History DuelingWorks / FilmHorror

|| ''Film/It2017'' || ''Film/Mother2017'' || Horror films released in September with comparable budgets around the 30 million mark or so.|| Loads. The former is an adaptation of one of Creator/StephenKing's most famous [[Literature/{{It}} books]] while the latter is an original property by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. ''IT'' is more of a straightforward horror film mostly filled with unknowns while ''mother!'' is of the surrealist, [[RuleOfSymbolism heavily symbolic]] kind with an AllStarCast.|| ''IT'' wins on both fronts, almost to the point of it looking like a CurbStompBattle. While ''mother!'' earned some solid critical notices, it has not been doing well financially and caused a nasty rift between [[CriticalDissonance critics and audiences]], with the latter giving the film a rare F grade on Cinemascore. ''IT'', on the other hand, received positive reviews and incredibly strong box office to the point of becoming the highest grossing horror film ever, even surpassing ''Film/TheExorcist''. While ''IT'' will probably go down as one of the great horror movies of the decade, ''mother!'' seems to be slowly getting a Cult Following instead. ||

|| ''[[Film/Mother2017 mother!]]'' (2017) || ''Film/{{Suspiria|2018}}'' (2018) || Divisive, female-centric horror films (with emphasis on {{body horror}} and the {{supernatural|fiction}}) directed by auterish filmmakers (Creator/DarrenAronofsky & Creator/LucaGuadagnino) that star young actresses best known for prior [[Film/TheHungerGames franchise]] [[Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey roles]] (Creator/JenniferLawrence & Creator/DakotaJohnson). ||''mother!'' is an original property, while ''Suspiria'' is a remake of [[Film/Suspiria1977 the 1977 film of the same name]]. || Hard to say. ''mother!'' has a slightly higher score on Rotten Tomatoes than ''Suspiria'' (69% to 62%), but ''Suspiria'' boasts a far better audience score (73% to ''mother!'''s 50%) and carries some goodwill from its source material. ||

|| ''Film/AQuietPlace'' || ''Film/TheSilence2019'' || Both sci-fi horror films set in a postapocalyptic [[TwentyMinutesInTheFuture very near future]] brought about when the nations of Earth are unable to protect their populations from attacks by swift and deadly creatures with finely developed hearing who use that to hunt humans. Both films also focus on the survival struggles of a family with a deaf daughter. || ''The Silence'' was based on a 2015 novel; the script that became ''A Quiet Place'' had been in development since 2013. The film adaptation of the former had been completed before the latter was even shot, but ''A Quiet Place'' was released first since ''The Silence'' hadn't found a distributor[[note]]When a teaser ad for it ran during that year's Super Bowl, many fans of the novel assumed that the adaptation's title had been changed.[[/note]] || ''A Quiet Place'' was a critical and commercial success in theaters and has spawned a sequel; ''The Silence'' had to settle for Netflix a year later. ||
|| ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'' || ''Film/TheHunt'' || 2019 horror films in which a young woman is thrown into a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame scenario by a group of [[RichBitch depraved rich people]]. || ''Ready or Not'' is a BlackComedy take on the idea, in which the protagonist marries into a wealthy family who turns out to have selected her as a HumanSacrifice, and is set in the confines of a mansion. ''The Hunt'', meanwhile, comes from Creator/BlumhouseProductions and is more of a "social horror" film in the mold of that studio's ''Film/ThePurge'', with more focus given to the SlobsVersusSnobs dynamic of the villains seeing the [[WorkingClassHero working-class protagonists]] as less than human, and has multiple people beyond the heroine being hunted in a "game" preserve. || ''Ready or Not''. As Universal put ''The Hunt'' on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment after a pair of back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents less than two months before its planned release]] and was ultimately released the week before the mass [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic COVID-19]] theater closures. ''Ready or Not'' was also warmly received by those who saw it, and made back nearly double its budget in its first weekend, while ''The Hunt'' was screwed over by the COVID-19 situation. Its Rotten Tomatoes score (56%) is also lower than ''ReadyOrNot'' (88%).||

