The Friday Four – Top Four Fourth Films in a Franchise

 

 

 

You had to know this was going to happen right?

 

By this podcast’s definition of a franchise, you have to have four movies (not including remakes). Otherwise, it’s just a trilogy or a brand. Unfortunately, by the time most franchises get to a fourth film, it’s a mangled mess of what it started as.  Below are my personal favorite fourth movies in a franchise, ranked for your pleasure.

 

It was harder than I thought it was going to be to find four decent fourth films.  Being the franchise guy, you would think I could just knock off four within seconds, but let’s be honest — there aren’t that many good fourth movies.  Now, in some franchises defense (I’m looking at you Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Hellraiser), I’ve not seen the fourth film.  I stopped watching franchise movies once I started the podcast, preferring to see them for the first time just before I podcast about them. Yeah, I have a lot of shitty fourth and fifth movies in franchises DVDs sitting around my house still unopened.  “Do you take Ron and his DVD collection…” should have been part of the vows at my wedding.

 

Perhaps I’ll revisit this sometime when I have seen more of those fourth films (and why didn’t you ever make one, Evil Dead?!).  I’d really love to knock #4 off the list.  Again, like last week, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!! That being said…

 

TOP FOUR FOURTH FILMS IN FRANCHISES

 

 

4. Scream 4

 

 

I know what you’re thinking — well, Ron’s a big Scream fan, of course this was going to make this list.  You’re not wrong, but you’re also not right. I don’t want this to be on the list because it has so many issues.  When you’re Ron’s favorite franchise, you also get picked on a lot more because you are scrutinized more. You’re like the smart kid in class who gets held to a higher standard.  Fucking standards, am I right?

 

Scream 4 is the beginning of my hatred for Emma Roberts.  The fact that neither she nor Rory Culkin are big enough to hold the Guitar Hero guitar for more than three minutes at a time, let alone pull off some of the death scenes in the film, really hurt the film’s believability. Roberts poor ability to act (you know, her profession) ruined the climax as well.  Tack on the fact that three people who always survive Scream movies again survived this one while all of our new people died and there’s a lot of negative things to point to in this movie.

 

There is a lot to like here as well. The remake idea coming at the height of the remake era works (though I wish they had done more with that in recreating some scenes from the first film).  For as much as I didn’t like Roberts, Hayden Panettiere surprised the hell out of me.  She owned every scene she was in and more than earned her horror stripes in this movie.  Something every Scream movie does well is incorporate technology as both a weapon and a device to thwart the bad guys. Scream 4 is no exception using live internet streaming, smaller cameras and shocking — one horror movie that doesn’t shy away from cell phones!

 

Toss in a small role for Alison Brie (yes, please!), give me plenty of death scenes and though my expectations where higher, I overall like the film. Yeah, I’m biased. I will say like you’re drunk Saturday night booty call, I’m just waiting for something better to come along and knock this off the list.

 

BEST DEATH SCENE: Olivia

 

It was one of the first in the film and kind of surprising as Olivia had been set up as part of the inner clique.  It was kind of a cool visual to watch the death from the house next door.

 

 

3. Tremors 4: The Legend Begins

 

 

Oh, Ron — you’ve gone crazy with these franchises you love!  I love them for a reason, people.

 

The thing I love most about the Tremors franchise is that it ups the ante every single movie.  In the first movie, they dealt with Graboids.  By the second movie, they know how to kill them. It’s a natural progression. The creators of Tremors then throw in a curve ball (The Shriekers) to put our heroes in danger. The third film added Ass Blasters.  Hell, even the fifth film went to Africa to conquer Graboids that had evolved differently.

 

The fourth film is a little different.  It’s a prequel.  It’s not a prequel of the same characters from the first film, but instead it’s a prequel to the town of Perfection that takes place 100 years earlier. We get a lot of in jokes for loyal viewers of the franchise.  Gun loving Burt Gummer’s ancestor, Hiram Gummer, is a bit of a pansy and hates guns — until the end of the film. We get the beginnings of Chang’s store.  There’s a lot to like for long time fans.

