10 Films That Would Make a Great Franchise

One of the most impressive feats of being a horror fan is the fact that it offers tons of variety out there due to the early mindset of harnessing the power of the franchise to churn out dozens and dozens of titles in a series that formed a cohesive storyline. Some of the genre's most important and beloved titles are entries in a particular franchise, and most can at least trace their first film back to a particular entry played on TV or stumbled upon in the video store that at the least gave us our first introduction to the genre.

But at the same time, there's a large stream of titles out there that really could've been granted a more renown fate than what befell them. Not given the same treatment as efforts like "Friday the 13th," "Halloween," "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or even efforts like "The Gingerdead Man," "Puppet Master," and "Leprechaun" which have all spread their storylines across numerous films tied together. Maybe some of these efforts would have been better remembered had they been granted with a franchise of their own, but regardless all of them have something to offer that would've made for a decent and compelling franchise all their own.

So, two guidelines for this project. First, the film must have at the most a sequel but that's it. I did try to limit this to stand-alone films, but there are a few entries here that do have a sequel which really could've used another entry or two to explore more of the storyline or even just had an idea or two that could've been played with a little more. Secondly, the film must have little to no recognition outside the main exploits of the genre, as this is about bringing out efforts through having a franchise. Lastly, there must be no interest in reviving the film or continuing the exploits of their adventures anytime soon.

So, with that done, let’s take a look and see what we come up with.

10. Bubba Ho-Tep-

One of the greatest cult film efforts of recent memory, this rather riotous effort really has a lot to say about the concept of old-age and memory loss while detailing the fun of a monster movie within that confine. There's a lot of rather fun and somewhat dark work that is rather oddly featured here, this alternate timeline story of Elvis Presley switching places with an imposter and that individual dying while the real Elvis now stuck in a nursing home in Texas where he's forced to confront a reanimated mummy stealing the souls of the residents within is quite an impressive enough effort and has a lot to like overall within.

So why would this make a good choice for a franchise? The idea of having Elvis being a kind of Kolchak-styled supernatural detective crossing paths with all manner of creatures or villains could make a fun time. Obviously, 'Bubba Nosferatu' would be made and included in this timeline, but we'd expand it out to feature plenty of other creatures from werewolves to zombies to other kinds of monsters and supernatural ghosts or creatures of all kinds which would be quite fun and enjoyable. When you know that you're going to kill off the series, there's your out to have him survive but be stricken with the injury to place him in the home at the beginning of this one and be a surprise prequel to end it.

9. Neon Maniacs-

One of my underrated favorites, this is quite a fun creature feature about a race of strange creatures living under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. They end up going on a rampage in a local community and force a group of friends to come together to stop them with the authorities unconvinced about their existence, and while a product of the times there's some fun here. The creatures are unique and memorable, there's a sense of fun cheese on display and overall it's far more fun than expected.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? Well, several reasons exist for that, starting with the creatures themselves as the opportunity to explore several of the more interesting or lesser developed beings can be done in greater detail. As well, the chance at presenting other races of these creatures living in different parts of the country could be a lot of fun and offer up exploring more of the creatures in the process is quite a fun proposition which also has the side benefit of explaining away the creatures' weakness. That really needs to be fixed.

8. Demonic Beauty (aka Krasue)-

A Thai horror film from 2002, this one concerns one of the more chilling legends of Asian folklore involving the Pennangalan, an evil spirit with the head of a woman connected to a spinal column holding their entire inner organs dangling beneath floating around the countryside killing people who come across its thirst for blood. There’s numerous variations of the legend (some dependant on the country of origin you’re referring to) and is really one of the more enjoyable efforts based on that story.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? Several reasons, namely the fact that this particular legend has so few titles utilizing this rather chilling and terrifying creature. Wikipedia and the IMDb have cultivated barely a dozen titles featuring this spirit, and it really could use a series of films filling in the gap in the social conscious to make it a more notably boogeyman. This Thai variation, wherein it’s treated as an affliction that can befell people somewhat similar to a curse, offers up the chance to fix that as it can explore the idea of several people coming down with this affliction, or even more about people coming into contact with it. There’s a lot to explore here with this myth, and that makes this a solid choice for a franchise.

7. Project: Metalbeast-

One of the most underrated and enjoyable efforts in the genre, this piece of somewhat forgotten werewolf lore features a secret military operation testing a synthetic fiber that resembles metallic skin for surgery in order to allow patients to survive longer in the procedure. In the process, they inadvertently realize their target was bitten by a werewolf years ago and has now been revived and begins stalking the crew inside the maximum security facility. With Kane Hodder as the werewolf and early turns by Barry Botswick, Kim Delaney alongside some solid mid-90s gore, this turns it into a rather enjoyable feature.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? There are several fine reasons, firstly, the fact is that there’s just not a whole lot of werewolf franchises out there, as ‘The Howling’ is really the only one out there. Let’s not kid ourselves, the vampires are the main one in ‘Underworld’ and have been from the beginning, but that just makes the point: there are so few good werewolf stories out there that need to be explored which can work quite well here. You can also turn this into what happens with the creatures in various states of the world around them, practicing with the concept of the surgery and all manner of fun ideas that can go into this one. This standalone concept can certainly generate plenty of potentially intriguing and interesting ideas that a series exploring that or even just putting a seemingly-indestructible metal-skinned werewolf on the loose can really go somewhere.

