Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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steeped within genre theory. However, this can also be applied to the pleasures and
appeal of film sequels, and can be easily transposed, as the link between repetition in
genre films is in increased effect when considered between films within the same
franchise. Within this same piece, Neale writes at length on narrative elements of
the genres, and is thorough in his overview of the horror film (20-25). However, it
should be noted that, though the veneer of narrative continuity may prove thin,
particularly after repeated attempts at sequelisation following a film text that was
created with little forethought as to the specifics of the narrative of succeeding films,
there is a specific narrative continuity between films, and it is this continuity which I
intend to explore within this chapter.
“While Classic Hollywood had relegated outright sequels to the B-movie
ranks...” writes Robert B. Ray, “the New Hollywood appeared far less flexible,
depending to an extraordinary extent on ‘continuations’ of successful films. Thus,
between 1967 and 1977, nearly one-third of the 220 leading money-makers were
either sequels themselves or films that prompted sequels...” (1985; 262) Although
Friday the 13 th appears after this period Ray denotes as the advent of “New
Hollywood”, it remains the origin of a franchise that continued to regenerate itself in
order to increase capital, and to develop an established property more likely to attract
viewers.
Paul Budra makes a presumptuous statement explicating this tendency:
“Though financial argument obviously justified the first sequels to Halloween, A
Nightmare on Elm Street, The Howling, and even Friday the 13 th , by the time these
films reached their seventh instalments many film-goers were simply baffled at their