 

Here’s where the movie excels:  It not only keeps the humorous nature of the franchise intact, but it keeps the franchise’s ability to put it’s heroes in danger by tweaking the formula.  This time, Graboids are born into the area because of a hot spring in the mines. Yes, it’s a repeat of the dangers from the first film, but these people are in the mid-19th century, they don’t have the tools to fight the Graboids that the later inhabitants of Perfection will have.  That’s the twist and I love it!

 

Toss in a small but show stealing role for Billy Drago (are you sensing a pattern here?) and you got yourself one hell of a fourth movie.

 

BEST DEATH SCENE: Black Hand Kelly

 

Black Hand Kelly was the gunslinger hired by the town to take care of the Graboids — until he is eaten by one. I have spoken to Billy Drago (the actor who played Black Hand Kelly) about this death scene — he loved it! He said it was fun to film.  It looks fun!  Shame on the internet for not having this death scene posted somewhere in video form.

 

 

 

2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

 

 

If you want to continue saying that I’m biased because of the amazing interview we did with Lisa Wilcox (Alice Johnson) last year, then that’s your right.  But you’re wrong. Of all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, the fourth edition surprised me most when we went through that franchise.

 

Everyone knows the Nightmare series like the back of their hands, right?  The first and third are great movies.  The second movie is so weird that you have to watch it just to say, “What the fuck just happened?!” The rest are forgettable.  I found out that that is not quite true as The Dream Master has aged incredibly well. It has everything you want in it from a Nightmare movie.  It takes care of the surviving Dream Warriors quickly before moving on to a new set of kids who aren’t even Elm Street children (thanks a lot, Kirsten!). The death scenes are big, outlandish and gory.  Freddy is in his prime.  Linnea Quigley is in the movie for five seconds and still manages to get her tits on screen!

 

The story involving Alice obtaining the power of her friends as they die off is a continuation of the Dream Warriors storyline. Unlike the first film, people are finding out they have powers in their dreams and this is the only way to fight Freddy. Admitted, the ending is very, very weak but that seems to be par for the course in these later Nightmare movies.  Also, Freddy comes back because a dog pissed fire on him.  Hmmm….

 

I didn’t say these movies were perfect.

 

BEST DEATH SCENE: Joey

 

No longer a mute, but at his most Neve Campbellish, Joey is drowned in his own waterbed after being lured there by tits which goes to show that tits will lead you down the wrong path!

 

 

1. Friday the 13th Part Four: The Final Chapter

 

 

It wasn’t really the final chapter was it?

 

Friday the 13th scholars (those exist, right?) agree that Friday the 13th Part 2 – Friday the 13th Part 4 are the meat of the franchise and the best movies in the franchise.  It’s the basic Jason Voorhees formula and there’s nothing wrong with that.

 

I think of those three films, Part Four is the strongest.  If you were going to show a friend who had never seen a Friday film before, this is probably the one you would show them.  There’s a little bit of comedy, a couple of nude scenes, Jason kills a lot, it introduces Tommy Jarvis to the franchise and Jason is murdered in a horrific manner — you could say in a manner that almost anyone could not come back from.

 

Friday 4 was supposed to be Jason’s last hurrah as the mask was to be passed to Tommy for a few movies before being passed to someone else.  While you may not be able to imagine anyone else under the mask — this about this for a moment; would have really been that bad?  Big dude under mask killing people just with a different name. The best part would have been new storylines so we don’t have Jason in New York, Hell or Space.

 

But I digress.

 

The only negative in this entry of the franchise would be the death of Rob, who was looking for revenge for his sister who had died in a previous installment of the franchise. The director went for an artistic, allegedly more heartbreaking death scene but it came off very weak as anyone who has seen the film can attest to.

 

That one little hiccup is not enough to knock Friday the 13th Part 4: The Final Chapter off it’s perch as the best fourth movie in a franchise…so far.

 

BEST DEATH SCENE: Samantha

 

There are a lot of great death scenes in this film, but I’m going with Samantha. Not only do we get to see a nude Judie Aronson, but a knife in the gut through an inflated raft is pretty badass in itself.  Special shout out to the banana eating hitchhiker, however!