6. The Jitters-

A highly enjoyable, cheesy horror-comedy from the late 80s when that was the trend in horror at the time, this one sought to meld the phenomenal ‘Mr. Vampire’ films in Hong Kong about the jiangsi, a traditional Chinese variant on the living dead mythos which effectively started a trend of so-called Hopping Vampires which are some of the best films during that period which is certainly an accomplishment. Still, this one brought that style to America with the story about a gang coming across a local shop-owner in Little China who has a hopping vampire in his basement who gets loose after his death and forces a medicine man to bring the creature down.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? There’s a lot of fun that can be had with the idea at play here of the creatures loose in an urban location, something that the Hong Kong films couldn’t utilize which took place out in the countryside. Here, you have plenty of opportunities for the creatures to target a small suburb or town, the option of them coming across various groups of people (the idea of a Chinese hopping vampire coming across a high-school prom or even a Halloween party on campus is the kind of cheesy goodness that must be exploited) and the method of including comedy and martial arts would make for some fun, fast-moving films. There’s a lot of work to go here with these out-of-their-element creatures, and being a franchise is a great way to capitalize on that.

5. DEATHGASM (natch, Deathgasm)-

So, after getting past the obvious joke featured here in the title, this is one of the finest and most purely enjoyable genre entries in recent memory. Concerning a heavy metal-loving teen who moves into his conservative cousin's house and joining up with a local youth in a raucous metal band who accidentally use a secret spell that raise a horde of demons that overtake their town, this riotous effort is an absolute blast of silly juvenile humor, outrageous gore-gags, furious heavy metal and even touching moments of heart wrapped together into an essential effort in the genre.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? There are several routes that can be taken with this one, and it's plainly obvious where it can go in those directions. Initially, it can be set up in the same town where his attempts to start a new band cause the same events all over again with a different demon after the events of the first one allowed it to come to Earth, and from there we can get a series of unrelated films detailing similar events happening around the world. Those can take place either with people not believing the story and trying it for themselves only to learn it's all too real to just doing it all over again through sheer coincidence with different bands. This is definitely a concept that can go several different ways and it's quite intriguing to see what can happen in those cases.

4. Darklight-

A SyFy Channel original feature from 2005 (which meant it appeared on Sci-Fi then), this one always struck me as a highly enjoyable and underrated effort. The story concerns a woman who finds that she’s the reincarnation of a demon who appears to be humanity’s only hope against a creature running loose. It’s certainly all that terrible of an effort, it’s got a few good things about it as these demonic killings and battles are quite decent and certainly good enough to at the very least give it a look.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? Simply, the story can really be expanded upon and goes into several different directions. Based on the central premise of this one investigating crimes with supernatural powers behind them and then coming across what’s really happening, there’s a potential here for some really intriguing films here that can become a mixture of CSI and Underworld in the sense of having to investigate the crime at the beginning and then leading into the confrontations with the main threat in some nice action pieces that still had a horror-based background to it all. This really could depend all on what the threat would be, but overall it’s quite likely that a few good ideas can come from the idea of a half-demon/half-human woman battling supernatural creatures.

3. Fido-

An incredibly enjoyable zombie effort, which details a fictional reality where a worldwide zombie apocalypse was overthrown and have now domesticated the creatures and the adventures that befalls a family that took on the titular zombie, is one of the more original entries in the genre. There’s a lot to like with this endearing and surprisingly engaging effort.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? This here is one of the most intensive world-building efforts in the genre, and there’s so much more to explore here. How does the company work? What is the domestication process? What about the different suburbs around the world? What’s it like in the big cities? How would this society be like in ten, fifteen years, or at other points in time? It offers the potential for so many different and unique spins to take on this particular universe that a series of films not only exploring but expanding on this start-up story really offers limitless possibilities to do that.

2. Dog Soldiers-

One of the greatest modern horror films ever made, this highly impressive effort concerns a squadron of soldiers in the British countryside who come face-to-face with their intended war-game targets having been turned into werewolves, is just all around fun and is good enough to be ranked up on top of the genre being a debateable Top 3 entry for these films.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? Well, several reasons. Frankly, repeat everything I said earlier in the 'Project: Metalbeast' write-up as that also applies here as well. There's also the idea of werewolves turned from a squad of soldiers and using that military training to launch attacks on people that can be quite fun, since you can just put them in different locations and situations. As well, though rumors of a sequel originally emerged several years after it’s release it hasn’t shown up yet and that’s a real shame not to follow up this classic.

1. Mimesis-

Quite simply one of the most original and creative horror films around, this surprisingly new take on the genre finds a group of horror fans who attended a convention who are drugged and wake up in a field forced to play out the events of the film ‘Night of the Living Dead’ with a group of fanatic obsessives who are keeping them on track of the movie.

So why would this make a good choice to become a franchise? Obviously, this one really has the opportunity a wide range of films if this one goes for the same set-up of having people being forced to play out the scenarios of their favorite horror films. You can take numerous classics and make people believe that they have been dropped into a classic horror film and seeing if they can use the knowledge found within to try and survive, which amounts to all sorts of fun that can be found as the common scenes and tropes can be exploited and twisted around yet remain oddly familiar. Not only that, it also flirts with but never engages the dreaded feeling of a remake which can be a point of contention with these kinds of films as a whole. That makes this such a potentially fun series to explore and makes it the number one choice to be turned into a franchise.