|| Initiators || Followers || Description || Misc || Winner? ||

|| ''Film/EscapeRoom 2'' (2021) || ''[[Film/Spiral2020 Spiral]]: From the Book of Franchise/{{Saw}}'' (2021) || The latest installments of two similar trap-centric horror franchises, opening nearly head-to-head. Both are expected to push past the relatively small-scale confines of their respective predecessor(s), whether with bigger stars (''Spiral'' will feature Creator/ChrisRock and Creator/SamuelLJackson) or a bigger setting (''Escape Room 2'' sees the first film's survivors taking the fight to their mysterious former captors). || While ''Saw'' is a long-dormant franchise that had only briefly been revived in the 2010s with 2017's ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' (to mixed success), ''Escape Room 2'' will be released just two years after the first film, a surprise hit[[labelnote:*]] notably bigger than ''Jigsaw''[[/labelnote]] that offered a PG-13 variation on ''Saw'''s modus operandi. Assuming both sequels retain their franchises' historical MPAA ratings, this will be a showdown of the old-school, R-rated legacy sequel vs. a new LighterAndSofter variation of the same template. Incidentally, ''Spiral'' will be the first film in the franchise to open away from a traditional Halloween release frame, instead launching May 2021. || TBD. ||

|| ''Film/{{Piranha}}'' (1978) || ''Barracuda'' (1978) || Aggressive schools of fish born from a government project kill people. || Both films were released in 1978 with few months between them. Former film is a tongue-in-cheek offering, while the latter is more straight-forward. || ''Piranha'' became a cult favorite among the movies that were inspired by ''Jaws'', even spawning [[Film/PiranhaPartTwoTheSpawning a sequel]] and two remakes, while the other movie was just forgotten. ||
|| ''Film/{{Dracula|1979}}'' (1979) || ''[[Film/{{Nosferatu}} Nosferatu the Vampyre]]'' (1979) || ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' adaptations that draw upon previous adaptations -- Universal's ''Dracula'' is based on the same play as their famous 1931 version, and Creator/WernerHerzog's ''Nosferatu'' is based on the F.W. Murnau version from 1922. Both feature A-list casts and lavish production values. || The former was intended as a SummerBlockbuster, while the latter played the arthouse circuit that fall. American International Pictures got in on the vampire hype when they brought out ''Film/LoveAtFirstBite'', a comedy about the Count finding love in TheSeventies, three months prior to the former's release. It was a surprise hit and subsequently blamed for the fact that... || ''Dracula'' only did okay at the box office. Reviews were mixed and though it predates other films and books that romanticize the lead character, it is largely forgotten today. By comparison, ''Nosferatu'' got great reviews and appears on the RogerEbertGreatMoviesList alongside the film it remade. ||

|| ''Blood Fest'' (2018) || ''Hell Fest'' (2018) || Horror films where a small group of friends have to survive in a horror-themed festival that turns out to contain legitimate dangers instead of just theatrics. || ''Blood Fest'' was a horror-comedy indie film made by Creator/RoosterTeeth that premiered at the SXSW film festival and got a limited theatrical release. ''Hell Fest'' was a bigger budget, traditionally released horror flick. || According to Rotten Tomatoes, ''Blood Fest'' did better with critics (62% vs 35%) but ''Hell Fest'' did better with audiences (66% vs. 45%). Box office totals are hard to compare due to ''Hell Fest'' being much more widely released. ||

|| ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'' || ''Film/TheHunt'' || 2019 horror films in which a young woman is thrown into a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame scenario by a group of [[RichBitch depraved rich people]]. || ''Ready or Not'' is a BlackComedy take on the idea, in which the protagonist marries into a wealthy family who turns out to have selected her as a HumanSacrifice, and is set in the confines of a mansion. ''The Hunt'', meanwhile, comes from Creator/BlumhouseProductions and is more of a "social horror" film in the mold of that studio's ''Film/ThePurge'', with more focus given to the SlobsVersusSnobs dynamic of the villains seeing the [[WorkingClassHero working-class protagonists]] as less than human, and has multiple people beyond the heroine being hunted in a "game" preserve. || ''Ready or Not''. As Universal put ''The Hunt'' on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment after a pair of back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio [[TooSoon less than two months before its planned release]] and was ultimately released the week before the mass [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic COVID-19]] theater closures. ''Ready or Not'' was also warmly received by those who saw it, and made back nearly double its budget in its first weekend, while ''The Hunt'' was screwed over by the COVID-19 situation. Its Rotten Tomatoes score (56%) is also lower than ''ReadyOrNot'' (88%).||

