View Full Version : Horror 'JUMP THE SHARK' Contest
OK - a simple idea (and probably been done before but i don't remember it and i'm old so tough noogies):
Arguably every horror franchise has a 'jump the shark' moment (for those who don't know 'jump the shark' means the point at which a tv show or franchise goes off the rails into the realm of hte silly or pathetic - the phrase is derived from the episode in Happy Days when the Fonz literally 'jumps a tank filled with sharks' on his motorcycle for some ridiculous reason.)
So, let's have a discussion about the point where major horror franchises jumped the shark.
First up -- the granddaddy of them all:
HALLOWEEN
Disease
11-24-2007, 03:59 AM
Was it Halloween 3 ?
massacre man
11-24-2007, 04:32 AM
5... Back to normal in H20, again in Resurrection.
Wouldn't consider the remake a part of the series (Though I did enjoy it).
massacre man
11-24-2007, 04:40 AM
Oh yeah, and Fonzie was on water skiis when he jumped the shark. (Yes, I remember watching it on Nick at Nite).
Kemal
11-24-2007, 05:06 AM
How about that Superman movie that had Richard Pryor in it
Disease
11-24-2007, 05:20 AM
How about that Superman movie that had Richard Pryor in it
Was that also a part 3? I think it was... a trend is building.
The third does seem to one to push most series "over the shark".
Alien
The Godfathers
Halloween
Jaws
There are a few exceptions
LOTR
PIRATES
HARRY POTTER
hmmm, perhaps 3 is the magic number although wasn't NOES 3 one of the best and I recall Jason 3 being the beginning of the hockey mask (although it was also in 3-D so that is points against it
massacre man
11-24-2007, 06:21 AM
There are a few exceptions
LOTR
PIRATES
HARRY POTTER
Evil Dead?
i've got to say i'm not a HUGE fan of Army of Darkness - though I'm not sure you can jump the shark in a franchise like EVIL DEAD
What about Hellraiser 3 - I don't even remember it but was it goofy?
massacre man
11-24-2007, 06:26 AM
i've got to say i'm not a HUGE fan of Army of Darkness - though I'm not sure you can jump the shark in a franchise like EVIL DEAD
What about Hellraiser 3 - I don't even remember it but was it goofy?
I don't know about goofy.
Another one I don't think jumped the shark at 3-Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I liked the third, it took until part 4.
wasn't child's play 3 the one at the military school - that was definitely a low point in the franchise
massacre man
11-24-2007, 06:36 AM
wasn't child's play 3 the one at the military school - that was definitely a low point in the franchise
Yeah... I was about to say that. Creepshow 3,
Yeah... I was about to say that. Creepshow 3,
i don't even remember creepshow 3 - yikes
massacre man
11-24-2007, 06:39 AM
i don't even remember creepshow 3 - yikes
It's new, fucking terrible. IMDb Bottom 100 terrible. No involvement from Romero or King.
maybe 3 is the universal number (well almost universal) where a franchise is taken over by money-grubbing executives
PR3SSUR3
11-24-2007, 06:46 AM
I'm not sure if some of these third instalments mentioned (such as Alien and Hellraiser) are correctly labelled as having 'lost it'.
Progression/evolution is more appropriate I think - otherwise we can easily end up with 'more of the same', time after time (Friday the 13th).
Halloween 3 is an extreme example, which despite being a very good horror movie in its own right, upset just about everybody with its irrelevance to the first two films.
massacre man
11-24-2007, 06:47 AM
Ginger Snaps? I didn't care much for part 3.
i actually liked halloween 3 and think it was a bold and daring idea that would have been really interesting if it had taken off (just think about a new 'installment' in theaters each halloween season!!)
on a related (well barely) note - what happened to the Trick R Treat film that I saw previews for awhlie back?? I thought it was coming out this halloween?
massacre man
11-24-2007, 06:51 AM
i actually liked halloween 3 and think it was a bold and daring idea that would have been really interesting if it had taken off (just think about a new 'installment' in theaters each halloween season!!)
on a related (well barely) note - what happened to the Trick R Treat film that I saw previews for awhlie back?? I thought it was coming out this halloween?
