With the sheer variety of horror movie series and its confluence with cult cinema, you best believe that we’ve seen more than our fair share here at Mutant Reviewers. So what are our favorite series? That’s the question on the butchering block!

Drake: Favorite horror movie series? I’m just going to have to go with the Friday the 13th films here. Look, we all know that Freddy Krueger was the undisputed big dog of the horror movie scene in the 1980s, but that just meant that everyone else had to try harder. And let’s face it, Jason Voorhees really put the work in.

Of course Jason was around first, but the early years were just those of a hulking maniac finding himself. After the cruel loss of his mother, Jason had to take it upon himself to continue on with the family tradition of terrorizing (and murderizing) those unlucky enough to find themselves vacationing at Crystal Lake. And if that meant wearing a potato bag over his head, then that was just what Jason was going to do!

Granted, it wasn’t long after that that Jason happened to find the hockey mask that became his trademark, but then, just one film later, he was dead, the victim of one of the Coreys who kept popping up throughout the ‘80s. It was an ignominious way to go. Worse, a two-bit impostor tried to take Jason’s place after his untimely demise, but just ended up besmirching the Voorhees name. Did Jason take that indignity lying down? Well, yes he did, since he was dead. But death was just a minor impediment for Crystal Lake’s favorite son, and he soon found himself resurrected into an undead killing machine and facing off with a psychokinetic teen before deciding to get away from it all. Booking himself a trip to the Big Apple, Jason took in the sights, killed a few more teens, probably saw a show or two, and was then completely dissolved by toxic sludge.

So, pretty much the quintessential ‘80s NYC experience.

But even being disintegrated into goo can’t put Jason down for good, and he clawed his way back into the world once more…only to get frozen and shot into space. Where he made a comedy disguised as a slasher flick, thereby proving that Jason Voorhees is more than just a one-note horror villain.

So there you go. Jason puts his all into every movie, even though he knows that his efforts will likely be ignored thanks to that Krueger guy running around and cracking jokes. Jason doesn’t joke. Heck, he doesn’t even talk. All he needs is his mask and a machete, and he’ll be fine.

Justin: Pushing aside really popular and hybrid horror series such as Aliens and Predator or the easy pick of Evil Dead for a more pure answer… I can’t settle on just one. But I’ll make a case for a few of them, OK?

The Happy Death Day duology may begin like a tepid slasher but quickly becomes a time loop adventure of Back to the Futurian proportions — just with more death. It’s screamingly funny with an amazing lead in Jessica Rothe and quite clever to boot. It’s only technically horror, but I’m including it because it’s flat-out amazing and more people need to see it.

I love the House series for being a strange anthology of haunted houses, the two Gremlins movies for being kind of the ultimate creature features, and the Jack Frost duology for being stupidly silly. No, I’m not into huge scares or gore, but I do love some humor and creativity in my horror.

Sitting Duck: When you think about it, the concept of a horror series is a fairly recent innovation. Especially if you don’t count the Universal Classic Monsters. Throughout the genre’s history, it’s been all about standalones. After all, Mary Shelley didn’t follow up Frankenstein with penny dreadful tales of the Monster living like Richard Kimble. Nor did Bram Stoker continue with The Further Adventures of Abraham Van Helsing.

One of the core features of horror is fear. And as H.P. Lovecraft famously stated, the greatest fear is fear of the unknown. The thing is as the narrative unfolds in a horror story, the Unknown becomes Known. Unless your series conceit is something akin to each installment featuring a new batch of horny idiot teenagers getting shipped off to Crystal Lake, you cannot really stuff that Known back into the Pandora’s Box of Unknown. Such a continuation results in the horror story morphing into urban fantasy. Which is not meant as a slight, as I enjoy urban fantasy. However, despite their broad similarities, the two genres are ultimately distinct.

What I’m saying is that, when it comes to horror movies, I’m more into the standalones. Stuff like The Uninvited (not that one, the other one), The Dunwich Horror, Gargoyles, The Stone Tape, Children of the Stones, Lifeforce, The Resurrected, Event Horizon, Call of Cthulhu, and oh so many episodes of Night Gallery.

Josh: Personally, I am partial to Friday the 13th. That series is always a Halloween season watch. Some of the directions those films end up taking are so fun and off the wall, especially for a story originating with a kid drowning in a lake. I mean, this hulking monster of a dude is killed over and over again. Not to mention being chained at the bottom of a lake for a while. There are some pretty memorable kills as well including Kevin Bacon’s arrow to the throat and the sleeping bag tree slam. One wheelchair bound kid takes a header down a flight of stairs! Also, we get Cory Feldman for a bit!

Not only did Friday the 13th bring the movie summer camp slasher into main stream pop culture, it is endlessly referenced and spoofed and has inspired toys, comics, and video games. I can only hope if I die my mother will lose her mind and kill off some promiscuous teens.

In addition, a recent series I like is the Terrifier movies. David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown is endlessly entertaining to watch. The practical effects are horrifying and well done. It looks primed to get into some truly wacky territory. It kind of has already honestly.

Mike: Gotta go Nightmare on Elm St. While unstoppable tanks like Jason or Michael Myers are scary, there’s something truly terrifying and unsettling about a guy who’ll taunt you while he’s peeling your skin off.

I’m hard pressed to think of a slasher who shares Freddy Krueger’s sheer glee in the kill. He’s not misunderstood, there’s no injustice to be righted or tragic backstory. There’s lore — Amanda Krueger locked in with a hundred maniacs, the parents of Elm Street going all vigilante, abusive foster homes, bullying school kids, but none of that shaped Freddy. Freddy kills because he loves it. A soul so dark demons made him their designated sleep paralysis slasher.

And he’s as charismatic an antagonist as you’re likely to find in the horror world. Quipping like he’s Deadpool as he slices through teenagers. The kills are spectacular. Using a puppeteer kids nerves to puppet him off a roof? Shoving a fame obsessed teen face first into a TV? Force-feeding a bulimic girl until she bursts? Killing a stoner kid with a Power Glove (it’s so rad)? Every kill is ironic and personal. Not to mention this was Wes Craven being meta textual (New Nightmare) years before he would get all self-referential with the Scream franchise.