The 10 Best Horror Movie Franchises Ranked By Rotten Tomatoes

The 10 Best Horror Movie Franchises, Ranked By Rotten Tomatoes

Horror movie franchises don’t often get great reviews but a few have managed to have pretty solid scores when it comes to Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

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Horror movie franchises are kind of difficult to fully gauge. While they’re extremely popular and often very profitable at the box office, reviews tend to be mixed at best. Usually, the first entry gets praised and the various sequels are lackluster to the point where some would consider them to be cash grabs.

That means that trying to find the best horror film series is kind of tough since a fair number of them don’t have the most impressive reviews, especially on Rotten Tomatoes. Regardless, a handful of them have managed to average a pretty solid score across all of their entries.

10 Final Destination (43%) – Stream On HBO Max

The late ’90s marked the resurgence of the slasher genre but the 2000s began with an interesting new take on horror. Final Destination premiered and featured a protagonist who had a premonition of a catastrophe that he and a group avoided, only to have death come for them individually in creative and harrowing ways.

Although the original (35%) was certainly the most unique for its time, the sequel was seen as an improvement (48%) and featured an iconic opening scene. Surprisingly, it’s the last installment, 2011’s Final Destination 5, that has the highest score at 62%. It was seen as a return to form and featured a memorable plot twist at the end.

9 Paranormal Activity (47%) – Stream On Starz/Hulu/Paramount+/IMDb TV/Hoopla

Heading into the 2010s, it seemed like horror made another shift. A focus started going towards the things that go bump in the night, with several stories covering demonic possession and the paranormal. The most notable of them all arrived in 2009 with Paranormal Activity, which grossed nearly $200 million on a budget of less than $250,000.

It was also a critical darling, scoring a series-high 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, praised for getting the most out of its budget and the haunted house scares feeling realistic. Unfortunately, as the franchise expanded, reviews mostly dipped, bottoming out with a 14% rating for the most recent entry. Alas, a new film is on the way.

8 Insidious (49%) – Rent On Vudu

If there’s one name that has become synonymous with major horror in recent memory, it’s James Wan. The director has been behind the beginning of the Saw, The Conjuring, and the Insidious franchises. He helmed the first two Insidious films, which scored 66% and 39% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The next two films also were mixed in terms of their ratings, which is telling of the series as a whole. It either delivers something critics seem to appreciate or something they feel missed the mark, so an average right around 50% makes sense. This was another case of stories about malevolent entities possessing someone.

7 A Nightmare On Elm Street (49%) – Stream On HBO Max/Peacock

The history of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is a pretty up and down affair. The original is viewed as a legitimate horror classic, evidenced by the 94% rating. The third entry also scored well (72%), as did 1994’s New Nightmare (79%) but other installments were much more mixed.

Freddy vs. Jason crossed over two franchises and did well enough (41%) but the iconic Freddy Kruger was gone for years afterward. He finally returned to haunt more nightmares in the 2010 reboot but that turned out to be a flop at 15%, which brought the series’ average under the 50% barrier. Maybe Freddy will be back to get over the hump sometime in the future.

6 Child’s Play (54%) – Stream On Hulu/Paramount+/Peacock

It might come as a surprise to find that the Child’s Play franchise has done so well from a critical standpoint. A story about a killer doll seems like the kind of thing that could get campy quickly and wouldn’t be taken seriously. Like most horror series, it started strong (71%) but saw a dip with follow-up films (40% and 23%).

Interestingly, things rebounded in a major way during the 2010s, when nobody expected it. 2013’s Curse of Chucky (76%) and 2017’s Cult of Chucky (79%) breathed new life into the franchise. A 2019 reboot also succeeded (64%) and things have been going so well that a television series is set to premiere this year.

5 The Conjuring (55%) – Stream On Netflix/HBO Max/AMC+

When The Conjuring debuted in 2013, there was no denying that it was a hit. The box office intake was huge and the reviews were sparkling (86%) before the 2016 sequel continued the trend (80%). Still, it would’ve been hard to predict how far the franchise would expand with spinoffs like Annabelle, The Nun, and The Curse of La Llorona.

While they’ve all done well commercially, the critical response on the spin-offs has been less warm, though 2017’s Annabelle: Creation (71%) did well. They bring down the overall score, as did The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It (56%) but there’s still love for this versatile spooky series.

4 Hannibal (63%) – Stream On Roku/AMC+/HBO Max

It’s hard to get off to a better start than 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. Not only is it viewed as an all-time great horror flick but it’s also just seen one of the best movies ever made, period. The 96% rating is backed by it being the only horror movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It also took home Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Unfortunately, the sequels couldn’t live up to what the original did. 2001’s Hannibal (40%), 2002’s Red Dragon (68%), and 2007’s Hannibal Rising (16%) are widely seen as far inferior to the original but still enough to keep it ranked higher than most franchises. Plus, the Hannibal TV series is beloved (92%).

3 Scream (65%) – Stream On AMC+/Starz

The biggest reason for the slasher genre boost in the late ’90s came from Wes Craven’s Scream. The 1996 original was lauded (79%) for how it told a great horror story while also being meta on the genre itself. 1997’s sequel somehow scored even better (81%) while getting more meta about the concept of horror sequels.

In 2000, the first relative slip came according to critics, with Scream 3 scoring 40%. The franchise looked dead after three entries but 2011 brought about Scream 4, which was ahead of its time in some ways and scored an impressive 60%. The TV series also did well (61%) and a fifth film is on the way in 2022.

2 George Romero’s Dead (66%) – Stream On HBO Max/Peacock/AMC+

A lot of people hold George Romero’s series of zombie movies up as the greatest in history and there’s a lot of merit in that argument. The films span several decades and were almost all met with high praise. It started with a bang as 1968’s Night of the Living Dead has an impressive 96% rating.

He returned to the genre with 1978’s Dawn of the Dead (94%), 1985’s Day of the Dead (83%), and even found success in the 2000s with 2005’s Land of the Dead (74%) and 2007’s Diary of the Dead (62%). Almost every hit zombie movie has been influenced by Romero’s work for a reason.

1 Evil Dead (81%) – Stream On HBO Max/Starz

Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise easily has the highest average rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with every single entry scoring well. 1981’s The Evil Dead (95%) is horror royalty, with audiences still being wowed by what the director was able to accomplish with a small budget and practical effects.

1987’s Evil Dead II added a bit more comedy to the formula but was still strong (95%), while 1992’s Army of Darkness went almost all in on the laughs (73%). Fede Alvarez brought back the scares with his 2013 reboot (63%) that kept a lot of what worked originally. This is all not even counting the beloved Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series that holds a 99% rating.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-horror-film-franchies-rotten-tomatoes/

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