We have all been there, going to the cinema to watch the fifth film of a franchise that you don’t really care about anymore, you just want to go in there and hope that they have managed to finally finish it, you always leave the cinema dejected and terse. Horror films seem to be especially good at this. Now the first film in the Saw franchise is a film that many people, critics and all, agree to be a wonderful take on the horror/thriller genre, I concur. But when you find yourself going from tense, gritty independent production to a gore-laden-snooze-fest, then the shine really is off the apple.

I don’t have a problem with franchises, Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, Star Wars (prequels aside) are all fine examples of how each film can follow the next and still keep a fresh story, granted the two of those examples were already a successful literary outlet. But the question I’m asking is why we would still find ourselves sat in the cinema ready for Saw XIV? Well, for me I personally think it’s because like we are cinematic junkies, chasing that ever elusive first high again and we dig deeper and deeper until it runs its course. But I nearly had a cardiac arrest when I found out Johnny Depp had signed up to do a Pirates of the Caribbean 6 when the 5^th one hasn’t even been written yet.

Madness, it truly is madness. But in the pantheon of conglomerate giants and radical Hollywood big-wigs we are but pawns in a grand game of ‘what-can-we-sell-this-week’ and the response lies in a huge bucket in the back of the office, like a discount rack of out of date objects. Goodness, they are still waiting for John Wayne to come back to shoot another Rooster Cogburn film, this time in 3D.