Pushed back, I guess they were afraid of going up against Saw.
I liked Halloween 3 too, I didn't when I was around 12 and all I cared about was Michael when I watched a Halloween movie, but now I like it.
crabapple
11-24-2007, 07:47 AM
I liked Halloween 3. I thought the Halloween series jumped the shark with 4 and never quite recovered. I thought H20 was half-okay but it didn't do what Halloween II did for me.
Halloween II is at least as good as Jaws 2, as a cheeseball sequel. It's fun.
Disease
11-24-2007, 07:58 AM
I liked Halloween 3. I thought the Halloween series jumped the shark with 4 and never quite recovered. I thought H20 was half-okay but it didn't do what Halloween II did for me.
Halloween II is at least as good as Jaws 2, as a cheeseball sequel. It's fun.
You crazy pumpkin man.
Isn't it when it lost it kind of line of direction? Isn't that the question?
I watched pt 3 again recently, I got into it, but it definatley took the series off track. I can't imagine another movie taking a series that far off track actually.
crabapple
11-24-2007, 08:24 AM
Well, I thought it was more when the series goes downhill...H3 wasn't a downhill drop to me, but 4 was.
Disease
11-24-2007, 08:28 AM
Well maybe it's a bit of both, but even though Halloween 3 can hold up as a movie I think it still took the series downhill by going of track..
They should never have called it pt 3, just season of the witch.
crabapple
11-24-2007, 08:30 AM
Or maybe Season of the Little Bitch.
Disease
11-24-2007, 08:35 AM
Yeah, season of the ditch this Franchise will end up in...
crabapple
11-24-2007, 08:38 AM
Not a lot of people knowthis but the original title was "Peanut Butter Your Stonehenge"--true story. ;) :cool: :eek: :eek:
Red1332
11-24-2007, 09:45 AM
It's already been mentioned concerning Halloween 3, so I'll leave that one go. I actually liked 4 and 5 as a basic continuation of the themes from 1 and 2.... obsessive madman out to kill someone. They pretty much nailed it. For that particular series I think H20 dragged enough to bore me (and I am rather tolerant of sequels at this point.) Although Resurrection did a good job of making the entire thing interesting despite completely lacking Pleasance and the involvement of anybody related to Laurie Strode.
I would say that 28 weeks later pretty much swung away from 28 Days Later. Too much focus on the american soldiers trying to look cool in the beginning. The entire movie had a very different feel. It was much more about gore and bloodshed than the first one had been. I don't mind that, but it seemed to be lacking the underlying message about society that the first one carried with it. I feel it did a disservice to the original movie by removing that.
The third Phantasm...BAD. We watched it anyway because we wanted ot get the entire series under our belts, but we ended up giving it the MST3K treatment.
I'm loving this topic, btw. I can't really speak on the Nightmare on Elm street or Friday the 13th series as it's been a while since I've watched all of them. But Jason in outer space was freaking ridiculous. I'm sure that one jumped the shark sooner than that, it's just not coming to me off the top of my head at the moment.
f13 sort of embraced its cheeziness fairly early at least by 3 - but i think the big jump had to have at least been at "Jason Takes Manhattan"
Red1332
11-24-2007, 09:53 AM
YES.
Thank you. I remember that one now. The scene where he's stalking through the city and...if I remember correctly because it followed on the heels of another Jason movie, there was a shot of him in front of a billboard with his image on it?
