Freddy Turns Forty: Ranking the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ Franchise
On this 40th anniversary of A Nightmare on Elm Street, which kicked off one of the most influential franchises in the horror genre, I enlisted the help of my horror movie-loving cousin and writer, Sam Kane, to help me rank the films in the franchise. These are personal rankings, so it is subjective, and we picked the order based on the impact and efficacy each movie had on us over the years. Ah. To hell with that. This is the definitive, indisputable ranking of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and for anyone who disagrees, take it up with the man in the Christmas sweater who has knives for fingers. Welcome to our nightmare…
As far back as I can remember, the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise has been a joint passion for the both of us and Freddy Krueger has been one of the more influential movie characters of our lifetime. I feel like every few months we’ll shoot each other a text that will read “watching The Dream Child again, wow!” or “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare… not that bad!” or something of that ilk. It’s kind of weird, I don’t think either of us would have any of the individual movies from the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise anywhere close to our top twenty-five horror movies of all time. But the franchise as a whole would probably rank incredibly high on both of our horror franchise rankings, and speaking for myself, cracking my top three…
Sam Kane: So excited to be doing this! In my opinion, almost every entry in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is fun and memorable. I became a fast Freddy fan and of horror in general when I turned thirteen. I had friends who would explain each of the iconic slasher villains. Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees were the first couple that I learned about, but Freddy came right after. I probably saw the first A Nightmare on Elm Street film about three months before Freddy vs. Jason came out. It could not have been better timing. It gave me a few months to watch every A Nightmare on Elm Street movie leading up to Freddy and Jason squaring off. It’s crazy to think that I had only known about Freddy for a short time leading up to the release of that movie, especially since I felt like I was a Freddy expert by opening night…
Alex Kane: For whatever reason, I was way more familiar with Jason Vorhees early in life than I was with Freddy Krueger. It’s always been an interesting fun fact to me that Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham were so close early in their careers, and had worked together on the beyond insane, rape-revenge flick The Last House on the Left in 1972. Of course, they both went on to shepherd two of the most successful horror franchises, with two of the most iconic horror villains. Craven with Freddy Krueger, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Cunningham with Jason Vorhees, and Friday the 13th. Might not be as interesting as I think it is, but I love how full-circle Freddy vs. Jason ended up being when that was finally made. Over the years, both Craven and Cunningham have had incredibly complicated relationships with these franchises, but at the end of the day, these two were trailblazers who ended up changing the trajectory of the horror genre…
Sam Kane: As awesome as Jason and Michael are, Freddy is of course unique amongst the big three horror villains because he’s the only one who talks and has been played by the same actor in every original franchise installment. While the concept of Freddy is fascinating and creepy, it’s Robert Englund’s performance in every movie that brings the character to the next level, and top tier in the genre. I knew Robert Englund as Crazy Man Cooper in the movie The Paper Brigade which used to air on the Disney Channel all the time when I was a kid. So, it was pretty funny learning that he portrayed one of the most well-known horror villains of all time when I first started watching every movie. Although Wes Craven is the creator of Freddy, I feel like it’s Robert Englund who has created such a big legacy for the series with that character. Krueger is creepy, he’s funny, and just plain manic. Best of all, you can tell he’s having so much fun playing the character too. What I really appreciate is how much he loves the fans of the series. I spoke to a big fan who met him at a convention and Robert Englund literally asked him if he could borrow his phone to prank call someone in his contact list in character as Freddy Krueger. Can you imagine getting that call? There are so many reasons to love all the films, but you can’t deny how important Robert Englund is amongst all of them…
Alex Kane: Completely agree with everything you said about Robert Englund. The pure electricity that he injects into the Freddy Krueger character is infectious and so much fun to watch, always. Freddy truly became a larger-than-life rock star, and Englund has always seemed like such a trooper about it. I can’t imagine how much he has to deal with Freddy quips from random folks, but he seems to really take it in stride and has been an exemplary franchise lead in that way. I’ve always had so much respect for how Englund has carried the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise on his back, both on and off screen. So many talented people have come and gone throughout the history of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, but in my opinion, they are all just planets orbiting around the sun, with that sun being Englund’s Krueger…
Sam Kane: My initial thought when first watching the original A Nightmare on Elm Street as a teen was that Wes Craven had such a good name for a horror director. Maybe it’s because the word ‘raven’ is literally in his last name. I’m sure I also just heard his name pronounced in a sinister voice many times when his movies were advertised in commercials. I quickly learned how respected he was in the horror genre, especially being the director of the Scream movies, which were constantly talked about back in the early 2000s. Some may argue Scream is the better franchise, but at the end of the day, there’s probably no Scream if it wasn’t for the success of body count movies in the 1980s which can be largely credited to the Elm Street series and its contemporaries. Craven made several horror classics even before Elm Street with The Hills Have Eyes and as you mentioned The Last House on the Left being most popular among them. The start of the ’90s were bleak for Craven, but he of course cemented his legacy when audiences first saw Ghostface on the big screen. After that, he made a few other solid films. He even did a musical drama with Meryl Streep! He certainly left our world too early back in 2015. I’m glad his final film was a good solid entry in the Scream series, with Scream 4, and not My Soul to Take. I’m sure many fans of his share the same sentiment…