|| ''Film/Draug'' (2018) || ''[[Film/HuntressRuneOfTheDead Huntress: Rune of the Dead]]'' || Both films are low budget zombie films set in Swedish wilderness during the viking age, featuring a ActionGirl hero who has visions of things to come. || The later film was produced and co-written by Faravid af Ugglas who provided production design for both Huntress and Draug, as well as actors Urban Bergsten and Ralf Beck. The later even makes a similar comment about the smell of the zombies in both films. Huntress was filmed in English with an American producer, while Draug is in Swedish with emphasis of the dialects of the characters as part of the world building. || TBD. ||

|| ''[[Film/Draug]]'' (2018) || ''[[Film/HuntressRuneOfTheDead Huntress: Rune of the Dead]] || Both films are low budget zombie films set in Swedish wilderness during the viking age, featuring a ActionGirl hero who has visions of things to come. || The later film was produced and co-written by Faravid af Ugglas who provided production design for both Huntress and Draug, as well as actors Urban Bergsten and Ralf Beck. The later even makes a similar comment about the smell of the zombies in both films. Huntress was filmed in English with an American producer, while Draug is in Swedish with emphasis of the dialects of the characters as part of the world building. || TBD. ||

|| ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'' || ''Film/TheHunt'' || 2019 horror films in which a young woman is thrown into a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame scenario by a group of [[RichBitch depraved rich people]]. || ''Ready or Not'' is a BlackComedy take on the idea, in which the protagonist marries into a wealthy family who turns out to have selected her as a HumanSacrifice, and is set in the confines of a mansion. ''The Hunt'', meanwhile, comes from Creator/BlumhouseProductions and is more of a "social horror" film in the mold of that studio's ''Film/ThePurge'', with more focus given to the SlobsVersusSnobs dynamic of the villains seeing the [[WorkingClassHero working-class protagonists]] as less than human, and has multiple people beyond the heroine being hunted in a "game" preserve. || ''Ready or Not''. As Universal put ''The Hunt'' on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment after a pair of back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio [[TooSoon less than two months before its planned release]] and was ultimately released the week before the mass coronavirus theater closures. ''Ready or Not'' was also warmly received by those who saw it, and made back nearly double its budget in its first weekend. ''The Hunt'' was released in March 13, 2020 but it was a flop due to the COVID-19. Its Rotten Tomatoes score (56%) is also lower than ''ReadyOrNot'' (88%).||

|| ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'' || ''Film/TheHunt'' || 2019 horror films in which a young woman is thrown into a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame scenario by a group of [[RichBitch depraved rich people]]. || ''Ready or Not'' is a BlackComedy take on the idea, in which the protagonist marries into a wealthy family who turns out to have selected her as a HumanSacrifice, and is set in the confines of a mansion. ''The Hunt'', meanwhile, comes from Creator/BlumhouseProductions and is more of a "social horror" film in the mold of that studio's ''Film/ThePurge'', with more focus given to the SlobsVersusSnobs dynamic of the villains seeing the [[WorkingClassHero working-class protagonists]] as less than human, and has multiple people beyond the heroine being hunted in a "game" preserve. || ''Ready or Not'' won by default, as Universal put ''The Hunt'' on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment after a pair of back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio [[TooSoon less than two months before its planned release]] and was ultimately released the week before the mass coronavirus theater closures. ''Ready or Not'' was also warmly received by those who saw it, and made back nearly double its budget in its first weekend. ||

|| ''[[Film/Spiral2020 Spiral]]: From the Book of Franchise/{{Saw}}'' (2020) || ''Film/EscapeRoom 2'' (2020) || The latest installments of these trap-centric horror franchises vacate their previously established release timeframes (Halloween and January, respectively) to vie for counter-programming dollars in more crowded seasons (summer for ''Spiral'', Thanksgiving for ''Escape Room''). Both are expected to push past the relatively small-scale confines of their respective predecessor(s), whether with bigger stars (''Spiral'' will feature Creator/ChrisRock and Creator/SamuelLJackson) or a bigger setting (''Escape Room 2'' sees the first film's survivors taking the fight to their mysterious former captors). || While ''Saw'' is a long-dormant franchise that had only briefly been revived in the 2010s with 2017's ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' (to mixed success), ''Escape Room 2'' will be released less than two years after the first film, a surprise hit[[labelnote:*]] notably bigger than ''Jigsaw''[[/labelnote]] that offered a PG-13 variation on ''Saw'''s modus operandi. Assuming both sequels retain their franchises' historical MPAA ratings, this will be a showdown of the old-school, R-rated legacy sequel vs. a new LighterAndSofter variation of the same template. Originally, ''Escape Room 2'' was set to release before ''Spiral'' (in April), but was [[ReleaseDateChange pushed back]] to August, then again to November. || TBD. ||

