Every“ A Nightmare on Elm Street” movie, ranked from worst to best
The Freddy Kreuger saga spans decades, with haunting highs and leaden lows.
He has a burned, hideously scarred face, skin covered in cysts and boils. Yellow eyes glare over a crooked nose. A fiendish grin exposes rotten teeth. He's bone-thin, leans sideways, and wears a torn red-and-green-striped sweater and brown fedora. His trademark right-hand glove is made of leather, bolts, and sheet metal with knives as fingers. Cackling, lurking in the dark, he cuts into the flesh of his victims in their sleep.
Freddy Krueger — the notorious child-murdering monster of the "Dream Demon" species, portrayed (mostly) by Robert Englund — has been torturing the residents of Elm Street since 1984. Born from the mind of horror master Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street spawned a total of nine films, a television spinoff, multiple novels, and several comic books — grossing almost $500 million worldwide.
From the unwatchable to the must-see, in honor of the original film's 40th anniversary, here are all nine A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, ranked.
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
What was at first a long-awaited remake turned out to be like plastic forks scratching a metal surface. The story is the same, as teenage neighbors are hunted in their dreams by a mangled man. The soundtrack is still in the key of D minor, with echoes, dissonant sounds, suspended chords, and a haunting sense of doom. Jump-roping girls chant the same lyrics: "One, two, Freddy's coming for you/Three, four, better lock your door." But the stark differences between 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street and the original set them worlds apart.
Though music video maestro–turned–film director Samuel Bayer crafts a slick, stylized film, it still suffers from a lack of substance and a hollow screenplay. Jackie Earle Haley replaces Englund as Freddy, while Rooney Mara plays Nancy Holbrook alongside new, forgettable characters, making for an unforgivingly underwhelming final note for the franchise.
Where to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
Related: Rooney Mara almost quit acting after Elm Street remake: It 'was not a good experience'
8. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
As far as franchise sequels go, Freddy's Dead sits at the bottom of the barrel, squirming in muddy, worm-infested waters as the last-intended Nightmare chapter. In Rachel Talalay's directorial debut, the series grows into the self-parody it has been unintentionally edging toward since the mid-'80s.
The needlessly confusing narrative follows Lisa Zane as Maggie Burroughs, Freddy's long-lost daughter — and therapist — as she counsels victims at an orphanage between fist-fights with her father. Her mission is to kill Krueger once and for all, with the action sandwiched between out-of-place cameos by Tom Arnold, Roseanne Barr, and original Nightmare star Johnny Depp. The series, thankfully, doesn't end in what was supposed to be a major cinematic event as New Line Cinema's first 3-D movie, though Freddy's Dead will forever be remembered as one of the worst blunders on the Nightmare timeline.
Where to watch Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)
7. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
If the series began as an F-16 Fighting Falcon blasting into space, The Dream Child shrunk it into a bottle rocket fizzling out in the grass. A now-pregnant Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Dan (Danny Hassel) — survivors from the fourth film — believe they're safe at last. But, when Freddy plagues the dreams of Alice's unborn son, fireballs soar from hell with his reincarnation into the real world.
Gore is used for shock value, including a scene where Freddy forces a dieting model (Erika Anderson) to eat her organs while seated at a dinner party, plus a dream sequence where Freddy's mother gives birth to him in the Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital. Baby Freddy rips his way out, shrieking so loud the windows shatter. Needless to say, Nightmare 5 is a dreary, tongue-in-cheek ode to bad taste, and only partially because of its rushed production after The Dream Master's unexpected success.
Where to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child: Max
6. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
While Freddy Krueger was rising to genre fame, a machete-swinging, hockey mask-wearing serial killer had a similar ascent in his own franchise. Jason Voorhees — the legendary killer from Camp Crystal Lake — is the pillar of each Friday the 13th movie since the second installment, joining Freddy, Michael Myers, and Leatherface in horror villain superstardom. By 2003, after years of ups and downs, New Line Cinema and Crystal Lake Entertainment saw an opportunity to reclaim their audience.
The plot: Freddy's been burning in hell since The Final Nightmare, unable to occupy anyone's dreams. The only way to regain power is for the town to believe he's returned. Recruiting Jason to embark on a murderous rampage — hoping people will think it's him — their rivalry begins when Jason won't stop killing Freddy's intended victims. The result is reliably mindless but not void of fun in its showdown of evil vs. evil.