Alex Kane: I’ve always been a firm believer that names matter, and like you said, the name Wes Craven was never not going to be a horror filmmaker. It would be impossible for someone with that name to be a doctor, lawyer or an accountant. ‘Wes Craven’ is a destined-to-be horror guy name, and Wes Craven became one of the most important names in the horror genre, going back to, well, forever, bar none. His audacious and always original work is beloved for good reason. Craven had such a good feel for what gets under people’s skin and scares the living daylights out of them in so many different ways. As a storyteller, technician and leader of a movie set, Craven was absolutely spectacular across the board. All while somehow also being commercially viable, which is pretty remarkable considering the depraved nature of most of his work. There are few filmmakers who have been able to maintain a consistent career (of course, with a few bumps along the way though) spanning four decades, and to have decade-defining work in each of those four decades. A true maverick in the horror industry. The only movie of his that I got to see in theaters was Scream 4, which I adore, but I’d love to see them all in theaters someday. For me, I’ll always believe the original Scream is far and away his best work, but A Nightmare on Elm Street is undoubtedly what he is most known for, in my opinion at least. Not only did Elm Street launch Craven’s career to new heights, but it was also the first big success, and true beginning of the idiosyncratic and beloved New Line Cinema. The House that Freddy built…
Sam Kane: New Line Cinema was probably at the peak of its powers back when I first started watching all the Elm Street movies. In 2003, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was set to release, and I always felt the studio had a great output of films amongst several different genres. The Mask, Dumb & Dumber, Friday and Austin Powers are comedy classics. Boogie Nights, American History X and Blow are audaciously bold and brilliant pieces of filmmaking. And the Lord the Rings franchise is one of the most critically and financially successful projects that will be watched for generations to come. There were also several underrated movies they released like Boiler Room, The Cell and Detroit Rock City, which I’d always show to friends who hadn’t seen them. Of course, they were also still killing it in the horror genre with franchises like Final Destination and Blade. Without a doubt, New Line is one of my favorite movie studios. But then 2007 happened. New Line spent big bucks on several mediocre movies that were forgettable and didn’t make much money on top of that. The Number 23, The Last Mimzy, Martian Child, and Fracture were all deemed to be failures, critically and financially. The Golden Compass was the biggest swing and miss of them all. Even though that film made a ton of money overseas, of course, New Line sold international rights, so the profits went elsewhere. Shame. I know New Line is technically still around, but it’s a far cry from what it used to be. Seeing the Warner Bros quickly switch to New Line in gold font nowadays just seems wrong…
Alex Kane: Pretty sad actually. New Line is most definitely still around, and still oddly pretty successful, but at the end of the day, it is just another limb of Warner Bros. Like you said, a far cry from what it used to be. New Line was self-sufficient, to an extent, and took wildly aggressive swings with unique material of all shapes and sizes. I enjoy the absolute hell out of Bob Shaye, founder of New Line Cinema, warts and all, and I urge any fans of not just horror, but the movie business in general, to read up on Bob Shaye’s career. The up-and-down nature of his career is so perfectly Hollywood. With the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise grossing close to $500 million at the worldwide box office, and that’s not including merchandising and whatnot, Freddy Krueger is obviously an enormously important character in the Bob Shaye story…
Alright dude. Enough is enough. Let’s get into these rankings. There are nine films, and a television series that we are counting as canon for this exercise. We initially drafted each film from our personal best to least favorite. But we’ll present these in descending order based on what we each selected…
“How’s this for a wet dream?”
Alex Kane: Let’s get this party underway with one of the most shameless, least watchable and absolutely reprehensible franchise remake/reimagining attempts in the last…well…ever…
Sam Kane: I saw this at a midnight screening in college with a bunch of friends right when it came out. It was hyped up amongst my classmates. Then it just came and went. No one really ragged on it afterwards, but no one was particularly impressed… it’s extremely mediocre.
Alex Kane: I have the same exact memory. Instantly forgettable. I feel like it is much more depressing when you leave the theater after being hyped up for something and it turns out about as average as possible. Felt this way about Halloween (2018) as well. I had no awareness of the trend at the time of the gluttonous behavior of the movie studios, who were continuously pumping out these same name remakes, as I was too young to really understand that concept. But I did understand good from bad. And this remake was a complete zero. Utter failure. At least the Friday the 13th, One Missed Call and Prom Night remakes around that same time period were entertaining in their own stupid way and actually kind of shamelessly fun. I’m so glad we’re starting with this A Nightmare on Elm Street entry, because one of the things we share in common, I believe, is our hatred for wasting precious time and money that it takes to make these movies that are unoriginal, uninspired cash grab remakes or reimagining’s or whatever the fuck. Instead, people like us and I’m sure many others would prefer something like A Nightmare on Elm Street 9: The Dream Lord Returns, with original ideas, sharp(ish) execution and some ambition to push the franchise forward while also maintaining the charm of being the ninth movie in a horror franchise. I wish those who partake in this annoying trend would wear that franchise number like a badge of honor, instead of treating the audience like we are dumb idiots who will be tricked into believing this isn’t the ninth movie in the franchise. If I were the King of Hollywood, I would enact using the same exact title name of a movie to be illegal and punishable by life-imprisonment. Numbers wouldn’t be required, but there needs to be some kind of unique identifier. For the love of God, please end this madness…
To be honest, the details of this movie aren’t even worth talking about. The perversion of this entry is annoyingly unsettling. The original had plenty of darkly sexual undertones, but this reimagining brings that to the forefront sub textually and also without the visual flair of the original. I found the filmmaking technique in this movie to be un-cinematic and overly glossy. I like Kyle Gallner and Rooney Mara a lot, but this was a rookie season for them where they are taking their lumps. It’s also great seeing Kellan Lutz and Katie Cassidy again, who are icons of the late 2000s and early 2010s. But what grinds my gears more than anything is the non-inclusion of Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Even at the time, I felt like my brain was short circuiting while watching Jackie Earle Haley with the finger knives and Christmas sweater. Haley is a phenomenal actor, but this character, Freddy Krueger, is 100% synonymous with Robert Englund. Without one, the other doesn’t work. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles in this franchise. Overall, just an all-around disaster if the goal was to make something original, creative and impactful for a horror loving audience. Unfortunately for the audience, that wasn’t the goal, the goal was to grab some cash, and of course, they ropa-doped the audience yet again and grabbed north of $100 million dollars, highest in the franchises’ history, with this… thing….