|| ''The Last Broadcast'' (1998) || ''The Blair Witch Project'' (1999) || The basic plot of both of these movies, released within a year of each other, is identical: a documentary film crew ventures into the woods of a rural community, hoping to uncover secrets of the local legend (''TBWP'' has the fictional witch Elly Kedward, ''Broadcast'' uses the actual myth of the Jersey Devil), only to meet a horrific fate. Some time after, the footage is recovered and presented to the viewer to try and make sense of what happened. || Some have accused the makers of ''The Blair Witch Project'' of ripping off the earlier ''Last Broadcast'', but ''TBWP'' actually started production several months before ''Broadcast'' was released, and was conceived several years before that. Neither film is really the first in the "found footage" genre; 1981's ''Cannibal Holocaust'' can make a fair claim to that. || This one's not even close; ''The Last Broadcast'' earned less than $13,000 in its theatrical run before going to home video. ''The Blair Witch Project'' was screened at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival before being released in theaters that summer to positive reviews. It earned $250 million worldwide - on a budget of about $60,000 (if you don't count the promotion campaign, which was still only a few million dollars more) - and would go on to spawn a franchise of two sequels and numerous book & video game tie-ins, and is the TropeCodifier for a wave of imitators. ||

|| ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'' || ''Film/TheHunt'' || 2019 horror films in which a young woman is thrown into a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame scenario by a group of [[RichBitch depraved rich people]]. || ''Ready or Not'' is a BlackComedy take on the idea, in which the protagonist marries into a wealthy family who turns out to have selected her as a HumanSacrifice, and is set in the confines of a mansion. ''The Hunt'', meanwhile, comes from Creator/BlumhouseProductions and is more of a "social horror" film in the mold of that studio's ''Film/ThePurge'', with more focus given to the SlobsVersusSnobs dynamic of the villains seeing the [[WorkingClassHero working-class protagonists]] as less than human, and has multiple people beyond the heroine being hunted in a "game" preserve. || ''Ready or Not'' won by default, as Universal put ''The Hunt'' on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment after a pair of back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio [[TooSoon less than two months before its planned release]]. ''Ready or Not'' was also warmly received by those who saw it, and made back nearly double its budget in its first weekend. ||

|| ''Film/ReadyOrNot2019'' || ''The Hunt'' || 2019 horror films in which a young woman is thrown into a HuntingTheMostDangerousGame scenario by a group of [[RichBitch depraved rich people]]. || ''Ready or Not'' is a BlackComedy take on the idea, in which the protagonist marries into a wealthy family who turns out to have selected her as a HumanSacrifice, and is set in the confines of a mansion. ''The Hunt'', meanwhile, comes from Creator/BlumhouseProductions and is more of a "social horror" film in the mold of that studio's ''Film/ThePurge'', with more focus given to the SlobsVersusSnobs dynamic of the villains seeing the [[WorkingClassHero working-class protagonists]] as less than human, and has multiple people beyond the heroine being hunted in a "game" preserve. || ''Ready or Not'' won by default, as Universal put ''The Hunt'' on TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment after a pair of back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio [[TooSoon less than two months before its planned release]]. ''Ready or Not'' was also warmly received by those who saw it, and made back nearly double its budget in its first weekend. ||

|| ''[[Film/{{Frankenstein1931}} Frankensein]]'' (1931) || ''[[Film/{{DrJekyllAndMrHyde1931}} Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]'' (1931) || Both films are horror films released in 1931 based on literary classics. They are both adaptations of stories with themes concerning the dangers of man playing God with science, leading to experiments that create disastrous results. || That was a big year for Universal Studios in general and charted the course for their horror legacy to come with not only the release of Creator/JamesWhale's ''Frankenstein'' but also Tod Browning's ''[[Film/{{Dracula1931}} Dracula]]'' starring Bela Lugosi.|| Both are held in high-esteem by film buffs generally speaking, but ''Frankenstein'' and [[Franchise/UniversalHorror Universal's films]] at large still remain more popular and well known with general audiences. ||

