Editorials
Leatherface on Netflix?! Why Streaming Could Be an Exciting New Path for Our Favorite Horror Franchises
A surprising move that was announced at the start of this week, the upcoming Fede Alvarez-produced Texas Chainsaw Massacre – a decades-later sequel to Tobe Hooper’s original classic, we’ve been told – is not being released in theaters by Legendary as planned, but rather the film is bringing Leatherface exclusively to Netflix. The streaming service has picked up global rights to the franchise’s return, meaning Leatherface is headed to the small screen soon.
Directed by David Blue Garcia, Texas Chainsaw Massacre will be the franchise’s first film since 2017, with that year’s Leatherface initially premiering exclusively on DirecTV ahead of a limited theatrical rollout. What was once a guaranteed theatrical franchise is now seemingly becoming quite comfortable with premiering at home, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is far from the only major horror franchise that’s adapting to these streaming-heavy times.
While almost everything going on in the movie industry right now can be considered pandemic-fueled anomaly rather than the “new normal,” multiple big time horror franchises are currently planning for streaming debuts in the months and years ahead. The next installment in the Evil Dead franchise, Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, is expected to go straight to HBO Max sometime next year, while David Bruckner is directing a new Hellraiser movie for the Hulu streaming service. And then we have the Paranormal Activity and Pet Sematary franchises coming back to life soon, both new movies being made for Paramount Plus. Let’s not forget NBCUniversal’s Peacock, reportedly the future home of Rob Zombie’s spin on classic TV series “The Munsters.”
The Alien and Chucky franchises, meanwhile, are spawning television shows for the very first time, further signaling a shift in the way we consume franchise horror entertainment.
All of this begs the question: is streaming the future of our favorite horror franchises? And if so, is that something horror fans should be concerned about? Or quite the opposite?
When it was announced that Evil Dead Rise was going to be an HBO Max movie, many horror fans had the same reaction they had this week when Leatherface’s impending return was announced for Netflix. Understandably, many still view “direct-to-streaming” as a death knell for franchises, as well as a bad sign when it comes to studio faith in the product. But the days of “direct to video” being a dirty term are largely behind us here in 2021, even if horror fans will probably be forever wounded by franchises like Pumpkinhead, Return of the Living Dead and Hellraiser, to name just a few, being completely killed off by low-budget direct-to-video sequels that were never able to even approach the quality of the theatrical offerings. There was a time, indeed, when a franchise taking the direct-to-video approach all but ensured that it just wasn’t a viable property anymore, but can that really be said at a time when some of the best horror movies in any given year are being released not in theaters, but at home?
“Direct-to-streaming,” to be sure, is a whole different world than “direct-to-video,” and as the landscape continues to evolve, it’s only natural that we’re going to have to start looking at things in a different way. With the pandemic still raging in the United States and a large portion of the population refusing to get vaccinated, it makes all the sense in the world for a movie like Texas Chainsaw Massacre to forego a theatrical release right now, and for Legendary to instead sell the finished film off to Netflix for what is surely a hefty sum of money right out of the gate. A bad sign for the quality of the movie, you ask? Let’s not forget that Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street trilogy, originally planned as a theatrical release, instead went direct-to-Netflix earlier this summer. And horror fans, by and large, ate it all up with glee.
While one could argue that horror icons like Freddy, Jason, and Leatherface belong nowhere but the big screen, the reality is that most of them haven’t been found up there in a very long time. The horror movie “remake boom” of the 2000s saw many of our favorite franchises return to the big screen, including A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine, Halloween, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The goal with any remake is to generate not just one profitable movie but a string of them, but studios have had a whole lot of trouble with that latter goal over the years. Both the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street remakes were indeed profitable back in 2009 and 2010, respectively, but neither franchise has been seen or heard from since. And while it’s true that the Friday franchise’s hands are tied due to messy legal issues, it’s also true that there were many years in the wake of the 2009 remake where sequels could’ve gotten off the ground… but never did. A far cry from the franchise’s past, to say the least, when new sequels were being released every single year.