“You shouldn’t have buried me…I’m not dead”
Sam Kane: I’m surprised we have this so low on the list to be honest. It’s like finding a key rotational player at the end of the 2nd round in the NBA Draft…
This is actually the second Elm Street film I ever watched. Back when I was 13, I used to check the TV Guide that came with the Sunday Boston Globe to see if any Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, or Michael Myers movies were airing. Well, out of nowhere, UPN aired this one Saturday afternoon and that would be my first ever glimpse of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master. I must say, I really had no idea what was going on for the most part because I hadn’t seen Dream Warriors yet but sensed most of the characters were in the previous movie by their lack of introduction. But, spoiler alert, those characters got killed off pretty quick anyway…
I don’t think this movie is bad, it’s pretty solid but in terms of personal preference, it’s far down on my list in terms of ones to re-watch. The deaths are brutal, but they felt cartoon-ish, where the Dream Warriors deaths had more grit to them. We also have the typical high school students in a school setting that’s been done to death. The characters are pretty stereotypical and we’re just waiting for them to die because those are the only interesting sequences. Even Freddy’s one liners tend to fall flat and fail to do too much for me…
The real standout is the practical effects used throughout the movie. They’re really incredible and something I overlooked until my most recent re-watch. The scene with all the heads, or souls, popping out of Freddy’s chest is a big standout. I love the car junkyard sequence at the beginning, notably when we see the aerial shot of every car…
Alex Kane: The souls on the body effect was spectacular. I believe it is a testament to the strength of this franchise where an incredibly solid movie, like The Dream Master, can be ranked so low on a list like this. To piggyback on your basketball analogy, you could say that the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is like an NBA team with a very deep bench, like our very own 2023-2024 NBA Champion Boston Celtics…
I’m not sure what your opinion is on Renny Harlin, but speaking for myself, I am consistently so intrigued and entertained by his work, but also his story of coming up in the industry and becoming a real poster child for the Hollywood dream. That being, moving out to Los Angeles with nothing but a dream, working your way up to becoming a director of big budget movies with superstar actors pretty much right away in your career and then marrying a movie star (Geena Davis, for you curious folks). From Deep Blue Sea to the criminally underrated Devil’s Pass to the truly horrific The Legend of Hercules and the baffling The Strangers reboot, made as a trilogy for some reason, Harlin’s movies are completely all over the place. And I simply can’t get enough of it. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master was Harlin’s first big budget movie, and his breakthrough into the industry. The craziest thing I learned about that is that Harlin was only in his late 20s when making The Dream Master. As weird as it sounds, I enjoy the rags to riches story of Harlin more so than The Dream Master itself. I love the idea of an A Nightmare on Elm Street sequel being the bridge between homelessness and Beverly Hills…
The making of The Dream Master is very interesting to me. By all accounts, this seemed like the crossroads where New Line really had two choices. Either go down the pure horror path with Wes Craven, or build the franchise around Freddy Krueger, the rockstar horror comedian. New Line opted for the latter, and financially speaking, it was the right call. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master was a box office smash, I would say largely due to the quality of Dream Warriors, and The Dream Master being presented as sort of a sequel to Dream Warriors. But I would also say that The Dream Master is super entertaining on its own merits with, like you said, the brilliant practical effects and unbelievable performance from Robert Englund. It’s a shame that Patricia Arquette did not reprise her role, but Tuesday Knight was good in the role of Kristen as well…
I remember seeing this movie as a young kid a bunch of times, and I used to really love it, but now on rewatch it’s really just not as effective as the other movies in this franchise for me. I’m nostalgic for the early MTV quality of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, but that energy also bores me at this point. As a horror sequel, The Dream Master is great, but when ranking this franchise, I really don’t think it holds up with the rest…
Side note: It’s strange they even brought back the characters from the third movie. Like you said, they get killed off so quickly and without meaning. Kristen is really only there to pass the torch to Alice. In the end, they probably just could’ve made this film with all new characters that accidentally resurrect Freddy, or something like that…
“Why are you calling me John? Nancy, pull yourself together”
Alex Kane: I used to be a big defender of this movie. Everything about it is right up my alley. As a diehard fan of the franchise, the horror genre, New Line Cinema and Entourage, I found the meta qualities of New Nightmare to be mind-blowing. With Wes Craven back, Heather Langenkamp back and a unique idea for a horror movie, I was all the way in. On the first watch, I loved it. I thought it was scary as hell, and I couldn’t believe that it was a real A Nightmare on Elm Street movie because of how meta it was. But just like that old raggedy Christmas sweater that doesn’t fit anymore, I keep remembering it exists, get excited to revisit it, but then it just doesn’t quite fit right, and I’m more and more disappointed with each viewing. As the years go by and the more, I watch, the less enthused I am about New Nightmare. Curious to hear your thoughts…
Sam Kane: This is the one I’ve seen the least. I remember ordering all the Elm Street DVDs that I was missing in my collection on Amazon for Christmas one year (for my parents to wrap and give to me, of course), and I don’t know what happened, either I forgot to complete the payment at the checkout screen, or the DVD was just never sent. Oh well. Regardless, I didn’t really care. It was so cheap and I always felt odd about the film. It’s different and that’s one thing I do appreciate about it. But what throws me off is that it’s not in the same universe as the other films. Maybe this is why I didn’t care about having it in my collection. I’ve since bought the Blu-ray set with every film so it’s there now…
I would catch the film here and there on AMC for Fear Fest the past several years but up until I sat down and re-watched the whole film start-to-finish for the first time in over 20 years. I realized that I love the first half with all the Hollywood people playing themselves and talking about New Line’s early days and where they were looking to steer the next Freddy film…