However, this box office calculus changed with the release of ''{{Film/Halloween2018}}'', whose nearly record-setting October opening weekend (second best for a horror film ever) catapulted the series ahead of both ''Nightmare'' and ''Friday''. In addition, widespread critical acclaim for the movie makes ''Halloween'' the only franchise of the four to have two certified fresh movies on Rotten Tomatoes. One can only hope that the film's monster success will reignite the slasher wars.||

|| ''The Last Broadcast'' (1998) || ''The Blair Witch Project'' (1999) || The basic plot of both of these movies, released within a year of each other, is identical: a documentary film crew ventures into the woods of a rural community, hoping to uncover secrets of the local legend (''TBWP'' has the fictional witch Elly Kedward, ''Broadcast'' uses the actual myth of the Jersey Devil), only to meet a horrific fate. Some time after, the footage is recovered and presented to the viewer to try and make sense of what happened. || Some have accused the makers of ''The Blair Witch Project'' of ripping off the earlier ''Last Broadcast'', but ''TBWP'' actually started production several months before ''Broadcast'' was released, and was conceived several years before that. Neither film is really the first in the "found footage" genre; 1981's ''Cannibal Holocaust'' can make a fair claim to that. || This one's not even close; ''The Last Broadcast'' earned less than $13,000 in its theatrical run before going to home video. ''The Blair Witch Project'' was screened at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival before being released in theaters that summer to positive reviews. It earned $250 million worldwide - on a budget of about $60,000 (if you don't count the promotion campaign, which was still only a few million dollars more) - and would go on to spawn a franchise of two sequels and numerous book & video game tie-ins, and is the TropeCodifier for a wave of imitators.

''Film/TheCavern'' (2005) || Horror movies with similar titles, made in the same year, and all three about a group of cavers who go spelunking, meet something unpleasant, and die. || || When it was released in America one year afterward, ''Film/TheDescent'' ended up becoming known as "Like ''Film/TheCave'', but it doesn't suck." ''The Cavern'' is much more obscure than the other two, but definitely the worst of the lot, with truly horrendous cinematography (to the point where people have called it physically unwatchable) and an infurating NoEnding. Also on the financial side, ''The Descent'' is the only one of these three films with the distinction of [[Film/TheDescentPart2 getting a sequel]].||

|| ''Film/HannibalRising'' (2007) || ''Film/Halloween2007'' || 2007 installments to iconic horror franchises that seek to provide an origin story for their central villain-protagonist.|| The big difference in approach between these two films is that ''Rising'' is set within the same continuity as the previous Hannibal Lecter films that starred Anthony Hopkins, whilst Rob Zombie's ''Halloween'' is instead a straight-up reboot of its franchise with his own revamped Michael Myers.|| ''Hannibal Rising'' made marginally more money at the box office, around 2 million dollars, but also had more than three times the budget of ''Halloween'' to begin with which does technically make it the more profitable film. Both got largely negative reviews from critics, but ''Halloween'' did manage to get a bit more positive notices on tat front. Both garner strong mixed-opinions from general audiences without a firm consensus on which is preferred. With all that in mind ''Halloween'' seems to edge out with the victory in this face-off. ||

|| ''[[Film/Mother2017 mother!]]'' (2017) || ''Film/{{Suspiria|2018}}'' (2018) || Divisive, female-centric horror films (with emphasis on {{body horror}} and the {{supernatural|fiction}}) directed by auterish filmmakers (Creator/DarrenAronofsky & Creator/LucaGuadagnino) that star young actresses best known for prior [[Film/TheHungerGames franchise]] [[Film/FiftyShadesOfGrey roles]] (Creator/JenniferLawrence & Creator/DakotaJohnson). ||''mother!'' is an original property, while ''Suspiria'' is a remake of [[Film/Suspiria1977 the 1977 film of the same name]]. || Hard to say. ''mother!'' has a slightly higher score on Rotten Tomatoes than ''Suspiria'' (69% to 62%), but ''Suspiria'' boasts a far better audience score (73% to ''mother!'''s 50%) and carries some goodwill from its source material.||
|| ''Film/AQuietPlace'' || ''Film/TheSilence2019'' || Both sci-fi horror films set in a postapocalyptic [[TwentyMinutesInTheFuture very near future]] brought about when the nations of Earth are unable to protect their populations from attacks by swift and deadly creatures with finely developed hearing who use that to hunt humans. Both films also focus on the survival struggles of a family with a deaf daughter. || ''The Silence'' was based on a 2015 novel; the script that became ''A Quiet Place'' had been in development since 2013. The film adaptation of the former had been completed before the latter was even shot, but ''A Quiet Place'' was released first since ''The Silence'' hadn't found a distributor[[note]]When a teaser ad for it ran during that year's Super Bowl, many fans of the novel assumed that the adaptation's title had been changed.[[/note]] || ''A Quiet Place'' was a critical and commercial success in theaters and has spawned a sequel; ''The Silence'' had to settle for Netflix a year later.