So what’s going on there and how can streaming blaze a new path for franchises that aren’t exactly lighting up the box office on a regular basis like they used to? Studios often have to spend a lot of money to make a lot of money at the box office, and it seems they often just don’t have much interest in spending a lot of money on the horror franchises that have proven quite successful for them in the past. Aside from the Halloween franchise, most of the big ones have been lying dormant in recent years, or at the very least have changed hands and directions so many times that it’s almost hard to even consider them cohesive franchises anymore – I’m looking at you, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, now on your third direct sequel to the original classic, in the wake of a remake and two different prequels. The days of the horror franchise “Part 7s” and “Part 8s” seem to be largely behind us, with studios constantly having to hit the “refresh” and “reboot” buttons to continue pulling in new audiences and, since it’s their ultimate goal and all, turn a profit with these properties.
But streaming may open another door entirely for horror franchises like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, allowing new movies to be released at a steady clip, free of the risk of the huge production budgets and marketing spends inherent to theatrical releases. Surely Twentieth Century is wishing they didn’t spend well over $100 million on The Predator just a few years ago, but perhaps lessons can be learned from this endless cycle of “too much money, not enough profit.” Maybe the budgets can be lowered and, by extension, more chances taken, with our favorite horror franchises freed up to continue on year after year in much the same way they used to. It’s impossible to imagine the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise being brought back to the big screen and continuing to be profitable to the point that we’d ever reach a fourth, fifth, sixth, or even third installment, but it’s not so hard to imagine Warner Bros. being allowed to play with the franchise within the confines of HBO Max. Do horror icons need to be on the big screen to remain iconic? Well, just ask Charles Lee Ray.
The path the Child’s Play franchise has taken in the wake of big screen release Seed of Chucky has been something special, and if you’re asking me, what Don Mancini has been doing with his pint-sized creation is a blueprint that other horror franchises should be studying. Beginning with Curse of Chucky and continuing with Cult of Chucky and now the upcoming “Chucky” television series, Mancini has been able to take back creative control of the franchise, playing with it in exciting and fresh new ways that aren’t beholden to too many studio mandates or “four quadrant” big screen hopes. Note that Chucky’s return to the big screen took the form of a ground-up Child’s Play remake a couple years back, while Mancini’s sequels continue to be made specifically for the fans of the original franchise. It’s a freedom that could quite frankly only be allowed in the direct-to-video/direct-to-streaming arena these days, making the Chucky franchise the rare property that’s still operating the way horror franchises used to. Chucky’s aforementioned return to the big screen, meanwhile, wasn’t profitable enough to warrant a follow-up movie any time soon. And therein lies the key difference between streaming and theatrical.
As a theatrical release, a movie needs to make a healthy financial profit to be considered successful enough to warrant a sequel. As a streaming release, it merely needs to be viewed by a lot of subscribers.
If the studios play their cards right, streaming could very well result in a new golden age for franchise horror content. And as more streaming services pop up that need more and more original content that’ll encourage new subscribers to sign up, there’s a good chance that means more and more franchise content is on the way. Just look at Pet Sematary, which is able to take the risk of a streaming exclusive prequel tale that we likely never would’ve gotten on the big screen. Could you even imagine Rob Zombie’s The Munsters playing in theaters? Or the Killer Klowns *maybe* returning in any form other than streaming? That’s the beauty of streaming and its quantity-driven approach, which is providing us with movies that we otherwise would not have. It was once the direct-to-video market that allowed horror franchises to stay alive, and going forward it may very well be the direct-to-streaming market that brings many of them back to life.
Horror icons like Pumpkinhead, Pinhead, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees haven’t been seen on the big screen in many years. Maybe it’s time they give the small screen a try.
On July 13th, 2026, the world lost one of its brightest stars.
Beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill passed away from pneumonia after a long battle with stage 3 lymphoma. The multifaceted movie star will be remembered by mainstream audiences for his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece Jurassic Park, as well as powerful turns in A Cry in the Dark (1988), The Piano (1993), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), and prestige TV series The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. But horror fans know him as one of the genre’s most surprising Scream Kings.
Through a handful of memorable starring roles, Neill spent the 80s and 90s bringing life to a wide variety of characters and finding humanity in the most unusual leading roles, regardless of how heroic or villainous.
The Final Conflict (1981)
After a decade on the stage and screen in New Zealand and Australia, Neill made his international debut as Damien Thorn in Graham Baker’s The Final Conflict, the third installment of The Omen franchise. Now a 36-year-old businessman, Damien is fully aware of his devilish parentage and hell-bent on world domination. But rather than a hooved and horned monstrosity, Neill’s Antichrist is a suave businessman who leads his followers in an expensive suit and seeks to bring about the apocalypse through deceptive altruism rather than grand proclamation.