Miko Hughes is also great. He sells the evil child so well. I feel like it should’ve been him in the The Shining mini-series, had it been made a few years earlier when he was still young. The problem I have is that after we figure out what’s happening (that Freddy is in the ‘real’ world), it just becomes formulaic. None of it is particularly bad, it just seems to lack charm. The one spot I did love was when John Saxon turns into Chief Thompson. That sequence was so well done…
I liked the under the blanket slide thing as well. That was really creative but then we get to Freddy’s hell world or whatever it is. I wonder if New Line just has a set lot for hell and used it for Little Nicky as well. That entire sequence did really little for me. I wanted to see Freddy sneak onto the New Line lot and slice up Marianne Maddalena. That would’ve been better than watching Freddy’s entity or whatever that was grow horns and start looking like that Freak from The Funhouse…
Alex Kane: I actually enjoy that The Shining mini-series that came out in 1997 with Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay. Love the shoutout! I couldn’t agree with you more regarding what you said about the first half of New Nightmare being far superior to the latter half solely because of the New Line subplot and all of the actors playing themselves. I’m in complete lockstep that they should have utilized the meta qualities much more by weaving Freddy into some New Line adjacent things, sort of akin to the Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back scenes at Miramax years later. Hell, they used a Jay lookalike and carbon copy in Freddy vs. Jason…
I like to equate how I felt while watching New Nightmare for the first time to that Vince McMahon meme with the laser eyes (see here), with the four levels of excitement/shock. First level being Wes Craven and Heather Langenkamp as themselves, then the next being Robert Englund playing himself, then John Saxon playing himself, then finally the laser eyes when Robert Shaye shows up…
The first half with all of these appearances is fantastic, and I love some of the John Saxon scenes, like you also mentioned, but the rest of the movie plays out like a forgettable slasher bogged down with visually uninteresting scenes and whatnot. Unfortunate, because it was Craven a few years before Scream, so he should have been at his peak performance, but in my opinion, he just wasn’t here. I’m blown away when watching this movie and Scream as a double feature. Because they are only two years apart, from the same filmmaker, in the same genre, but the quality and entertainment value are moons apart. It’s pretty well regarded amongst fans and critics, but for me, I don’t know what the disconnect is, but it just doesn’t quite work for me like I really wish it did…
“Help yourself, fucker”
Sam Kane: This actually might be the first Freddy movie I ever watched. It’s hard to remember exactly. As mentioned before, I used to rely heavily on the TV guide in the Boston Globe when trying to get a chance to watch these. AMC used to have a block called Fear Friday where they would feature a different horror film each Friday night. For whatever reason they only aired this one back in the Spring of 2003. No marathon or any other sequels. Just Freddy’s Revenge. I remember being able to follow it just fine since it’s pretty much a self-contained movie. Obviously, this film is infamous for its homosexual undertones, which mostly went over my head because I was so young on first watch, but it is well documented at this point…
Even when I watch it now, I can’t get over how obvious it was what they were going for. The star of the film, Mark Patton who played Jesse even made a documentary about how the film impacted his life. Although it took awhile, he seems to embrace the character and experience. He had quite a bone to pick with the film’s writer though and even confronted him. The writer claimed in an interview years back that the homosexual undertones were unintentional and that Patton’s performance was to blame for why people think that’s the case. Patton clearly was extremely upset by this claim for decades and it shows in the documentary…
Alex Kane: It’s a real shame that this movie seemed to impact Patton so negatively. I found it interesting how the infamous bedroom dance scene was filmed, where Patton delayed shooting that scene until it was impossible to avoid. He finally said fuck it, let me cook, and the rest is history. I always found that scene charming and hilarious, but also a perfect moment to be a part of the legacy of these Nightmare movies. Sexuality was always omnipresent in this franchise, and not in a Friday the 13th type way where there are always young people having sex, then getting slashed. The Elm Street franchise treated sexuality much more insidiously mainly because bubbling on the surface was the fact that Freddy Krueger, at the end of the day, was a child molester. I always liked how this entry in the franchise took such a different angle to how they approached making this movie thematically. Yes, it is very simple, but it’s also a whole lot of fun, and important to the canon, in my opinion…
Sam Kane: Oh yeah. I want to give a shout out to the score as well. It’s noticeably different from the other films. Christopher Young put together something really cool that seems a bit out of place at parts but works really well during the beginning bus sequence. It also sounds like a score out of the 1950s or 1960s. I really like it, but I feel like it belongs in a different movie. This movie is unintentionally hilarious and even though it loses steam in the third act, I have a major soft spot for it. Also, not to be forgotten, gotta love that we get a classic Marshall Bell performance…
“Shut up, bitch! He can’t hear you”
Alex Kane: I love this show. For those who don’t remember, Freddy’s Nightmares was a syndicated network television show that ran for two seasons from 1988 to 1990. Even though Freddy’s Nightmares only lasted two seasons, reruns played on TV a good amount throughout our childhood (late 90s, early 2000s). I remember being so confused by the Tales from the Crypt type setup, where Freddy was essentially the host but mostly not an essential piece to the actual stories that were being told, even though the majority of the episodes took place in Springwood, therefore making it an anthology series. With that said, the first episode of the series, No More Mr. Nice Guy, was an origin story of sorts for Freddy Krueger. There were some Freddy Krueger stories sprinkled across the series, and even though No More Mr. Nice Guy was directed by the great Tobe Hooper, well, it kind of sucked…
Sam Kane: I watched that first episode. Very bizarre. It looks so cheap with all the small indoor sets and sitcom camera set ups. Seeing Robert Englund with no makeup in the Freddy costume was the highlight for me. We never did get a scene with Freddy getting burned by the townspeople until that point. Freddy vs. Jason eventually did a nice job with that. So, yeah, it sucked…