|| ''Film/ItChapterTwo'' (2019) || ''Film/DoctorSleep'' (2019) || Two Creator/StephenKing-based supernatural horror movie sequels released two months apart in 2019, with adult protagonists who were children in the first installment. || ''It: Chapter Two'' is the sequel to 2017's ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' and both adapt one part of [[Literature/{{It}} the eponymous novel]], while ''Doctor Sleep'' adapts the [[Literature/DoctorSleep sequel novel]] to ''Literature/TheShining'' and is a sequel to Creator/StanleyKubrick's ''Film/TheShining''). || Pending. ||
|| ''Franchise/{{Saw}}: The Organ Donor'' (2020) || ''Film/EscapeRoom 2'' (2020) || The latest installments of these trap-centric horror franchises vacate their previously established release timeframes (Halloween and January, respectively) to vie for counter-programming dollars in more crowded seasons (summer for ''Saw'', Thanksgiving for ''Escape Room''). Both are expected to push past the relatively small-scale confines of their respective predecessor(s), whether with bigger stars (''Organ Donor'' will feature Creator/ChrisRock and Creator/SamuelLJackson) or a bigger setting (''Escape Room 2'' sees the first film's survivors taking the fight to their mysterious former captors). || While ''Saw'' is a long-dormant franchise that had only briefly been revived in the 2010s with 2017's ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' (to mixed success), ''Escape Room 2'' will be released less than two years after the first film, a surprise hit[[labelnote:*]] notably bigger than ''Jigsaw''[[/labelnote]] that offered a PG-13 variation on ''Saw'''s modus operandi. Assuming both sequels retain their franchises' historical MPAA ratings, this will be a showdown of the old-school, R-rated legacy sequel vs. a new LighterAndSofter variation of the same template. Originally, ''Escape Room 2'' was set to release before ''Organ Donor'' (in April), but was [[ReleaseDateChange pushed back]] to August, then again to November. || TBD. ||

|| ''Franchise/{{Saw}}: The Organ Donor'' (2020) || ''Film/EscapeRoom 2'' (2020) || The latest installments of these trap-centric horror franchises vacate their previously established release timeframes (Halloween and January, respectively) to vie for counter-programming dollars in more crowded seasons (summer for ''Saw'', Thanksgiving for ''Escape Room''). Both are expected to push past the relatively small-scale confines of their respective predecessor(s), whether with bigger stars (''Organ Donor'' will feature Creator/ChrisRock and Creator/SamuelLJackson) or a bigger setting (''Escape Room 2'' sees the first film's survivors taking the fight to their mysterious former captors). || While ''Saw'' is a long-dormant franchise that had only briefly been revived in the 2010s with 2017's ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' (to mixed success), ''Escape Room 2'' will be released only 1.5 years after the first film, a surprise hit[[labelnote:*]] notably bigger than ''Jigsaw''[[/labelnote]] that offered a PG-13 variation on ''Saw'''s modus operandi. Assuming both sequels retain their franchises' historical MPAA ratings, this will be a showdown of the old-school, R-rated legacy sequel vs. a new LighterAndSofter variation of the same template. || TBD. ||