Despite his austere demeanor, the man’s true evil knows no bounds. When a prophecy foretells the second coming of Christ, known in the film as “the Nazarene,” Damien commands his followers to commit widespread infanticide, murdering all baby boys born on a specific date. He seduces a high-profile reporter while transforming her teenage son into a bloodthirsty disciple, then uses the child as a human shield. This tricky role allows Neill to demonstrate his trademark versatility, easily charming the outside world while dropping his suave mask of normalcy behind closed doors. Though certain aspects of The Final Conflict are admittedly dated, Neill’s performance feels eerily prescient. He’s mastered the heinous portrayal of a politician willing to sell his soul for power that will ultimately bring about the end of the world.
Possession (1981)
Though Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is often remembered for Isabelle Adjani’s stunning depiction of a woman on the edge, Neill delivers an equally unhinged performance as Mark, a spy returning home from a lengthy assignment in divided Berlin. Upon discovering that his wife Anna (Adjani) wants a divorce, Mark desperately tries to hold his family together even at the expense of her sanity. Filmed the same year as The Final Conflict, Neill dives headfirst into this visceral role, managing to evoke sympathy for the distraught father who becomes ever more desperate to regain control. Inspired by his own divorce, Żuławski resists blaming either party for the separation, instead showing the chaos and heartache that comes in the wake of a family’s dissolution.
Once considered to replace Roger Moore as the next James Bond, Neill has fun with the international spy persona as Żuławski’s plot grows increasingly bizarre. But the skilled actor never lets us forget that Mark is a flawed human being struggling to keep his life from falling apart. A second character emerges in the film’s mesmerizing climax, allowing Neill to lean into full villainy with a glassy-eyed stare that chills to the bone. Now a cult classic, Adjani and Neill bounce off each other’s seething rage, creating one of the most effective cinematic duets in the history of horror.
Jurassic Park (1993)
When Steven Spielberg’s creature feature first hit theaters, Neill was by no means a household name and hardly a traditional leading man. Without the swashbuckling swagger of Harrison Ford, the mega-watt smile of Tom Cruise, or the chiselled jaw of Brad Pitt — all famous action stars of the era — Neill felt like an unconventional choice for this massive role. But he perfectly captures the essence of Grant, an aloof academic who prefers dig sites to fancy fundraisers and social events. Despite an aversion to children, the dinosaur expert finds himself tasked with saving the theme park’s youngest survivors who gradually break down his emotional walls. Grant’s transformation into a courageous caretaker is a landmark deconstruction of traditional gender norms wrapped in the guise of a rugged outdoorsman.
Neill proves to be the perfect action star, effortlessly navigating Spielberg’s stunning set pieces without losing the character’s relatable hook. But perhaps the film’s most touching moment is Neill’s childlike wonder at seeing a dinosaur for the first time. Stunned to speechlessness, he channels the audience’s wondrous joy when Grant first spies a real, live Brachiosaurus. But he seamlessly weaves this infectious awe into serious concerns about the creature’s existence, amplifying the story’s prophetic messaging. Jeff Goldblum may utter the film’s iconic warning, but the duality of Grant’s performance perfectly illustrates the scientific imperative, reminding us that just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
Neill would go on to lead Joe Johnston’s 2001 sequel Jurassic Park III, in which Grant is again tasked with saving a child. In 2022, he would appear in Colin Trevorrow’s legacy sequel Jurassic World Dominion, which merges the franchise’s two distinct eras while bringing the carnage onto mainland shores. Despite turning in strong performances, neither film is able to top the magic of Spielberg’s original or Neill’s captivating performance as the stoic leading man. But his nuanced depiction of Alan Grant inspired a generation of would-be paleontologists and quiet kids who could now see themselves as courageous academics capable of surprising strength.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
After catapulting to worldwide fame, Neill returned to horror proper to lead John Carpenter’s mind-bending In the Mouth of Madness. We first meet John Trent (Neill) as he’s dragged, kicking and screaming, into a padded cell. An unknown stretch of time later, he recounts an unbelievable story while covered in protective crosses scrawled into his skin — and the cell’s walls — with black crayon. A private investigator, Trent has been tasked with locating Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), a world-famous yet elusive genre author whose work has been driving his ravenous readers to disturbing acts of random violence.
