10 Horror Movies Ruined By Listening To The Fans
When it comes to movie franchises, in this case, horror movies, film studios would give the audience what they want from sequels and prequels of their favourite movies.
In film trilogies, for example, the ten Fast and Furious movies and two spin-offs have been a phenomenal success by giving the audience what they want and not being ruined by listening to fans.
Alternatively, the Alien franchise created by Director Ridley Scott spawned the Alien and Prometheus franchises. Both petered out due to fan service and the reputation of story arcs in the later movies that lacked originality.
The plots of the movie Alien 2, Alien Resurrection, and Alien Covenant are just repetitions of the movies Aliens (1986) and the original Alien movie 1979 or some other combinations of the first two movies.
1. Alien covenant
Alien Covenant (2017) was created due to the performance of the first movie Prometheus (2012), which was to be more of an original developing series of films being linked partially to the original Alien franchise bringing new creativity to the franchise.
The failures at the box office led to Director Ridley Scott and 20th Century Fox Entertainment Studios deciding to take the franchise in a new direction, scrapping the original plot for the Prometheus trilogy.
Instead, they returned to the old format, redoing what was already successful in the original Alien movies.
Alien Covenant abandons the character Elizabeth Shaw and destroys the alien engineer plot in a cloud of black particles at the start of Alien Covenant.
In the new movie, there was a heavy return of xenomorphs, face suckers, and action scenes that brought nothing new to the franchise and only made fans happy by giving them what they wanted.
Unfortunately, by listening to fans and delivering them a watered-down version of Alien Resurrection and the classic format of the Alien movies, it killed off the resurrection of the Alien franchise, and its intended spin-off franchise Prometheus killed off in the cradle.
2. Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers
There was a six-year gap between Halloween 3, The Season of the Witch (1982) due to underperformance at the cinema and Halloween 4, Return of Michael Myers (1988).
Due to the failures of Halloween 3, the studio tried to move away from the anthology format; unfortunately, the fan base cried foul about the changes to the Halloween horror movie trilogy, which ruined the films due to an outcry and studios listening to their fans.
Unfortunately, by listening to fans and returning to the slasher Horror movie format, the movie became a dud with the writers going on strike and the movie plot made in just 11 days.
However, this is not necessarily bad because Sylvester Stallone wrote the original Rocky movie in 1975. Within three days of Watching Muhammad Ali defeat Chuck Wepner.
What went wrong with this movie was the writers trying to give the fans what they wanted, but by giving them what they wanted, it ruined the film by listening to fans.
Instead of going with the original Intended for Halloween 4, which was the return of Michael Myers due to the spiritual energy created from fear enabling him to return, this plot idea had the blessing of John Carpenter, the original creator of the Halloween trilogy in 1978.
What made Holloween 4 a failure for studios was playing it safe and trying to satisfy fans by listening to fans, it led to the movie’s failure due to ultimately trying to play it safe.
3. Us
This psychological thriller is a mental movie, and horror drama focused on psychological elements that traditional slasher horror fans did not enjoy.
People were listening to fans wanting to see this horror movie partially due to the success of its director Jordan Peele with his previous successful horror movie Get Out (2017).
The horror movie US (2019) was ruined partially due to fans expecting the same finesse and quality which director John Peele gave to the horror movie Get Out, which he had been working on for over four years, Compared to the film US which was less than two years.
Due to the lack of development of the story and the characters battling their double ganger, the movie became surreal and vague, which meant that the viewers had to reach their own conclusions to understand the movie’s ending.
A successful film is to show rather than tell, which was what was expected after the success of Get Out ruined the movie.
4. Resident Evil Apocalypse
The franchise Resident Evil originally began as a video game series which became a movie trilogy which has divided and has been controversial for fans due to the movies not incorporating plot points and characters from the original games.
In response to fans’ criticisms of the original Resident Evil movie (2002) was Resident Evil Apocalypse (2004), which aimed to start bringing in characters such as Jill and Carlos from the original Resident Evil games and bringing more elements from the game trilogy.
Unfortunately, due to production costs, villains such as Nemesis looked like Doctor Who villains of the 1970s and 80s, becoming recurring themes throughout the trilogy of movies.
So what ruined this franchise was listening to fans prevent the Resident Evil trilogy of films from reaching its true potential by becoming a franchise separate from the games, focusing on the zombie apocalypse, not the supernatural elements added throughout the trilogy.