Very good call.
the sad thing is i remember going to see Jason Takes Manhattan and the ads had all had Jason slaughtering street punks and muggers - but then the first 90% of the film is on the stupid cruise ship and only the last like 20 minutes are in manhattan - freaking annoying as hell!
massacre man
11-24-2007, 10:14 AM
the sad thing is i remember going to see Jason Takes Manhattan and the ads had all had Jason slaughtering street punks and muggers - but then the first 90% of the film is on the stupid cruise ship and only the last like 20 minutes are in manhattan - freaking annoying as hell!
they left it SO open for a crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. GOD! Wasted oppurtunities.
Disease
11-24-2007, 10:28 AM
the sad thing is i remember going to see Jason Takes Manhattan and the ads had all had Jason slaughtering street punks and muggers - but then the first 90% of the film is on the stupid cruise ship and only the last like 20 minutes are in manhattan - freaking annoying as hell!
I am with you on that, I would have liked more of him in the city...
It took a slight turn at pt 5 where Jason was just imitated, though him being dead for a movie and coming back in 6 was really just character building.
But when they took him away from Crystal Lake , that was when they jumped the shark!
massacre man
11-24-2007, 10:33 AM
I am with you on that, I would have liked more of him in the city...
It took a slight turn at pt 5 where Jason was just imitated, though him being dead for a movie and coming back in 6 was really just character building.
But when they took him away from Crystal Lake , that was when they jumped the shark!
Really? It wasn't when he fought a girl with psychic powers?
Disease
11-24-2007, 10:36 AM
Really? It wasn't when he fought a girl with psychic powers?
I don't think so, why don't you like telekinesis?
Fighting someone with powers of their own was cool... why not, it's not really jumping the shark like him stowing away on a boat to the City..
ferretchucker
11-24-2007, 01:04 PM
It became almost as horrific as a horror film when these two characters were introduced.
The Great Gazoo
Scrappy Doo - I mean WHAT THE FUCK? He's meant to be the nephew of Scooby and stole his slogan from baseball! I would kill scrappy doo if I met him. And if that wasn't enough, here's the rest of scooby's relatives courtesy of Wikipedia.
Scooby-Dum: Scooby's cousin, a blue-grey dog. A Mortimer Snerd-esque dog who longed to be a detective. Was rather dimwitted (he'd keep looking for clues even after the mystery was solved).
Scooby-Dee: Scooby's cousin, a white dog. Spoke with a Southern accent, and was an actress.
Yabba-Doo: Scooby's brother, a white dog owned by Deputy Dusty in the American southwest. Unlike Scooby's and Scrappy's, his typical custom catch-phrase at the end is "Yippity-Yabbity-Doooo!!!", and not "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!", presumably due to obvious reasons.
Dooby-Doo: Scooby's triplet brother, a singer. He is one of Scooby's few siblings to have hair on his head.
Momsy and Dada Doo: Scooby's parents.
Whoopsy-Doo: Scooby's cousin, a clown. Owned by Norville's uncle, Gaggy Rogers.
Ruby-Doo: Scooby's sister, and mother of Scrappy-Doo.
Skippy-Doo: Scooby's triplet brother. Highly intelligent. He is Scooby's only sibling to wear glasses.
Howdy-Doo: Scooby's brother. Enjoyed reading supermarket tabloid newspapers. He appears to become a redhead.
Horton-Doo: Scooby's uncle. Was interested in monsters and science.
Dixie-Doo: Scooby's cousin.
Grandpa Scooby: Scooby's grandfather.
Great-Grandpa Scooby: Scooby's great-grandfather.
Dumper Scoots: A confused lion that thinks he is a dog. Having the same speech pattern as Scooby-Doo he believes he is Scooby's cousin.
FUCKADOODLEDOO!!!!
Disease
11-24-2007, 01:07 PM
We were talking about Friday the 13th, not your kidy candy trip that your on...
ferretchucker
11-24-2007, 01:17 PM
I really can't be asked to argue with you again Disease so why don't you stop your pathetic attempts to make my time at HDC shit.
missmacabre
11-24-2007, 01:35 PM
Poltergeist 3 was silly.
agreed - i wasn't a fan of poltergeist 2 - but 3 was ridiculous - wasn't that the one in the high rise building?
massacre man
11-24-2007, 01:38 PM
Poltergeist 3 was silly.
