Genre - The Way It Goes

Cycle, Series, & Franchise
(in horror)

CYCLE

1960 - 'Psycho', 'Peeping Tom'

1974 - 'Texas Chainsaw Masacre', 'The Omen', 'The Amityville Horror', 'The Exorcist'

1978 - 'Halloween' -> Michael Myers

1980 - 'Friday the 13th' -> Jason

1984 - 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' -> Freddy Krueger

1991 - 'Silence of the Lambs'

1996 - 'Scream', 'I Know What You Did Last Summer'

2007 - 'Scary Movie'

The above is a demonstration of the way the popularity of a genre rises and falls in a cycle. 'Scary Movie' is a parody of the horror genre - usually parodies kill off the genre because they can no longer be taken seriously, but this is not necessarily true.

SERIES - when a horror film has been successful, sequels are very often made - using examples from the above line, there have been sequels to most of them, e.g. Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, and filming for Scream 4 will start at the beginning of 2009.

FRANCHISE - after the series stage, when sequels have clearly been successful and audiences have continued to go to see them, products are often sold that relate to the film, or are copies of props in the film, e.g. you can buy the Scream mask...