Franchises are a large part of the film business. Finding what people like and making more of
it is a strategy that filmmakers use to make money. Sometimes they feel a need to continue the
story to expand upon what happened in the first film, but most of the time it
comes down to money. People paid for
something, so they would probably pay for more of the same thing. That’s why there are six Mission: Impossible movies, five Transformers movies, and over twenty James Bond movies.
Many times, the story continues into the sequel and the
sequel depends upon the knowledge that the audience has of what came
before. Back to the Future II was a movie built upon what happened in Back to the Future, and if the audience
missed the first one, they might not understand what happened in the
sequel. Especially when Marty went back
to the 1950s again and had to avoid himself.
The story of the sequel needed the story of the first film in order to
exist and make sense to audiences.
Other times, there are standalone sequels that don’t need
the background of the movies that happened earlier in the franchise. They are their own story that doesn’t need
all of that outside context to make sense.
A person could sit down and watch the movie without having any problems
where the story needs further elaboration from a different story. Or, at the very most, there are minor things
that don’t affect the story but instead build it out.
Hellriser was one
of those sequels that was able to stand on its own. There were enough callbacks to Nocturnal Activity that the people who
had seen it would be happy to continue the story with the sequel, but knowledge
of the predecessor was not necessary.
Any background needed was available from the dialogue and character
interactions throughout Hellriser. For the most part, it was its own story that
didn’t need to be seen as part of something bigger.
In Hellriser,
Detective Locke (Steven Dolton) was working a case where prostitutes were being
murdered in his patrol area. He became
one of the prime suspects because of how involved he was in the case without
finding any concrete evidence. His boss
gave him a new partner, Detective Keyes (Charlie Bond), who was tasked with
solving the murder and seeing if Locke was guilty. Through their investigations, they discovered
that Annie Dyer (Raven Lee) may have been orchestrating the murders from inside
an asylum run by Dr. Unnseine (Andrew Coughlan).
Annie Dyer and Detective Locke were characters that came
from Nocturnal Activity. Annie was the main character and Locke was
investigating what happened to her with possession and supernatural activity
stuff. They came over into Hellriser with Annie having been
possessed and committed, and Locke continuing his policing. That wasn’t needed to get into the story of Hellriser, though. All that was needed was the idea of a
detective who had a history with a possibly possessed person who was
orchestrating murders. The first movie
wasn’t needed to understand the relationship between the characters. It was perfectly set up during the runtime of
the sequel.
Standalone movies are good in that they can be enjoyed on
their own, but can also be enjoyed by people who have watched the other movies
through callbacks and character growth.
For those that haven’t seen the other movies in a franchise, a
standalone sequel lets them be entertained by a tight, mostly self-contained
story.
From a filmmaker’s point of view, a standalone sequel can be
a great thing as much as it can be something to avoid. On the plus side, it makes it easier to get
an audience. Because they don’t have to
watch all of the movies in the franchise in order to jump in on the third or
fourth entry, they could start watching at any installment. It’s easy for box office, especially when the
trailer is cut well and people want to see it.
They don’t feel required to watch a long series to jump in, so they just
jump in, and more money is made.
The James Bond
franchise and the Mission: Impossible
franchise thrive on this sort of storytelling.
The movies are much more about the action spectacle than the long-lasting
story. Most of the James Bond movies had no connection from one to the next outside of
characters popping up again. Until the
Daniel Craig movies, there haven’t been any overarching emotional through lines
for the character of Bond. Most
everything that happened with him would be completely forgotten by the next
movie. The Mission: Impossible movies had a little bit more story between
installments, with the bond between Ethan Hunt and the other characters being
the main story thread to go through the movies.
Ethan must always protect the people he cares about, and that’s what
every movie has been about. The
friendships grow throughout the movies.
But there’s still not much need to watch them in any order, until the
newest one which paid off some of the things from the three movies before. Most of the movies stand on their own as a
self-contained story.
The negative aspects of the standalone story concept for a
filmmaker are that there might be a lack of growth to a franchise, and it might
be as easy to lose audiences as gain them.
If a series of movies is filled with standalone installments, it might
be hard to have any large growth. It
might become more difficult to give a character a bigger emotional story when
everything needs to wrap itself up in every movie. The character’s story must conclude within
the runtime of one film, so the next film must start at a new status quo instead
of simply continuing. As for the
accessibility, it might be easier for audiences to join at any point, but it’s
just as easy for them to drop off. Since
the story wraps itself up in each movie, there might not be anything to keep
the audience invested and wanting to continue to the next movie. The lack of investment might push the
filmmaker into a continuous narrative instead of leaning more to the standalone
side of things.
Hellriser was a
filmmaker choosing to go more in the standalone direction of making a
sequel. It had links to the movie that
came before, but it stood on its own as a self-contained story of a murder
mystery with supernatural aspects. That
might be part of what made it so accessible.
The story was its own thing, and that thing was entertaining. If it had relied upon seeing Nocturnal Activity in order to move
forward, it could have been incomprehensible, which would have made it
worse. Much, much worse. It was a decent enough murder story, though. That was good.
When filmmakers branch out into franchises, they have a
decision to make. They can continue the
story in a direct way, or try to make their movie stand on its own. There are benefits to both routes, though the
standalone sequel might be better. The
story isn’t dependent on what came before, allowing people to enjoy the movie
as it is. It is one movie and that’s all
that matters to the story. A standalone
sequel can be a great thing.
Here are some notes:
- Hellriser was suggested by @erincandy, who previously suggested the movies Glitter (week 22), Ghost Storm (week 97), Zombeavers (week 142), Dead Before Dawn 3D (week 149), Bigfoot vs. Zombies (week 218), Jem and the Holograms (week 238), Britney Ever After (week 258), and Aliens vs. Titanic (week 283).
- Have you seen Hellriser? Did you see Nocturnal Activitiy? Do you think that you need to watch one of them to see the other? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
- Twitter or the comments are good places to share movies that you think I should be checking out for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. If there’s a movie that you think would fit with what I watch for the blog, feel free to share. I’m always looking for stuff I might not know about.
- When I’m watching bad movies, I sometimes share clips of them through my Snapchat (jurassicgriffin). If seeing these clips sounds like something you want, add me.
- With this post behind us, we look to the future, and I look to one of the toughest weeks ever in terms of time to get this stuff done. Next week is a franchise week, which means that there will be two movies as the subject. This is a little inconvenient for me as, all week, we are shooting our final drama film for school. I’ve already watched the movies, so I’m ahead by that much, but getting the post up may cause me a little trouble. Anyway, as the first week after Halloween, we’re out of the horror for a little bit. The two Platinum Dunes produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies are getting their turn in the Sunday “Bad” Movies, so come back next Sunday to see what I’ve got.
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