I don't know how you can say it's "desperate". It's boundary pushing, creative, and reaches into the darkest part of the human psyche to get to a primal urge to see dark fear meet violent slaughter.
So the storyline is a bit corny, but corniness isn't desperation. It's an underlying humor to help balance the gutteral disgust created by seeing such wanton mutilation. It's an intelligent choice to keep the movie appearing as a low budget franchise, despite getting bigger audiences and bigger budgets with each film.
It's a great creative choice that allows the franchise to thrive and build while creating a dedicated fan base.
I don't call that desperation, i call it brilliance.