You're silly. :)
The award for gayest post of the year goes to...
Red1332
11-24-2007, 01:58 PM
Ugh. I remember that. It wasn't even scary so much as gross (I was young at the time so watching people pull their faces off was kind of traumatizing.)
I'll be honest, I've never seen the second Poltergeist. I'm sure if I made a concerted effort to get my hands on it I could. But I've been told by many fans it's the same thing, they just moved it to a different house. Never replays on cable that I've been able to find. :(
THAT being said, hell yes, jumped the shark the second freezing cold hotel rooms came in to the script.
Here's one...Leprachaun in Da Hood. Not that it was a terrific franchise to start out with but...WOW. That was one of the few times I changed the channel even knowing it would be a bad one to watch.
i think leprachaun jumped the shark at the opening credits of hte first one
massacre man
11-24-2007, 05:15 PM
i think leprachaun jumped the shark at the opening credits of hte first one
*pictures a Leprechaun actually trying to jump a shark*
Disease
11-24-2007, 05:31 PM
I really can't be asked to argue with you again Disease so why don't you stop your pathetic attempts to make my time at HDC shit.
I never asked, but 'm glad your not going to because I don't won't to, but you where posting crap.... go have some hot chocolate,
Disease
11-24-2007, 05:32 PM
i think leprachaun jumped the shark at the opening credits of hte first one
Leprachaun held hands with troll and they jumped the rainbow!
crabapple
11-24-2007, 05:34 PM
Now, there's an image for ya.
Disease
11-24-2007, 05:36 PM
they jumped it before they began...
crabapple
11-24-2007, 05:52 PM
That's a happy image. I believe in that image.
ferretchucker
11-25-2007, 12:45 AM
Are you saying that the leprechaun series was bad? Back 2 da hood is the best film I've ever seen. :D
Psycom5k
11-25-2007, 02:33 AM
f13 sort of embraced its cheeziness fairly early at least by 3 - but i think the big jump had to have at least been at "Jason Takes Manhattan"
I know its kinda late.... but that was just what I was thinking as I was reading this.
The third Phantasm...BAD. We watched it anyway because we wanted ot get the entire series under our belts, but we ended up giving it the MST3K treatment.
Is that the one where the dude has the 4 barreled shotgun? Man I want one of those...
Red1332
11-26-2007, 06:17 AM
As far as being horribly cheesy, Leprachaun was in there. I did sit through the first one and part of the second one. But I was a younger, less tolerant lass in those days so I didn't sit around to enjoy the special nature of "Back to Da Hood." Maybe I will in the near future.
As for that quad-barreled shotgun, I think it saw a little play in Phantasm 2 but only at the end (sorry, still hazy from turkey fog). Yes. That thing was sweet. I loved how he really didn't aim it so much as point it in a general compass direction and bodies littered down from the trees above. :D
ferretchucker
11-26-2007, 07:58 AM
that NOES where his daughter appeared.
Yellow Jacket
11-26-2007, 09:49 AM
that NOES where his daughter appeared.
That was Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. And I agree with you on that one. What a piece of shit! I'll admit, Dream Child was lackluster, but it had its moments, so there was some redeemable qualities. But Freddy's Dead had nothing. Few kills, horrible dialogue, and bad characters. There were only two intriguing things in this movie: the hearing aid death was kind of neat and when mr. hearing aid (I didn't find it necessary to catch his name, since he was obviously going to die) was looking through teh map to see it said "You're fucked", then his buddies ask where they're at, and he says "Yeah, well the map says we're fucked!" That's it! And what the fuck were Roseanne and Tom Arnold doing in this movies? What's next? Oprah Winfrey in a Friday the 13th film?