A love letter to fans of horror fiction, we delight in watching Trent explore literary easter eggs that lead him down jarring rabbit holes. A late-night road trip takes Trent and Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), an editor for Cane’s publishing house, to a tiny New England hamlet teeming with darkness. While investigating an ominous cathedral on the outskirts of town, Trent realizes that he’s somehow been transported into the author’s interdimensional story and become its unwitting protagonist.
Neill serves as a skeptical everyman and the audience’s conduit through this bizarre tale of literary monsters that find a way to burst through the page. An often overlooked Carpenter film, In the Mouth of Madness spirals into insanity, but Neill keeps us grounded throughout each outlandish twist. A shocking conclusion leaves us gaping at our screens and contemplating our own relationship with horror fiction. After all, does free will truly exist? Or, like Trent, are we merely pawns in someone else’s monstrous creation?
Event Horizon (1997)
One of the scariest movies ever set in space, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon builds upon the heroic image Neill established for himself in Jurassic Park. Dr. William Weir (Neill) is a physicist temporarily joining the crew of the Lewis and Clark to assist in their latest rescue mission. Seven years after vanishing without a trace, a spaceship called the Event Horizon has suddenly reappeared near Neptune’s orbit. As the creator of a top-secret gravity drive designed to facilitate faster-than-light travel, Dr. Weir has been sent to explore the ship and find out what happened to its missing crew.
Still haunted by his late wife’s suicide, Dr. Weir is a sympathetic figure, particularly in comparison to the harsh Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) who commands the crew of the Lewis and Clark. But Weir’s desperation to return to the infamous ship hides a sinister secret that leads his fellow astronauts to the threshold of hell. Neill’s talent for playing the everyman pays off in spades as the formerly sympathetic widower transforms into a disciple of this frightening dimension. Resembling a long-lost cenobite, Weir claws out his own eyes and prepares to drag the crew into a world consumed with sadistic pain.
Daybreakers (2009)
Neill returns to his Omen roots in Michael and Peter Spierig’s action-packed film as a secretly sinister businessman. But rather than the Antichrist, Charles Bromley (Neill) is a proud vampire convinced of the species’ superiority. With human blood in short supply, Bromley Marks Corp. is working on a synthetic substitute to prevent the human race from impending extinction. While hematologists perfect the formula, Bromley oversees disturbing fields of humans chained to massive machines that systematically harvest their blood.
Neill chills in this sinister role with vampiric yellow eyes, a pale complexion, and subtle fangs. But more upsetting is the fact that he honestly doesn’t believe he’s wrong. Once diagnosed with cancer, Bromley was delighted to find that vampirism would totally reverse his illness and grant him the gift of eternal life. He begged his daughter Alison (Isabel Lucas) to turn alongside him, but she has rejected her father’s controversial choice and is now hunted by his bloodthirsty goons. In a heartbreaking moment of clarity, Bromley brings his daughter to the brink of death, then turns away in disgust when she will not embrace his undead lifestyle.
Daybreakers is a surprisingly thrilling exploration of survival and sustainability. Similar to a plot Damien Thorn would hatch, Bromley’s ultimate plan is to placate the vampire population with synthetic blood while allowing the human population to replenish itself. With a larger stock, he plans to sell authentic humans at a premium, hunting these poor souls to season the meat. Bromley rejects a cure that would reverse the vampiric disease, choosing to enrich himself over saving the world. The strangely captivating villain’s end is a cathartic nightmare and fitting punishment for a wealthy man who places himself above everyone else.
In the Mouth of Madness
While the world may remember Neill for his signature role as a gruff but compassionate paleontologist going head to head with a raging T-Rex, horror fans may picture the versatile actor maniacally rocking back and forth in a filthy Berlin apartment, commanding a boardroom of corporate vampires, disappearing into the darkness of a haunted spaceship, sermonizing to satanists, or giggling over popcorn in a deserted movie theater. Or perhaps you have another favorite role in the beloved actor’s stellar career. But whether he was playing a hero or villain, Neill brought undeniable humanity to every role, redefining our idea of masculinity and the very nature of goodness vs. evil. By bringing such disparate characters to life, Neill challenged audiences with a variety of complex roles, asking us to examine the humanity of each character no matter how flawed or virtuous.
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