Movie Studios Want to Start Over With Franchises, If Audiences Will Let Them

Trying to right the wrongs of past movie missteps is as easy as making another film and hoping audiences will just forget about what has already happened in the franchise. A slew of horror films are attempting to provide new origin stories for some well-known horror villains.

Friday the 13th Reboot Coming

Friday the 13th should eventually return to theaters with a retooled backstory. Jason Vorhees' history has always been a bit of a head-scratcher partly because audiences can’t even be sure whether the machete-wielding maniac is a ghost, a demon, or just an extremely resilient human who stays in great shape. The obvious conclusion is that he is just an immortal demonic entity, but that assumption may change with a new film which will revamp his origins. Jason's vengeful mother, Pamela will return but little is known to what capacity. How this new version of Friday the 13th turns out is a mystery. Audiences may be given a much clearer understanding of who Jason became. Or it may just be an excuse to milk a few extra bucks from an exhausted franchise.

Blair Witch

Halloween Returns on Hiatus

Halloween Returns has been temporarily canceled after Dimension films lost the rights. Dimension has owned the franchise since 1995's Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. The new film was expected to be released in 2017. Just because the project is lacking a home currently, doesn't mean it won’t find a home soon. Plans for Halloween Returns include a complete overhaul of the Michael Myers story or at least as far back as the 1981 sequel. The first two films take place in the same night. The third film turned away from the slasher storyline in favor of a premise involving a mask-maker who is trying to kill the town's children.

Halloween Returns wants to pretend that didn't happen along with every film that followed. Even 1998's well-received Halloween H20 is to be forgotten despite its elevated quality among the franchise.

Jeepers Creepers Installment Coming

Jeepers Creepers 3 is set for release in 2017 with Gina Philips as Trish returning. It will be sixteen years since the first film and fourteen since its lesser sequel. Victor Silva, the filmmaker responsible for the first two films will return to close the series. This, of course, is what they all say until the film makes more money than expected and a fourth film becomes a possibility. Silva promises that the third entry will have Trish destroy the Creeper forever while also providing a backstory for the menacing organ snatcher.

Blair Witch Kicks Things Off

Whether these films will succeed with their intentions remains to be seen. September will bring the first in horror film franchises making up for their past indiscretions with Blair Witch. Audiences may be willing to completely forget about the embarrassing 2000 sequel Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 and revel in the original's legacy. Sometimes franchises need a reset button, sometimes they don't.

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