I don’t know about you, but I think Alien: Romulus kicks some serious Xenomorph tail. That means that director Fede Álvarez can now say he has crafted one of the strongest installments from two respective classic horror movie franchises. He broke through with an unapologetically brutal 2013 reboot of the Evil Dead films, and has now further proven his skill with a new sci-fi movie that reminds us why we fell in love with the Alien movies in the first place.
While I would love to see him next introduce us to a new horror movie —emphasis on new, as when he followed up Evil Dead with 2016’s Don’t Breathe — a part of me is also curious what other beloved horror films might be worth revisiting with him at the helm. It’s an idea worth imagining, at least, so I did, and what follows are the horror movie franchises I would love to see Fede Álvarez breathe new life into.
Friday the 13th
I am among the many fans who agree that, after 12 installments so far, the Friday the 13th movies — known for Jason Voorhees’ many memorable kill scenes — need just one more chapter, but I want to see a sequel that really cooks. If it is not going to be Stephen King taking over the horror franchise,
I believe Fede Álvarez would be the perfect choice for the job, not just for his penchant for inventively visceral gore but because I think he has a knack for character-driven horror stories that this otherwise beloved slasher movie franchise could certainly benefit from.
Insidious
Speaking of inventive viscera, I think there are few haunted house movies in recent memory that have really tried to stand out among the rest with indelible imagery and amusing concepts like 2011’s Insidious. However, I do not believe that the sequels have offered anything quite up to par with the original.
There are plans to release more upcoming Blumhouse movies from the world James Wan and Leigh Whannell created, which is fine. But I might be more excited for them if Álvarez was given the chance to incorporate his distinct vision into The Further.
Final Destination
Anyone who has ever seen a Fede Álvarez movie knows that the filmmaker is absolutely no slouch when it comes to killing off his characters, crafting deadly sequences so uniquely and authentically crafted, you might be convinced you can feel the pain you are witnessing onscreen.
WIth that in mind, can you imagine what any of the best kill scenes from the Final Destination franchise — in which fate itself hunts people who managed to cheat death — would look like under his direction? I do not want to have to imagine that and would be really curious to see it.
Halloween
After 2022’s Halloween Ends came out, I wrote a feature explaining why I hope we have seen the last of Michael Myers, and for real this time. However, that does not mean I do not want any more Halloween movies and, in fact, I would love to see the franchise evolve into an anthology, like it was previously attempted in 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
That means Álvarez would have free reign to craft any story set on All Hallow’s Eve that he wants if he were to jump on the chance and, considering the creative ideas he has brought us so far, he just might make a killing.
The Hills Have Eyes
One of Wes Craven’s earliest hits is 1977’s The Hills Have Eyes — about a road-tripping family stranded in a desert with murderous, cave-dwelling mutants — which spawned an acclaimed horror remake from Alexandre Aja in 2006.
It has been a while since Hollywood has revisited this story, perhaps understandably. But I think that a relentlessly grim, tragically upsetting, and shockingly wicked B-movie such as this seems tailor-made for a filmmaker like Álvarez to remake in his own vision.
Hellraiser
I had a lot of amusing thoughts while watching 2022’s Hellraiser — David Bruckner’s reimagining of Clive Barker’s 1987 classic involving a mysterious puzzle box that conjures a group of sadomasochistic entities. It’s one of the best horror movies on Hulu at the moment, and holds up compared to more lackluster remakes in recent years.
However, I still walked away from it believing it mostly lacked Barker’s edgy storytelling, visual uniqueness, and grittier tone that could have taken it to the next level. A new take on the Cenobites under Álvarez’s vision sounds like a match made in… well, you know.
Demons
What I love about Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead is how he honors what made the original Sam Raimi movies special but elevates the material into something — dare I say — less cheesy. I think he could do the same with the Italian cult favorite Demons.
The 1985 feature follows a group of moviegoers are forced to live a B-movie for real when they become locked inside the theater with a possessive force. I think it is time Hollywood reintroduced this gory underrated gem for a new generation.
Paranormal Activity
I would not call myself a fan of the Paranormal Activity movies, per se, but I am a huge fan of found-footage horror movies and would love to see Álvarez’s own take on the subgenre someday. If a new installment of the long-running franchise about ghostly or demonic encounters caught on camera were to be his entry point, I say so be it.
He might even bring a long overdue freshness to the series and it would give him a chance to hone his skills in suspense without relying on his more visual tricks.
The Fly
The first title that pops into my mind when I think of body horror movies is David Cronenberg’s 1988 remake of The Fly, in which a teleportation experiment gone wrong causes an eccentric scientist to slowly evolve into a half-human, half-insect hybrid. All hail the Brundlefly.
We have seen glimpses of the sort of intense body horror that Álvarez can drum up in Evil Dead and Alien: Romulus and if there was ever a reason to build upon the story of this classic sci-fi movie, it would be to see what sort of nightmarish metamorphoses the filmmaker might conjure.
At the end of the day, I do think that I am most looking forward to the new stories that Fede Álvarez will bring us, but I cannot deny that seein any of these sequels or reboots under his control would be dream (or nightmare) come true.
