbers instead of letters. This isn’t a huge trope, especially in the horror genre. But now we have 5-cream and M-3-gan, which may open the door for more attempts to be clever with numbers without using math.
It does make you wonder if some of these movies may have found greater success if the titles had been better? Definitely for Halloween 3. Not so much for the number titles; those are just a bit silly. But really, how many killers need to return or be cursed?
Linsey Loves Horror 