A Nightmare on Elm Street is my all time favorite horror movie. It left a lasting impression on me and Freddy Krueger was legitimately scary to me as a kid. The idea of a killer murdering people in their dreams is frightening to say the least. As the series went on the movies became more comedy than horror with Freddy becoming a hammy wise cracker. While this franchise had many highs, it also had some low lows. I ranked the Friday The 13th Series earlier, so now its time to do the same to Freddy, lets go!
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Oh. My. God. To quote the great Angry Video Game Nerd, this movie is a “shitload of fuck” I can’t even begin to tell you how awful this remake is. The original series presented Freddy as a child murderer, which is appalling enough but for some reason they made the decision to make Freddy a child molester as well in the remake. Now forever we’ll hear “oh he was always a child molester!” No No NO! Freddy was never a peddy! They basically reshoot the entire film, with shitty CGI that looks worse than the practical effects from 1984. Just stay clear of this, dammit I hate this movie!
- Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
This whole movie was just kind of an odd mix of slapstick and cheesy one liners. Lets not forget Freddy plugs the Power Glove. The trailer and poster made you believe the film was in 3D, but really only a few parts, towards the end are actually in 3D, with a dumb queue to put the glasses on. Its super campy but holds a special place in my heart by being the first one that I owned, but it was taped off TV haha.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
This movie isn’t so much bad as it is boring. So boring that I fell asleep during it twice. It is a bad sign when you’re watching a movie about a serial killer that kills people in their dreams, and you fall asleep. The movie is just dull, I don’t have much to say about it really. There are some fun scenes but not enough to boost the rewatchability value.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
The gay one. Funny side story, I had this one taped off TV as well, thanks dad! When I was a kid I loved this movie, I thought the special effects were awesome, which they still are actually. Now I watch it and laugh because of the blatant homoerotic scenes and feel to the film as a whole. While its definitely not as great as the original, it isn’t as bad as many will make you believe. Watch the movie, take it as a stand alone film from the others and you might enjoy it.
- Freddy vs Jason (2003)
Not much else to say on this movie, I talked about it in the Friday the 13th Ranking the other day. Its fun, we finally got to see this battle and it was basically everything I wanted in a cross over like this.
- Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Yes please bring your hate at me! I don’t see the big love for this movie. Yes its pretty decent and yes it put a new spin on the series, but all in all its rather boring to me. While it may be one of the only installments that has legit scary moments, the whole thing is just lost on me because they made Freddy a demon that possesses Miko Hughes, the little kid that was in everything in the early 90s.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
This is where wise cracking Freddy really took off. While it has some corny moments I think it’s a fun installment and one of the best sequels. It stays true to the original enough to keep you invested but adds a new dimension to Freddy that we haven’t seen before.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987)
This may be the most entertaining of the Nightmare movies. Nancy returns to help a group of troubled children in a halfway house to deal with their common nightmares. Nightmares of Freddy Krueger, big surprise! This time the kids are taught that they can be anything they want in their dreams, so each kid has an ability they use to fight Freddy. Even John Saxon returns as Nancy’s dad to help put Freddy away. Also this movie has a bitchin theme song by Dokken, and when you’re Rokken with Dokken, you can’t go wrong!
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Did you really think it was going to be any other of the movies at the top? I mean this movie did so much for the slasher genre when it came out. It basically brought the genre out of a nose dive that it was facing after the early 80s boom. Former child murderer Freddy Krueger is burnt alive in his home and he takes revenge on the parents that did it by murdering their children in their dreams. The idea at the time was revolutionary. This was one of the first times a supernatural approach was taken in the slasher genre, and boy did it pay off…literally. New Line Cinema wouldn’t have existed if it wasn’t for this film. A masterpiece in my opinion, a must watch for any horror fan.