ferretchucker
11-26-2007, 09:51 AM
or busta rhymes in a halloween movie! :D
Yellow Jacket
11-26-2007, 09:53 AM
Don't forget about Tyra Banks. :D
ferretchucker
11-26-2007, 11:09 AM
or laurie strode dying before the film's even got good. (It got good around the time the credits started rolling.)
massacre man
11-26-2007, 11:15 AM
That was Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. And I agree with you on that one. What a piece of shit! I'll admit, Dream Child was lackluster, but it had its moments, so there was some redeemable qualities. But Freddy's Dead had nothing. Few kills, horrible dialogue, and bad characters. There were only two intriguing things in this movie: the hearing aid death was kind of neat and when mr. hearing aid (I didn't find it necessary to catch his name, since he was obviously going to die) was looking through teh map to see it said "You're fucked", then his buddies ask where they're at, and he says "Yeah, well the map says we're fucked!" That's it! And what the fuck were Roseanne and Tom Arnold doing in this movies? What's next? Oprah Winfrey in a Friday the 13th film?
I liked Johnny Depp's part...
Yellow Jacket
11-26-2007, 11:19 AM
or laurie strode dying before the film's even got good. (It got good around the time the credits started rolling.)
Hahaha.
I liked Johnny Depp's part...
I didn't like Depp's part. I just found it stupid. Then again, that's just me.
GorePhobia
11-26-2007, 11:24 AM
Definitely when all the movies went to space.
Leprechaun, Jason, Hellraiser.
Yellow Jacket
11-26-2007, 11:26 AM
Definitely when all the movies went to space.
Leprechaun, Jason, Hellraiser.
I think Leprechaun went down the shitter in the first one. I'll admit, it's a guilty pleasure. But, at the same time, when I rewatch it, I can't believe how horrible it actually is. As for Jason and Hellraiser, I thught they were okay. Kason X was kind of fun, but Hellraiser wasn't so much. A scene here and there, but that's it. Damn you space! Always fucking with our icons.
GorePhobia
11-26-2007, 11:30 AM
Yeah the space sucks. Unless it's Alien, and Aliens. then it's okay.
Yellow Jacket
11-26-2007, 11:32 AM
True. *Winona Ryder walks up.*
Ryder: What about the Alien movie I was in, Alien: Resurrection?
YJ: Fuck Alien: Resurrection! That movie sucked! Now go rob a clothing store and leave me the hell alone.
Which, by the way, brings me to my theory that any movie with resurrection in the title sucks. Halloween Resurrection- sucked, Alien Resurrection- sucked
GorePhobia
11-26-2007, 12:21 PM
Agreed, sir.
ferretchucker
11-26-2007, 01:02 PM
Can you imagine a halloween film with michael in space. They could call it
Michael Y
Yellow Jacket
11-26-2007, 01:03 PM
Can you imagine a halloween film with michael in space. They could call it
Michael Y
Shhh... yopu'll give them ideas.
GorePhobia
11-26-2007, 03:23 PM
2001: A Haddonfield Oddesey
Disease
12-06-2007, 02:01 PM
This thread is to good to let fall away....
So lets throw in a new topic for debate...
How about Childs play, when did it jump the shark or did it?
fortunato
12-06-2007, 02:28 PM
child's play definitely jumped the shark after the second one.
the third one at the military academy or whatever? c'mon. it was really bad.
crabapple
12-06-2007, 02:38 PM
QUICKPOST: Now. On the other hand, if Michael Myers actually BATTLED a large Great White shark, like that zombie did in "Zombie," that would be really cool, and I would support that movie. I would totally pay to see that.
missmacabre
12-06-2007, 03:19 PM
This thread is to good to let fall away....
So lets throw in a new topic for debate...
How about Childs play, when did it jump the shark or did it?
Childs Play 2 and 3 were pretty horrible. Bride of Chucky regained my love for the series and I would see another sequel if the released one. Jennifer Tilly may have been the reason I liked the most previous two though.