5. Saw The Final Chapter
What began the failure of Saw the Final Chapter was studios listening to fans and cashing in on the 3D craze with a murky aesthetic throughout the movie so that it would appeal to 3D fans and the design choices that go into a 3D film.
The franchise was milking the last of its creativity with fan service and fanfiction using the character Dr Gordon who saw his foot off in the first Saw movie (2004), where fans believed for quite some time that he became an acolyte of Jigsaw.
The fans finally got this in Saw The Final Chapter (2010). Still, by this time, the plots of the trilogy of movies were becoming repetitious, repeating the same stories with Jigsaw acolytes trying to carry on his legacy.
What ultimately killed this franchise or, at the very least, placed it into stasis was the filmmakers listening to fans and not bringing anything new to the franchise due to a focus on fan service or fear of rocking the boat regarding the film format.
6. Hostel
The Hostel is a horror movie where a secret organisation kidnapped and tortures backpackers on a trip. Director Eli Roths created the film, which brought along his fan base and expectations as one of the most fantastic horror movie makers by fans.
What killed this movie was people listening to fans and the overhyped being generated by fans raising expectations which any movie would find hard to live up to the imaginations of horror fans.
Fans are far from the only ones responsible for ruining this movie; the blame lies with the studio and the marketing team that got Quentin Tarantino to endorse this movie on advertisements and posters.
What happened with Hostel was the movie was oversold and undelivered by the studio by comparing it to movies like the Exorcist (1973), ultimately driving fans into a frenzy of expectations that made this movie a dud.
7. Land of The Dead
Director George A Romero was leading the movie project Land of the Dead (2005); he had over 40 years of experience directing and is the father of modern-day zombie-style movies.
His knowledge and expertise created a fan overhype with his new zombie movie, leading to the belief that he would re-energise and bring something new to the genre.
Instead, what in the film was plot lines such as intelligent zombies and the classic zombies eat brains and battle human dynamics that have been in countless zombie films.
Romero needed more ideas for his movie Land of The Dead, which is a fantastic popcorn movie, but the fans’ expectations and what they wanted from the movie sadly ruined the movie.
Ultimately, the movie is unsuccessful with fans’ expectations of something new from the zombie genre after the successes of films like 28 Days Later (2002) and Shaun of the Dead (2004).
8. Glass
Glass (2019) is a psychological horror about a character with 24 personalities; the movie also works as a sequel movie Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016), with both films starring Bruce Willis.
James McAvoy gives a star-stunning and transformative performance worthy of Daniel Day-Lewis however, the movie has oversold due to fans’ expectations, with this movie also being marketed as the long-awaited sequel to the film Unbreakable.
Unfortunately, throughout the movie, there were excessive twists, barren dialogue and expectations from the previous two films, which built up too many expectations for fans.
The partial weakness of the dialogue would be due to Bruce Willis’s deteriorating health; ultimately, the movie is good, but listening to the fan’s expectations ruined the film in the final act of the trilogy.
9. Army of The Dead
Director Zack Snyder created the movie Army of The Dead (2021), which was ruined by listening fans because of Snyders reputation as a director and being perceived as a potential saviour of the DC cinematic universe led fans to over hyping his movie projects.
Snyder’s previous success in the zombie genre in his movie Dawn of the Dead (2004) only increased fans’ expectations, and because people were listening to fans, it only meant Army of the Dead had further depths to fall.
Even before Army of the Dead was viewed, the movie was being promoted as a new cinematic universe, which fed expectations from director Zack Snyder.
Ultimately the movie was underwhelming in the predictable plot points with no big payoffs throughout the film due to fans’ expectations from listening to the news released before about the quality of this movie.
10. Halloween’s End
Michael Myers’s trilogy of horror movies ends after 45 years; in the final film Halloween End (2022), there have been many failures and few successes in the Halloween trilogy of movies.
Unfortunately, listening to fans’ expectations despite past failures only set this film up for failure With the confrontation when Laurie Strode and her tormentor Michael Myers not giving the fan base the satisfaction they were hoping for.
The previous Halloween movie Halloween kills (2021) even led to fans petitioning to remove the film, adding to a string of bad movies such as the Halloween Curse of Michael Myers (1996), Halloween Resurrection (2002), and Halloweens End, which has another petition to change the film.
Still, despite this, fans ruined this movie despite it having some improvements from the previous film again due to declining quality movie never really stood a chance.
