Nato And Remy’s Last Stand: Franchise Killing Horror Sequels

Nato – Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

Take my favorite slasher icon and make a bad sequel, shame on you. Take my favorite slasher icon and churn out franchise killing sequel, shame on anyone who let Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare see the light of day.

Seriously, Freddy Krueger is the most creative and devilishly lovable horror icon to grace the genre (don’t bother debating because that will be a discussion for another week). He’s terribly scary, fighting you when you’re at your most vulnerable, he’s damn near invincible in dream world, toys with your psyche while maliciously torturing you, and does it with a twisted smile on his face. So HOW did director Rachel Talalay turn Freddy Krueger into a lame one-liner spewing horror dweeb not worth a damn. Such a low point in horror history.

The film abandoned all horror and painted Freddy as more of a comedic talent, and albeit an unfairly unfunny one, stripping Krueger of the things that made him worthy of fear – solid kills. His death scenes are always amazingly brutal yet fiendishly creative, feeding off fears and dispatching victims with horrific violence. In Freddy’s Dead: The Nightmare Begins though, the kills become bad sketch comedy scenes not wished upon the worst horror comedy, and Krueger himself isn’t even a main force in some of them. I think immediately to Breckin Meyer being stuck inside the video game or the young girl being pulled into the TV, which are some of the lowest moments in A Nightmare On Elm Street history. Both laughs and scares are left out of said scenes, mixing two genres with the worst of results.

Freddy’s Dead: The Nightmare Begins was made with the worst of intentions and by a creative team who obviously knew nothing about what the character represents, and his blatant misuse resulted in one of the most disappointing and fail-tastic exploits of any horror icon to date. Jason, Michael, Chucky, and the rest all have their lowest of lows, and Freddy is no different.  Thanks a lot Rachel Talalay.

Now it’s your turn!  Feel free to let Remy and I know how we did with our selections, and let us know if we missed any films which killed some of your favorite horror franchises!

*A special thanks to Remy for stepping in to guest write!  Feel free to follow either of us on Twitter for even more insanity and updates:

Matt Donato Follow @DoNatoBomb

Remy Carreiro Follow @RemyCarreiro

Like what you read?  Check out last week’s article where we pick some of our favorite horror films selectable on Netflix’s Watch Instantly!