Freddy’s kill was pretty awesome and the monochrome sequences throughout the episode were a nice touch as well. But this one really dragged overall. I feel like they could’ve cut it down to half the length. I could have cared less about any of these characters with their Amityville Karen quality line delivery…
Alex Kane: I’ve never seen Amityville Karen, and for whatever reason, and as it turns out, with zero actual correlation whatsoever, my first thought as to what you were referencing was Diane Franklin from Amityville II: The Possession (Franklin happens to star in an episode of Freddy’s Nightmares as well). But I do agree that the line deliveries are, well, special…
Sam Kane: Man, I really do need to watch all the Amityville Horror movies. I know Diane Franklin from Better Off Dead and The Last American Virgin, which are two 80s comedies that I highly recommend. But it sounds like I should skip the episode she appears in…
Alex Kane: There are over sixty(!) Amityville movies, so for the love of God, please don’t watch them all. Amityville II: The Possession is absolutely fucking insane though and well worth a watch. Maybe the craziest horror sequel ever made. But back to Freddy’s Nightmares, this show ranks so high for me purely because of my own personal nostalgia. I’m a massive fan of anthology shows, especially in the horror genre, and since there really weren’t that many syndicated television shows with this type of raunchy and dark content, for that reason, I always enjoyed the hell out of Freddy’s Nightmares, and I loved watching it for about as long as I can remember. There was clearly no real financial investment in Freddy’s Nightmares, which seemed to allow the cast and crew to just run wild and take the stories to places that were insane and incredibly inappropriate. The lack of production quality is borderline embarrassing, but also outrageous and extremely fun to watch. If mindless television was the goal, then mission accomplished…
Sam Kane: Yeah, it looks like there are some solid episodes scattered amongst the entirety of the series, with a ton of young talent popping up all over the place. But, if the pilot is considered a high mark in the series, then I don’t know. That’s a problem…
“Grounded!”
Sam Kane: The guiltiest of guilty pleasures. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare. Only a basehead studio exec from the late 80s/early 90s would ever greenlight such an idea. If you compare it to the craftsmanship of the original, it makes it even funnier to see how bad the movies got. But despite that, it somehow has charm for me…
Alex Kane: It’s funny that you say “only a basehead studio exec” would greenlight such an outrageous movie, because as it turns out, Freddy’s Dead was written and produced by Michael De Luca, who would go on to become the President of Production at the aforementioned house that Freddy built, New Line Cinemas. I find it laugh out loud funny that the man who wrote Freddy’s Dead, maybe the least serious movie of the 90s, then had a massive hand in turning New Line Cinemas into one of the more prestigious, art-house studios in town. New Line would always maintain that edginess that made them so unique, but I just find it to be a funny and paradoxical arc for the studio to go from Freddy’s Dead to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, in not even a ten-year span…
Sam Kane: That is wild! I had no idea the writer of this became a major exec at New Line. I guess it’s not surprising given Bob Shaye’s affinity for the franchise. There’s even a small poster for Freddy’s Dead in Bob Shaye’s office in New Nightmare…
The tone of this movie feels different from the previous three sequels. The opening Goo Goo Dolls song is perfect, and it should’ve played longer, only to be followed by a graphic that looks straight out of an early 80s Atari game that announces every kid is Springwood is now dead but one may still be alive. A choice like this just proves how weird and sloppy the film is. The whole movie doesn’t even feel like it’s set in reality. The real world is so bizarre like in the carnival scene as well as the schoolteacher segment that it seems like it could also be the dream world despite it being ‘reality’ in the film…
The film has quite a cast as well. A young Breckin Meyer plays Spencer. Meyer was a star on the rise at one point. Yaphet Kotto was well known for the original Alien film, and also appears in this. There are cameos galore with Alice Cooper, Roseanne, Tom Arnold, and Johnny Depp who’s credited as ‘Oprah Noodlemantra’. It turns out director Rachel Talalay helped produce Cry-Baby, so she asked Depp for a favor. Depp’s cameo is short but pretty damn funny…
Alex Kane: The original Nightmare launched his career, so Depp should have done it out of respect regardless…
Sam Kane: Freddy’s Dead was one of the three Nightmare DVDs that I bought early on as a teen. I’d always skip to the Carlos’ ear bit, which is quickly followed by Spencer’s video game adventure, which is the best part of the movie and is what boosts it above the others for me. I’d argue this is Robert Englund’s best portrayal of Freddy as well. He has plenty of screen time in this and despite them being corny, his one-liners are so hilariously epic. “Every town…has an Elm Street” …
Alex Kane: I’m 100% with you. I enjoy the absolute hell out of the ear scene and just about every other bit in this movie because even though it might not be intentional, it leans into the campiness in a charming way. From the celebrity cameos, solid young cast with good chemistry, outrageous set pieces and of course, a great Robert Englund performance, Freddy’s Dead doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being perfect entertainment filler to the Nightmare canon…
But I will say. After learning that Peter Jackson was initially brought on board to make his version of a Nightmare movie, and that his early ideas contained elements of inspiration from A Clockwork Orange where Freddy Krueger was going to become a broken down, has-been who gets constantly taunted and beaten up by the Springwood youth, which of course, was scrapped, and that is one of the most disappointing forks in the road in the franchise’s history without a doubt. I’ve always believed there was so much more meat to the bone in the Nightmare universe, and a swing like that could have revitalized the franchise. So overall, I enjoy Freddy’s Dead, but it is always a reminder to me that New Line seriously botched an opportunity to push this franchise in a direction where the possibilities were endless…
I just want to reiterate. Michael De Luca, the screenwriter of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare, is now the co-lead studio exec at Warner Bros. Yes, Warner Bros. Makes sense considering New Line was absorbed by Warner bros. But still, that guy is my idol…
“Hey Danny, better not dream and drive!”
