7 Horror Movies that Have the Longest-Running Franchises

Horror movies have always been one of the most popular genres in film because they can be very thrilling and suspenseful for viewers. 

Some horror movies are even turned into long-running franchises that span many years, with new installments being released periodically. 

Here are the top 7 horror movie franchises that have had the longest-running time so far. You can visit this site to read more about the most successful movie franchises of all time. 

Friday The 13th

Friday the 13th is a popular horror movie franchise that has lasted for a long time – 12 slasher films, to be exact. It continues to be popular as it provides psychological thrills and suspense to viewers.

This series does not have a single excellent installment that entirely justifies its existence. At their peak in the 1980s, they were mass-produced stalk-and-kill films with an occasional injection of skill (Joseph Zito’s “The Final Chapter, “containing Tom Savini’s A-plus visual effects work) or a sense of humor (Tom McLoughlin’s “Jason Lives” and James Isaac’s space-bound “Jason X”).

They’re also the purest embodiment of the low-aiming slasher mindset, and as such, are either completely your thing or completely not. These films are at their bloodiest when they gather a group of horny, pot-smoking teenagers and allow Jason Voorhees to slaughter them one by one in inventively gory fashion.

The only episode that is unwatchable, according to many fans, is the telekinetically terrible “The New Blood”.

Halloween

Halloween is a popular horror movie franchise consisting of twelve movies that have continued to entertain with thrills and chills since 1978. 

If you happen to be one of the rare human beings on earth who don’t know what Halloween is all about, you can check this article on the history of Halloween. 

The Halloween series starts with the story of Michael Myers, who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for killing his sister on Halloween night. Fifteen years later, he manages to escape and returns home to kill again. All of Michael’s killings happen on the day of Halloween.

Throughout the years, many film watchers have given their individual opinions on which of the twelve Halloween movies is the best. It appears that the first of them, Halloween (1978), still holds the title as the best one yet. 

This series remains a great horror movie franchise, and with two more movies scheduled to be released in 2021 and 2022, there’s still more to come!

A Nightmare on Elm Street

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a successful horror film franchise that has spanned nine separate movie installments due to its ability to deliver viewers with both thrills and shivers. There are series, novels, and comic books covered by this franchise too.

This horror movie series is well known for its popular villain named Fred “Freddy” Krueger, who haunts the dreams of his victims in fictional Springwood, Ohio,  and kills them in their sleep.

The original movie starts with a teenage girl named Tina Gray stalked by this evil creature in her nightmares. She tells her boyfriend about this nightmare, and he does not believe her. Tina and several of her friends soon start having nightmares, and they all get together to try and figure out how to escape their dreams.

The most recent movie from this series came on board in 2010. All the attempts to introduce a new film to the franchise have not worked out. But, even without a recent release, A Nightmare on Elm Street remains in the top three highest-grossing horror series of all time.

Saw 

From 2004 — 2010, horror movie fans had their plates full with movies from the Saw series. Made by Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannell, this franchise is home to nine films.

Jigsaw, the fictional killer in this horror series, is still remembered in horror movie conversations today. John Kramer (aka Jigsaw) was known for trapping his victims and subjecting them to extreme psychological torture, all so he could test their will to live.

As a pointer to the Saw franchise success, the movies altogether grossed above $1 billion as of 2009. This year, in 2021, the Saw series continues with a ninth movie titled Spiral and will feature award-winning actor Chris Rock.

Alien

Alien is one of the most popular horror film franchises, consisting of six films that began in 1979.

Alien is about an extraterrestrial beast known as an “Alien” that kills with acid rather than teeth. The alien predator (Xenomorph) was found in space, destroying an entire space shuttle team.

The first of the Alien series became a hit in 1979 when it was released. James Cameron directed the second movie in the sequel, and it was also a box office favorite. The ones that followed were, however, not as impressive as the first two. They’re still pretty scary, though.

Universal’s “The Mummy”

The Mummy franchise spawned six films, but Boris Karloff could only reprise his role as the resurrected Imhotep for one more time. 

Tom Tyler, Lon Chaney Jr., and Eddie Parker all took turns under the gauze. Still, unlike the other Universal franchises, none of the sequels even came close to matching the original’s quality, and it’s the least engaging of the legendary series (reboots included).

Child’s Play

The first installment of the “Child’s Play” series was released way back in 1988, and since then, they have released exactly eight films. 

That is a total of 25 years of new “Child’s Play” movies being released without any break or pause between releases, making it one of the longest-running franchises in horror movies.

There has been a strange story going around about two of the Child’s Play franchises that is quite fascinating. You can check that out; you will find it interesting. 

Wrapping it Up

Although horror movies as such is a very old concept, as we can see from the above list that most of these monsters and paranormal beings started off in the twentieth century, and it’s only after gaining immense popularity and success did they go on to appear in more than one sequel. 

But what cannot be denied is the fact that all these monster characters have managed to do the impossible of winning over both audiences and critics, even after having such long breaks between two films. 

Thus, if you can make a crowd-pleasing horror movie, there is nothing like too much of its sequel.