Best Horror Franchise: Child's Play, Elm Street, Friday the 13th, or Halloween?
 

I vote Child's Play for several reasons:

1) Chucky is the most interesting villain (although you can argue Freddy).

2) Child's Play has the highest ratio of quality entries to bad ones (1, 2, and Bride are all great, 3 and Seed not so much.)

3) I just like the series better.

This is not meant to start a debate or argument, I'm just curious how the rest of the forum feels on the subject. Oh and in case you are wondering why these 4 series got picked, they were the biggest in their eras and are all still relevent today.

Where's the other option, for great franchises such as Critters, Ghoulies or Troll? :)

You could have added Scream to represent a 1990's franchise that is still relevant today (though I presonally don't care for the sequels) and Saw to represent this decade's most relevant (arguably so) horror franchise.

That said - I'll vote for the Nightmare series because I always had the most fun watching them when I was kid.

Friday the 13th.

The original is a classic and a great slasher, but once Jason popped up for 2-4 the series really got going. He was a savage retard hellbent on protecting his sacred ground. He lived off the land, he devised intricate ways to kill teens and he was unstoppable, just not zombie unstoppable. Once that Jason came around in part 6 the series began a gradual downhill slide, but 6 and 7 are both very entertaining entries. Part 8, not so much - same for part 9. Jason X was more fun than it had any right to be. I have high hopes for the remake after viewing the footage.

Second place would go to Halloween. The original and part II make for great back-to-back viewing. Part 4 is pretty good, part 5 is pretty bad. Resurrection is decent, but the mythology angle sucked. H20 was redemption for the series with old storyline revived and new life given to the series. Busta Rhymes was in part 8 - 'nuff said. Zombie's remake was misguided and sloppy, but it still looked good and had one of the best masks of the series. I hope the follow-up fixes the deficiencies of that film.

Third goes to Freddy. The original is a near-flawless horror film with a perfect score by Charles Bernstein. The 2nd film had a weird homoerotic storyline, but it wasn't half bad. Part 3 is the best of the sequels by far. Part 4 is almost right up there with it. 5 is kinda weak. 6 is hard to get through. 7 is mostly unwatchable. Freddy vs. Jason was big dumb fun, but not a great film. The proposed remake will suck, no doubt there.

Next up is Leatherface. With the exception of part 4 the classic series is awesome. The original is a horror milestone, nothing needs to be said about it. Part 2 is insanely grotesque and a ton of fun to watch. Part 3 is very dark and has some great family moments. The less said about part 4 the better. The remake and it's sequel are largely forgotten by me. They don't hold up.

Finally, Chucky. The original is tense, creepy and without all the crappy humor of the sequels. Parts 2 and 3 are too tongue in cheek, although 2 is a better film than 3. Bride was bad. Seed looked so horrid I never bothered with it. The remake sounds interesting, since some principals are involved, but I doubt it will top the original.

^ KillerCannibal - I couldn't have typed it better myself. :)

I would probably rank them the exact same way, and your summaries fall pretty much in line with my thinking.

I'm not trying to start an argument, but come on, Bride>>>>>>>>>>Jason X

Same as KillerCannibal's list, I would just switch the positions of Halloween and Elm Street. At least the Elm Street series has some creative and imaginative death scenes, rather than typical-slasher rehash seen in the Halloween franchise.

Chucky is my number 1 all time 'horror icon' so Child's Play gets my vote...

Exactly
Basket Case trilogy is my fav

Halloween edges out Friday the 13th for me. The other 2 series I don't care for at all.

personally i enjoy the PHANTASM series over all of them

Wrong.

I'll agree with you there. My only complaint with the later Elm St. films was that Freddy was basically a parody of his former savage self. At least they never let Michael speak, but I do agree he can be VERY predictable with his killings. A big steak knife can only go so far. Even though I put Michael ahead of Freddy, I could easily switch those depending on what day you asked me.

Can't say I disagree with you there. Even though it's a different beast all it's own the phirst philm is phantastic. One of the best horror films ever made, largely due to it's ambiguity and nebulous plot devices. You literally can't guess what'll happen next. I love the entire series, even the oft-maligned OblIVion.

As far as movie series' go, NOES is probably the best. Aside from Part 2, which is an interesting sequel, each movie, for the most part attempts to follow up the previous while standing alone. 3 and 4 are real surprises (4 is my favorite), and 5, while flawed, is pretty creepy. Freddy's Dead is just awful, and it's a shame that the worst in the series is the last one. New Nightmare is an awesome, albeit overlong movie, but it's not really a sequel. As far as quality and continuity goes, I go with Freddy.

But my favorite will always be Halloween, even though the series is a narrative mess. The best way to look at the series is not as one saga, but as a saga with different paths.

I, II, 4, 5, 6 - For those interested in following Loomis
I, II, H20, Resurrection - For those interested in following Laurie
I-Resurrection - For those who just don't care or can bullshit a rationalization connecting 4, 5, and 6, to 7 and 8.

I love them all, but since 4 and 5 lead to the god-awful 6 and since H20 leads to resurrection, I like to look at them as a trilogy (I, II, and H20). There, that's MY Halloween.

Overall, my favorite is Friday the 13th.

Of those, probably Friday. My favorite, Saw.

Tough decision: Halloween 1 and 2 are better than any of the films in the other series, but the remainder of the Halloween series ranges from bizarrely unrelated to boring. The Friday the 13ths are of a lower quality, but the series as a whole is more cohesive and consistent than the Halloweens. Nightmare/Elm Street I don't find scary at all. Child's Play, I have only seen the first one.

Friday the 13th gets my vote.

I should get around to watching all of these sometime this October, maybe for the challenge :)

Nightmare on Elm Street
Friday the 13th
Halloween
Child's Play

I can't really say why I like them in this order... most of you guys make great points that I agree with. :shrug:

I'm going to go with none of the above. The debut films in these franchises run the gamut from superb to mildly entertaining, but other than perhaps Halloween II or New Nightmare, the sequels are all pretty bad.

You do know SISKEL & EBERT hated FRIDAY THE 13TH and have blasted that series.

What does that have to do with anything?

That's the one thing that keeps Halloween from out of the top spot. The first is arguably not only the best slasher movie, but the best horror movie ever. As a stand alone movie it is definitely a cut above, and I put it along side Jaws and Psycho. As a franchise, it turns into shit and stays that way pretty fast.

For me it's Nightmare on Elm Street. It has some of the coolest deaths, the most interesting mythology (of those listed - things like Hellraiser give it a run for its money though), and as a franchise is more consistent than Halloween or Friday.

It's been a long time since I've seen any of the Child's Play movies so I really can't comment on them either way, but I'm pretty sure they won't unseat Nightmare as the best series in my eyes. Some of the Elm Street movies are really bad, and Freddy's Dead and Part 2 are nearly unwatchable to me, but the Heather Landencamp<sp?> entries are pretty fantastic. And 4 and 5 are fun in their own way. These have a special place in my heart as they were ran in syndication on a seemingly endless loop when I was younger.

Friday the 13th for me.

I've seen and liked all of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, but there's something in the perceived seriousness of Jason that Freddy just doesn't have (not since the first Elm St. anyway).

Child's Play was fun when I was younger but I've never had any interest in the sequels at all. They just got too silly for me.

Halloween is a series that just doesn't register for me. I really like John Carpenter classics but even the original Halloween is just blah. It might have something to do with seeing it well after I experienced multiple Friday the 13ths though.

I definitely give Friday that. It's scary in a way that Nightmare couldn't be past the first movie. Even the worst Friday movies are still tense and can scare you, whereas the Nightmares turn into comedy/action/light-horror movies.