Alex Kane: This choice was the most difficult but also somehow the easiest decision I had to make for this exercise…
Sam Kane: I did not expect to see A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: Dream Child at number four here as I always felt like this one of the weakest entries of the series. There are several mediocre sequels, but each one has a unique charm which I felt this one was always missing. After a recent re-watch, I have major appreciation for the set design. There’s a lot of very unique gothic visuals. The upside-down world in particular always stood out to me. Some of the practical effects are also truly incredible and imaginative. I remember liking it more after a recent tv airing a couple years back as well. Either AMC or Syfy will usually always have this on during Halloween time…
I first watched this in the summer of 2003 leading up to the release of Freddy vs Jason. Then I remember having a sleepover with several friends the year after and it was airing on Showtime, so we kept it on. We had fun with it and named each character after people we knew and went to school with. Good times…
I will say I find it interesting how Alice’s Dad seemed to be a stereotypical asshole father in The Dream Master, then has this redemption in The Dream Child. It’s nice to see characters grow. Dan is done dirty in this and killed off way too soon. It’s pretty hilarious how the characters from previous movies are just brushed aside at the beginning of the fourth and fifth movies. I guess it’s a big compliment to Alice’s character since she survives…
I actually think it is my favorite soundtrack in the series. One of the sole reasons is because ‘Let’s Go’ by Kool Moe Dee plays over the entire end credits. It’s perfect and actually an LL Cool J diss song. In fact, the song ‘Mama said Knock You Out’ is a response to ‘Let’s Go.’ How funny would it be if James Todd Smith had an interview back then and said, “Once I heard the track in the Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child end credits, I knew I had to respond”. Another banger on the soundtrack was ‘Can’t Take the Hurt Anymore’ by Mammoth. I remember there was another track called ‘Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter’ by Bruce Dickinson (the guy Walken mocks in the More Cowbell SNL sketch). I can’t say I remember how the song goes but it’s such a ridiculous title for a track…
I will say, this movie does drag a little bit, and it only has three deaths! These deaths certainly don’t rank too high in the series either. Grace’s death is definitely the most brutal. The way that sequence was shot made me feel like it was something out of Beetlejuice. Maybe it was the outfits and hairstyle too. The super Freddy comic sequence might sound epic in the script, but it felt a bit lackluster to me on screen…
Alex Kane: Apparently the director, Stephen Hopkins, is a massive comic book fan, so that sequence was most definitely shoe-horned in. The three deaths only thing is completely unacceptable. I totally agree with you there. But I believe that Dan’s death, on the motorcycle, was the franchise’s second-best death scene. I remember being totally blown away by this sequence, and on its own is the reason why Dream Child is so high on this list for me. This death scene is the epitome of what a kill scene in the Nightmare franchise should look like. It’s trippy, it’s fun and it is viciously gruesome. But most of all, it is funny as all hell…
Like you said, the set design in Dream Child is remarkable, and I always just really appreciated how out-there and fucking strange this movie is to be honest. Going totally nuclear in regard to weirdness is exactly where the Nightmare franchise should have lived for the entirety of its existence. Visual dreamscapes and imaginative storytelling are what I love most about this franchise, and Dream Child exemplifies that, in my opinion…
“This… is God”
Sam Kane: While this might not be my go-to if I want to pop on a Freddy movie for fun, I have to give credit for how innovative, eerie, and entertaining the original A Nightmare on Elm Street is. It’s incredible how well the effects hold up 40 years later. Goes to show how superior practical effects are compared to CGI. I still watch Tina’s death and think to myself, how did they do this? What a slap in the face the remake is trying to recreate it in a half assed CGI attempt…
This film is actually extremely freaky too. There are some great jump scares, and Freddy is overall extremely unnerving. He’s got some wit, but he’s not the jokester who we start to see later on. The scene that gives me chills the most is when Freddy starts running towards Tina through the alleyway in silhouette form with his arms raised out. I was so impressed by the filmmaking there, and if it actually was happening to me, my bowels would be fully emptied out…
Alex Kane: We had mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth leading off my retort with another huge shoutout to Wes Craven. I found it interesting in the documentary, Never Sleep Again, that Craven had such a hard time with the direction of Freddy the character after the original Nightmare movie. With the exception of Dream Warriors, which is still not really a Craven creation, as Craven wasn’t really back in the Nightmare fold until New Nightmare. It must have been a little bit strange for him to see such a menacing and darkly insidious character like the Freddy Krueger of the original movie to be turned into a comedic-horror icon of sorts, throwing out one-liners and starring in music videos to promote the subsequent movies…
Every time I revisit the original Nightmare I am also so blown away by its ingenuity and technical prowess. The story was so unique and original, with truly no contemporary at the time. I’m such an enormous John Saxon fan, so that is obviously a big highlight of the movie for me, but I also really enjoy the core group of teenage characters. As I continue to revisit this movie, and this might sound blasphemous to some, but I’m curious as to what could-have-been with Robert Englund’s performance in the sequels if they followed more closely to the deeply dark and shadowy tone of the original Freddy Krueger. The shades of Freddy seem to get lighter and lighter as the series plowed along, so it is always refreshing to go back and enjoy the original Freddy Krueger character for what he was in the original and what he represented, which was a deeply bleak, darkly menacing and tragic character. Wes Craven is the master of taking complex ideas and turning them into simpler, more accessible movies than they could have and should have ended up being. A Nightmare on Elm Street, the original, is probably Wes Craven’s best idea for a movie, and the execution was so masterfully done that it spawned an entire franchise, and two stars were born, Wes Craven, and Freddy Krueger. Oh yeah, and Johnny Depp…
