Sharks, Slashers, And Sequels

Salt spray, shark lore, and the thin line between fear and fandom—this conversation dives straight into the craft that gives horror its bite. We open with Tom Morton’s vivid memories from Jaws second-unit work on Catalina: underwater setups, safety puzzles, and the gritty logistics that made the original feel so real you can taste the brine. Those details set the stage for a bigger question we keep returning to: why do some sequels become legends while others wash out?

We explore the rare alchemy of a sequel like Aliens, which flips from slow-burn terror to high-stakes survival without breaking the emotional spine of the story. From there, we test the limits of escalation across Pirates and Blade, where charm can buckle under lore and noise when “bigger” crowds out character. Slashers add a different tension: brand identity. Fans who want the “real” Jason or Michael often bristle at detours, yet time can turn a maligned entry into a cult favorite once the shock of difference fades. Tom shares how a copycat twist was slammed on release but later found defenders who appreciated its sly humor and craft.

Nostalgia frames the second half. We remember the electricity of 80s hype—the Thriller premiere, Tyson fights, midnight lines—and how that communal build-up amplified every scare. That lens helps explain why remakes stumble: a shot-for-shot Psycho can mimic the frame but not the era’s pulse. We talk Nosferatu echoes and why reinterpretation beats replication, especially when a story returns with a fresh thematic heartbeat rather than brand gravity alone. Through it all runs one thread: practical realism and purposeful reinvention outlast spectacle. When a film preserves texture, honors character, and evolves its idea, it earns its place in the canon.

If the craft behind your favorite scares fascinates you—and if you’ve ever argued about which sequel is secretly the best—press play, then tell us where a franchise won you back or finally lost you. Subscribe, share with a fellow horror fan, and leave a review with your most controversial sequel take.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome At Horror Round Time
• 0:22 Diving Into Jaws Filmmaking
• 1:43 Sequels That Work And Fail
• 3:25 Pirates, Blade, And Franchise Fatigue
• 5:10 Slashers, Fan Reactions, And Longevity
• 6:45 80s Hype Culture And Horror Roots

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

Tom Morton on the Fishboard. Welcome. At Horror Round Time 2025. That's right, here we are. Thank you for taking the time to swim in the bowl with me. Alright. Here we go. Yeah, I am hoping the temperature's just right. Excellent, excellent. We were just starting to talk about uh your your your work on Jaws phone, and I think that's uh that's appropriate since uh we're done on dun on.

SPEAKER_01: 0:33

That's true, yeah. I did some uh some Jaws work and it was different. I I I went to Catalina Island with uh second unit guys and and shot some of the stuff underwater when there were uh screw divers and sharks on the body has been burned and we all go to the surface and embolize. That was my first experience with Jaws, and then I did uh the revenge and dumping uh guest on the uh ship when the uh jaws were with the water. So I've had a few uh experiences on Jaws. It was great.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11

Awesome, awesome. Uh I I'm uh I'm a fan of all the Jaws. Uh I I the first of course is classic. Oh yeah. You know, secret now.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24

Right, right. It's like that with a lot of folks with a set.

SPEAKER_02: 1:32

Right. I mean the the one that I will say is the one that sequel is better, in my opinion, is Aliens. Aliens? Yeah. I think Aliens is the best in the the entire franchise. Uh Alien probably stuck in that foot for me between Aliens 3 and Resurrection.

SPEAKER_01: 1:55

I'm not sure. I'd have to look at them again to make that evaluation, but I like Alien. It was it was pretty good. I I have to see that again because you might be right with that. I know when we did Pirates, Pirates the First were really it's it's it was like that kind of movie where you set the toad and who's this who's this you know, captain and it's pirate, you know, and he and what's he doing is kind of fun to figure it out as you go along. Right, right. Because uh it it was very interesting on the whole show and hike of movies that course was and the others were okay, but you know, they sometimes go over the top because they try to make it bigger and better sequence. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 2:34

Sometimes that worked out. Yeah, I mean another one that uh that I'll throw out really it's like the 80s and 90s more time and me for this, but they like the first and the second are really good, but the third might have like black. Yeah. Uh and they didn't really rectify that till I guess Mark and May, you know, kind of kind of took over. Yeah, um, because it could even be seen with like blade number one really good. Blade number two pretty decent. Blade number three.

SPEAKER_01: 3:16

Uh I like blade. Yeah, blade one is is the best. I mean that they're then you're seeing the character set the whole action. Right, right. You're playing off each other's show. Right, right. I agree, I agree.

SPEAKER_02: 3:30

Uh uh as well as goes with uh Halloween and uh Friday 13th with the both uh I've done a lot of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:40

And these these shows, there's so many of them, they kind of go up and down. You like this one, and there's a lot of fans that like one over the other. Right. And and when I did five, I I you know, I I did a a copycat burn, you know. So it wasn't liked at first because they wanted to see Jason. Right. When you think about it, Jason's just an imaginary character anyway. Exactly. So if you're looking at a horror movie and there's a killer, there he is, but it wasn't the real Jason, you know. Right. So anyway, but as years go on, people look back and see them, and there's some people come here, you know, I really enjoyed this. Yeah, you see a little comedy in it. So they you know, it gets more appreciation. But when you have such a long series of films, right, right.

SPEAKER_02: 4:31

Right. I mean it it you know, some are better than I mean I I I I I was born in '88, grew up in the nineties, so I was like in the age, the the like you know, and also like all the movies were totally still relevant. And I remember I was in high school when Freddie Burke was based on the and that was like uh big deal. It was a big, very big deal, right? Uh we've been waiting for it since uh uh uh Facebook's L set up and um same thing for KVT.

SPEAKER_01: 5:11

I think the 80s were a really unique time because they had so much stuff that was waiting for. I remember waiting for the thriller was gonna come out. Uh and Tyson was fighting, and his fights every time you go see one of his fights. I think I think the 80s were a special time for me because I'm a lot older. My uh my heroes were in the 50s, and I look back at a plastic Frankenstein, Wolfman, and those things were like, oh wow, those are really killer people. I remember seeing the thing when it first came out. Yeah. I got out of my seat and I walked to the curtain. I watched the moon from behind it. You know, I wanted to do this. I was gonna leave it. No, I can't leave, but I thought I'd better thank you.

SPEAKER_02: 5:58

I I I definitely think uh uh the original style is still better than the one that just came out.

SPEAKER_01: 6:08

Yeah, there's something about that classic thing that we got. It's probably it's like trying to remake your cycle. Right. Right. And they did it at building. Yeah, it doesn't work. I think that's why it it's like in 50 if they pulled all the stories and done on the phone, so like the still we gotta keep thinking of something in.

SPEAKER_02: 6:30

Right. I mean, uh the the the only like iteration of no sparatu that isn't really Nels Garatu with his own movie is uh The Shadow of the Vampire. Oh uh William DeF William Defoe played uh supposed to be like a real vampire. Um it was like the film he was gratuit, but like the vampire wasn't real. Um abstract or whatever. But uh I think I see we're starting to uh get a little uh crowded here, so I guess we gotta crap up. Uh it's been a pleasure having you uh the bowl. Yeah. Uh again, you know, dun-un so this temperature was just right. Thank you, thank you. Awesome, thank you so much.