With SCREAM 4 in theaters, and having already run down some of the lamer fourth installments of fright franchises (see that article here), we now present five flicks that prove the fourth time can be the charm:

LAND OF THE DEAD (2005)

Twenty years had passed since George A. Romero last visited his zombie franchise (in 1985’s DAY OF THE DEAD), and now he was back with a major studio (Universal) and his biggest budget for a DEAD film yet. Unfortunately, Universal bungled its release—moving it up from October to June, a week after BATMAN BEGINS stormed theaters—which is a shame, ’cause while LAND isn’t on par with NIGHT and DAWN, it’s a solid little film with Romero’s characteristic sociopolitical subtext.

The fourth DEAD takes place in that familiar Romero locale, Pittsburgh, where a very George Bush-like Dennis Hopper owns a luxury-skyscraper sanctuary that indulges the “haves” while the “have-nots” are relegated to the devastated city slums and fighting off the undead. Rebellion is inevitable, and not only from destitute humans: Big Daddy and his zombie posse are getting smarter—and like the look of that luxury apartment (and the affluent entrees residing there). LAND has a nice cast led by Hopper, Simon Baker, Asia Argento, John Leguizamo and Robert Joy (plus Phil Fondacaro as Chihuahua!), and some choice practical and prosthetic FX work by Greg Nicotero and KNB. For a fourth film, LAND is a respectable addition to Romero’s undead opus.

BRIDE OF CHUCKY (1998)

Whereas Freddy’s descent into utter goofball softened his edge, Chucky was born for this. The first CHILD’S PLAY, while still a good film, just isn’t scary past a certain age, and after a seven-year absence from screens, Don Mancini (who thankfully has stayed involved with all of the films) bringing him back as dark comedy gold was ingenious. Take Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly’s killer delivery, a Goth-y Alexis Arquette cameo and constant threats to Katherine Heigl’s well-being, and something silly, weird, bloody and ridiculous was born. It’s pretty endlessly entertaining, still.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER (1988)

While it’s certainly no DREAM WARRIORS, Renny Harlin’s tour of duty on Elm Street is nowhere near as deflating as most fourth entries—or Sheila’s classroom kill, which, speaking of, probably doesn’t get enough love in the pantheon of Freddy demises. The film, which begins with Krueger taking out the remaining Dream Warriors, sees Kristen (Tuesday Knight replacing Patricia Arquette) transfer her Dokken-enthusiast abilities to new friend Alice (Lisa Wilcox). While super-grateful for the dream powers, Alice, her brother Rick and friend Debbie must now contend with he-who-wears-the-striped-sweater.

DREAM MASTER teeters on the edge of Freddy’s transition to all-around wacky, but he’s still able to inject some creep factor into the proceedings, including the aforementioned sucking-the-life-out-of-Sheila and Debbie’s showstopping cockroach transformation. There’s also Joey’s waterbed drowning, which, while not as creative as the others, is no doubt horrifying to those who had to go home to wavy sleeping. And, seriously—DREAM MASTER has a basement karate montage to Dramarama’s “Anything, Anything.” Impossible to hate.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984)

They’re going to kill Jason! The unstoppable, seemingly immortal murdering machine known as Jason Voorhees was once and for all going to be wiped out. Hell, the fourth entry in this series was being titled THE FINAL CHAPTER. The poster featured Jason’s iconic hockey mask spiked in the eye with a knife, a pool of blood spilling beneath it. It was 1984. I was 10. And they were really going to kill Jason.

Sure, THE FINAL CHAPTER follows the FRIDAY formula, but three things make this follow-up a standout in the saga: 1) The cast: Crispin “Dead F*ck” Glover, THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN’s Lawrence Monoson, HELL NIGHT’s Peter Barton, WEIRD SCIENCE’s Judie Aronson and Corey Feldman! 2) Tom Savini back doing the FX: sawing a doctor’s neck, impalement from under a raft, a harpoon to the groin (!), the corkscrew-and-cleaver scene, crushing a dude’s head against shower tiles. And that leads to 3) The best kill of all: Jason. Harking back to the Young Jason look of the first FRIDAY, Pamela Voorhees’ monstrous offspring certainly gets his due. And nothing beats the sight of Jason’s scarred, disfigured mug sliding down that machete blade. Sure, it wasn’t THE FINAL CHAPTER. But it was a good one!

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)

While modern fans bemoan trends in endless horror franchising/sequelizing, it’s instructive to remember that monster hits have been repeatedly spun off since the genre’s first Golden Age. Yet even back then, the right approach could trump mercenary commercial concerns, and such is the case with this underrated fourth entry in the series begun by the Boris Karloff classic. Despite the absence of King Boris (Lon Chaney Jr. stepped into the Monster’s big shoes for the first and only time in the Universal run), GHOST is a sharp and entertaining flick, and frankly, a lot more fun than its predecessor, the talky and overlong SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.

GHOST benefits greatly from the return of Bela Lugosi as the hunchbacked Ygor, who tracks down Ludwig Frankenstein (Cedric Hardwicke), the son of the original doctor, and convinces Ludwig to help restore the Monster to his full strength. Ludwig has one idea about whose brain should be placed in the Monster’s body, Ygor has another and things don’t end up well… While Hardwicke’s performance is no match for Colin Clive’s intensity in GHOST’s predecessors, Lugosi carries the show with a terrific, wily performance, and director Erle C. Kenton keeps Scott Darling’s script moving along nicely. Bonus: Look very closely among the kids during the scene with the Monster and the little girl, and you’ll spot a very young William Smith, who grew up to be a B-movie stalwart in the ’70s and ’80s.

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MOVIES/TV - Fearful Features