Sam Kane: 1984 had some mind-blowing creative ideas for films that are so iconic and cinema staples to this day. I think mostly of this and The Terminator as examples. I remember when I first learned of the concept of The Terminator as a kid and thought how does someone come up with ideas like this? They’re straight out of the filmmaker’s imagination and not from previous written material either. Super impressive…
Alex Kane: Don’t forget about another highly imaginative and mind-blowingly creative classic from 1984, The Karate Kid…
Upon another re-watch for the first time in years, there’s another sequence which I think needs a shoutout. The scene with Glenn calling his mom using a tape player to make it sound like he was picking up his cousin at the airport is pretty funny. It’s a good gag but also shows the bond between Tina, Nancy, and Glenn. I always thought Rod was the weakest link amongst the core four in terms of performance, but sadly, I think Heather Langenkamp’s acting is also pretty choppy. Overall, it works but the delivery of some lines is rough. “How could you say that?” and “Screw your pass.” Maybe she was done dirty in the editing room. Those lines were just so oddly delivered, there had to be some better takes…
Alex Kane: Langenkamp seems like an awesome person and is a very proud Nightmare alum. But I’m with you. I’m not going to say Heather Langenkamp didn’t work well as Nancy, because I believe she does, kinda, but her career didn’t exactly take off for obvious reasons. And I’m not sure if it’s not because she was typecast…
Sam Kane: Also, by the way, this was the first film I ever saw Saxon in. He’s great and it seems odd that his character would marry Marge. They have zero chemistry which I guess works since they’re divorced in the film. Wait, why didn’t Nancy just go and stay at her dad’s place when this was happening?? Maybe it was too small…
Alex Kane: The Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Krueger sub-plot…
“Man the torpedoes”
Alex Kane: I’m simply just not going to apologize for having Freddy vs. Jason ranked this high. I’m sure you feel the same, but I have such a nostalgic soft spot for movies from the early-to-mid 2000s, especially in the horror genre. This era of horror movies has been unfairly maligned by most, in my opinion, and I’m sure in the eyes of most, is considered the rock-bottom low point in terms of originality and quality in the horror genre. I vehemently disagree with that stance. Were there too many snuff adjacent, pop culture infused, morally bankrupt horror movies? Maybe. Did we need to remake every classic horror movie and bastardize them to the point where they are lifeless and soulless corpses of the original material? Probably not. Why are we crossing movie universes and turning classical villains like the Xenomorph, the Predator, Jason Vorhees and of course, Freddy Krueger into characters from a Tekken video game? My answer to that one is this. Because it’s fucking awesome…
I miss the days where movies like Freddy vs. Jason was quite simply so simple-minded and made specifically for simpletons like me. The obvious targeting-the-young-demo throw-a-bunch-of-bullshit-at-the-wall cash grab seemed so innocent and futile back then. As we have mentioned, the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise has always been targeted at a younger demographic, but what is interesting to me is that the bulk of the franchise takes place in and was filmed in the 1980s, as opposed to Freddy vs. Jason, which was targeted at the same demographic, just fifteen to twenty years later. The original demographic from the 1980s, who are the OG Krueger heads, might have felt a little bit out of touch when the Ill Nino music was blaring, and the Jay & Silent Bob references are there for the Gen X/Millennial crossover generation. The stark difference between Freddy vs. Jason in 2003 and the original A Nightmare on Elm Street in 1984 is always so amusing to me. Pretty much the same amount of time has elapsed from 2003 to here now in 2024, which also hurts my brain. Freddy Krueger in 2003 was still a scream king and a rockstar. Transitioning smoothly from being a Primus guy in the 1980s to a Slipknot guy in the early 2000s. I’m not sure how Freddy would fare in 2024, and I get nervous thinking about the possibilities, but in 2003, Freddy was so dope…
Freddy vs. Jason was directed by Ronny Yu and written by basically every horror screenwriter around at the time. This was meant to be a battle of titans of the industry, destined to make a fortune at the box office while also being a culturally significant event. Freddy Krueger and Jason Vorhees. The big dogs of the junkyard. A head-to-head matchup that had not only been long overdue, but long in the works. With a young and exciting cast including Monica Keena, Jason Ritter (replacing Brad Renfro at the last minute), Kelly Rowland, Chris Marquette, Lochlyn Munro, Brendan Fletcher and Katharine Isabelle, among others. Freddy vs. Jason had the hip youngsters that make the movie work so well. For whatever reason, and I’m really not trying to throw shade, as I love these actors, but for the most part they are performers synonymous with that era, meaning the early 2000s. Yes, they are still working and successful, but I for one, and I’m sure many others, only truly recognize all of these performers from their work in the early-to-mid 2000s. Which is a great thing. That is a large part of why Freddy vs. Jason such a time-capsule classic is. Freddy vs. Jason had so much violence, so much sex, so much nu-metal and actually had a sort of sensible plot to make it all make sense. This movie had no business being anything but silly, and what makes it so great, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Disregarding some questionable line readings and downright strange filmmaking choices, specifically Jason being bounced around like a pinball machine, and then Freddy taking the shape of an imaginary centipede, I actually thought Freddy vs. Jason did a great job of being a fast-paced and fun thrill ride…
Overall, it’s not easy to make longtime fans of a culturally significant franchise happy. Toxic fandom has proven over the years that sometimes a movie can be misunderstood or unfairly maligned because it couldn’t figure out how to thread the needle between pandering to a new audience, while also satisfying the original audience. This is the hardest thing for a franchise movie to accomplish, in my opinion, and even with its flaws, Freddy vs. Jason succeeded immensely and still holds up to this day as not only an interesting time-capsule of that specific era, but it is also just an entertaining-as-hell movie that I for sure will be watching until the day that I die…