Where to watch Freddy vs. Jason: Max
Related: Robert Englund says he is 'too long in the tooth' to play Freddy Krueger again
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
By this fourth installment, Freddy has morphed from a terrifying, teen-murdering monster into a cartoon character throwing on a pair of shades and waving in the summertime. The story follows three surviving patients from Dream Warriors — Kristen (Tuesday Knight), Ronald (Ken Sagoes), and Joey (Ronald Eastman) — a year after their release from Westin Hills. Soon after disappearing or getting killed off, teens Alice and Dan take center stage as they're trapped in another series of gruesome events.
While The Dream Master is superior to The Dream Child, it's a cesspool of bizarre mythology and outdated clichés — chases down tilted hallways, blood-curdling screams, pipes blowing steam in boiler rooms — with half-baked ideas flooding the story's broken pipeline, though Brooke Theiss' Debbie transforming into a skittering cockroach and getting stuck in acid bait paste was an admittedly memorable turn.
Where to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master: Max
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
After the massive success of A Nightmare on Elm Street, a follow-up was inevitable. Freddy's Revenge takes place in the same town, on the same street, and in the same house when the Walsh family moves in. The protagonist is Jesse (Mark Patton), another high schooler experiencing nightmares. The obvious choice was for Craven to direct, but, when he read David Chaskin's script, he saw elements that didn't live up to his true vision.
Lost on which direction to take without Craven, the studio considered making Freddy a silent, Michael Myers-like stalker donning a rubber mask rather than the quick-witted villain we've come to know, but ultimately decided to bring back Englund. The direction, production design, and effects are all top-notch for the times, and the performances — particularly by Jesse's father (Clu Gulager) and girlfriend (Kim Myers) — are convincing. Although still filled with cringe-worthy scenes, Freddy's Revenge remains a favorite.
Where to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge: Max
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Among horror connoisseurs, Dream Warriors is one of the few truly loved films in the saga. As the first installment in the "Dream Trilogy," director Chuck Russell (The Blob; The Mask) treats his turf like a creative playground. Craven co-wrote the script, a young Patricia Arquette plays a prominent role, and Heather Langenkamp returns as Nancy from the original — this time as a psychiatrist treating patients haunted by Freddy in their dreams. As Freddy roars through the film with a vengeance, there's a whirlwind of artistic sequences.
From syringe claws and an explosive television set death to people dragged through mirrors and a sadistic puppet show involving tugged tendons, Dream Warriors pushes us into a rabbit hole of imagination perhaps more than any other film in the franchise.
Where to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors: Max
2. Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
This standalone meta-narrative separate from the Nightmare timeline centers on a demonic force that uses the Freddy Krueger character as his passage to the real world to hunt down the cast and crew of the Elm Street franchise. Those most influential to the franchise step in front of the camera as themselves: Langenkamp, Craven, New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye, John Saxon, and Englund as both himself and the new entity personifying the spirit of the character he'd portrayed all those years.
Producer Marianne Maddalena also plays herself in the film. "Wes loved female heroines," Maddalena tells EW. "Nancy is pretty feminist, turning her back on Freddy and taking things into her own hands. Wes was an intellect, a true auteur. No detail was too small for him." Craven's screenplay pulls on the right threads, weaving between the "real world" of the cast and the foundational elements of the franchise
Where to watch Wes Craven's New Nightmare: Apple TV+ (to rent)
1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
On Nov. 16, 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street shot chills down the spines of moviegoers across the world, reinventing the supernatural slasher horror genre. It also launched the careers of much of its cast: Heather Langenkamp as Nancy; Johnny Depp in his film debut as Glen; John Saxon as Lieutenant Don; Amanda Wyss as Tina; Nick Corri as the rebellious Rod Lane; and Englund as an iconic boogeyman jumping out of the shadows, stretching his elongated arms in an alleyway.
Craven burned unforgettable images into our minds: the three girls skipping rope singing the nursery rhyme; Freddy's finger blades rising from the bathtub water; Tina's violent death on the bedroom ceiling; Glen sucked into a hole in the bed where blood sprays out like a fountain; and so many more. It cuts deep, tapping into our subconscious fears — and clawing long marks that will last forever.
Where to watch A Nightmare on Elm Street: Max
Related: Freddy or not: A Nightmare on Elm Street star looks back on his career
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.