|| ''Franchise/{{Saw}}: The Organ Donor'' (2020) || ''Film/EscapeRoom 2'' (2020) || The latest installments of these trap-centric horror franchises vacate their previously established release timeframes (Halloween and January, respectively) to vie for summer counter-programming dollars. Both are expected to push past the relatively small-scale confines of their respective predecessor(s), whether with bigger stars (''Organ Donor'' will feature Creator/ChrisRock and Creator/SamuelLJackson) or a bigger setting (''Escape Room 2'' sees the first film's survivors taking the fight to their mysterious former captors). || While ''Saw'' is a long-dormant franchise that had only briefly been revived in the 2010s with 2017's ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' (to mixed success), ''Escape Room 2'' will be released only 1.5 years after the first film, a surprise hit[[labelnote:*]] notably bigger than ''Jigsaw''[[/labelnote]] that offered a PG-13 variation on ''Saw'''s modus operandi. Assuming both sequels retain their franchises' historical MPAA ratings, this will be a showdown of the old-school, R-rated legacy sequel vs. a new LighterAndSofter variation of the same template. || TBD. ||

|| ''Franchise/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' series (1974)\\

|| ''Film/ItChapterTwo'' (2019) || ''Film/DoctorSleep'' (2019) || Two Creator/StephenKing-based supernatural horror movie sequels released two months apart in 2019, with adult protagonists who were children in the first installment. || ''It: Chapter Two'' is the sequel to 2017's ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' and both adapt one part of [[Literature/{{It}} the eponymous novel]], while ''Doctor Sleep'' adapts the [[Literature/DoctorSleep sequel novel]] to ''Literature/TheShining'' (and may more or less be a sequel to 1980's ''Film/TheShining''). || Pending. ||

|| ''Film/ItChapterTwo'' (2019) || ''Film/DoctorSleep'' (2019) || Two Creator/StephenKing-based supernatural horror movie sequels released two months apart in 2019, with adult protagonists who were children in the first installment. || ''It: Chapter Two'' is the sequel to 2017's ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' and both adapt one part of [[Literature/{{It}} the eponymous novel]], while ''Doctor Sleep'' adapts the [[Literature/DoctorSleep book sequel]] to ''Literature/TheShining'' (and may more or less be a sequel to 1980's ''Film/TheShining''). || Pending. ||

|| ''Film/ItChapterTwo'' (2019) || ''Film/DoctorSleep'' (2019) || Two Creator/StephenKing-based supernatural horror movie sequels released two months apart in 2019, with adult protagonists who were children in the first installment. || ''It Chapter Two'' is the sequel to 2017's ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' and both adapt one part of [[Literature/{{It}} the eponymous novel]], while ''Doctor Sleep'' adapts the [[Literature/DoctorSleep book sequel]] to ''Literature/TheShining'' (and may more or less be a sequel to 1980's ''Film/TheShining''). || Pending. ||

|| ''Film/ItChapterTwo'' (2019) || ''Film/DoctorSleep'' (2019) || Two Creator/StephenKing-based supernatural horror movie sequels released two months apart in 2019, with adult protagonists who were children in the first installment. || ''It Chapter Two'' is the sequel to 2017's ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' and both adapt one part of [[Literature/{{It}} the eponymous novel]], while ''Doctor Sleep'' adapts the [[Literature/DoctorSleep book sequel]] to ''Literature/TheShining'' (and may more or less be a film sequel to 1980's ''Film/TheShining''). || Pending. ||

|| ''Film/ItChapterTwo'' (2019) || ''Film/DoctorSleep'' (2019) || Two Creator/StephenKing-inspired supernatural horror sequels released two months apart in 2019, with adult protagonists who were children in the first installment. || ''It Chapter Two'' is the sequel to 2017's ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' and both adapt one part of [[Literature/{{It}} the eponymous novel]], while ''Doctor Sleep'' adapts the [[Literature/DoctorSleep book sequel]] to ''Literature/TheShining'' (and may more or less be a film sequel to 1980's ''Film/TheShining''). || Pending. ||

|| ''Film/ItChapterTwo'' (2019) || ''Film/DoctorSleep'' (2019) || Two Creator/StephenKing-inspired supernatural horror sequels released two months apart in 2019, with adult protagonists who were children in the first installment. || ''It Chapter Two'' is the sequel to 2017's ''Film/{{It|2017}}'' and both adapt one part of [[Literature/{{It}} the eponymous novel]], while ''Doctor Sleep'' adapts the [[Literature/DoctorSleep book sequel]] to ''Literature/TheShining'' (and may more or less be a film sequel to ''Film/TheShining''). || Pending. ||