Sam Kane: Yes, I actually re-watched it fairly recently and my reaction is that it just delivers what the fans wanted and were waiting for so many years. Freddy vs. Jason could not have come out at a better time in terms of my fandom. As I mentioned, I turned 13 in 2003 and had a group of friends who were starting to reference iconic horror villains. Side note: Freddy and Jason were big back then, but their legacy is so much bigger now. You could walk into a Wal-Mart in the middle of April and buy several different Freddy shirts if you wanted to. Around the spring of 2003, my friends and I would check the TV guide to see if any Freddy or Jason movies were on TV since our parents were hesitant in letting us rent the movies. I remember seeing Jason Goes to Hell on BET of all places. TNN (later known as Spike TV and Paramount Network) would always air Friday the 13th marathons so that’s where I saw most of those for the first time. Jason X had come out the year prior but before that there was a 9-year absence in Friday the 13th movies. So, watching all of these films in anticipation for a big theatrical release was so much fun…
I saw the film opening day, Friday August 15, 2003, with my buddy. The theater would not let us in alone, so my stepdad had to sheepishly come in and watch the film with us. That’s one thing I have to give him props for. He knew how badly we wanted to see it and he could’ve said no but he agreed to come in with us. I must say it was super fucking awkward watching Odessa Munroe bare all right next to my stepdad but the adrenaline of watching the film helped subside it…
I absolutely love the Freddy intro and all the clips from previous movies. I always like re-watching that and trying to figure out which clip came from what film. They certainly skimped on using clips from The Dream Child. There’s very little from Freddy’s Dead as well but pretty cool we get to see Yaphet Kotto briefly…
This movie is also paced very well and keeps the story moving along. Lots of humor, creative kills, semi decent jump scares and fun Freddy quips. In many ways reminiscent of Dream Warriors but I think the practical effects aged better than the 2003 CGI…
I really like the cast. I was not familiar with Monica Keena, but I thought she was solid. As a big John Ritter fan, it was fun seeing his son in a big role. This was the first thing I ever watched him in. Since this was filmed in Canada, a lot of locals from up north were cast. Growing up I watched a lot of Goosebumps and Disney channel original movies which were filmed in Canada, so I recognized a lot of the stars off the bat. It was strange seeing them play much older characters. Lochlyn Munro, I knew from Dead Man on Campus, which he was so funny in that he pretty much stole the movie. Also, starring in Scary Movie of course and being hilarious in that. Like a week before Freddy vs. Jason came out, TNN had changed its name to Spike TV and aired the first Elm Street film which was hosted by Robert Englund who was also promoting the movie. I remember he had a quip – “Spike TV. Spike! I like the sound of that name.” Then he also talked about the former celebrities Freddy got to kill referencing Johnny Depp, Breckin Meyer (much more well known at the time), and then his new celeb who starred in Freddy vs. Jason, Kelly Rowland. He didn’t even kill her character though, it was Jason…
That’s another thing, Freddy only killed one person in the film, which is actually hilarious. I feel like if you told me that beforehand, I’d be flabbergasted but despite that the film still really works for fans. We get references galore to the franchise. Westin Hills from Dream Warriors is back. A young Jason briefly gets a burlap sack put over his head when being bullied. I think even Jason X gets referenced when there’s a sign for a Crystal Lake facilities lab in construction. There’s certainly nitpicks though. Jason really isn’t that terrified of water. In Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, he has no issue walking into the water to go after Tommy Jarvis on his boat…
Alex Kane: I’ve seen Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives and Freddy vs. Jason more times than any in either franchise, so I can’t believe that I never really made that direct connection. I’m sure the Crystal Lake fanatics are all over this too, but good catch by you…
Sam Kane: Also, can’t forget to mention, not bringing back Kane Hodder was controversial since he had played Jason the previous four times. I was actually pretty mad about that at the time. Ken Kirzinger does a stand-up job though. I really enjoy the film overall and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. I certainly will be watching it for years and years to come…
“It’s the chair for you, kid”
Sam Kane: As much as I love the original movie, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors might technically be the best of the franchise. Dream Warriors is still my go to when it comes to re-watches. It is paced so well with innovative and high-quality effects that even regular critics who’d stomp on horror ended up giving this film favorable reviews. The concept of suicidal teens banning together to defeat Freddy is such a fun premise as well. We also get Nancy and her dad back. While I think the film would have still been just fine without them, it’s nice to have the legacy characters return after being absent and barely referenced in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge…
Robert Englund is at his best here as Freddy. This is where he becomes the Freddy, we all know today. A twisted quip-dropping maniac who takes way too much pleasure in killing his teen victims in the most absurd ways imaginable. His one-liners are actually funny in this one. While some of them are corny, they’re not nearly as bad as some in later sequels. We also have a hell of a cast here with Oscar winner Patricia Arquette leading the film as Kristen, who is Westin Hills’ newest teenage patient. In one of her first roles, we can see she was on another level compared to her co-stars and other Elm Street leading ladies. Laurence Fishburne has a small role as one of the hospital workers as well and certainly could have used some more screen time as he disappears around the third act never to be referenced again…
You can make the argument that this could be the first Elm Street movie that you could show someone who hasn’t seen the series yet and would like an introduction. Besides the history with Nancy, everything else is fairly self-contained and easy to follow. It’s a fun movie that really gives you a bit of everything in terms of scares, action, effects, and humor…
Alex Kane: It’s always fun seeing Craig Wasson, a true relic of the 1980s. I totally agree with you. Dream Warriors is the peak of the franchise in my opinion as well mostly because it totally nails the vibe of an entertaining, yet twisted, horror movie. The kills were all incredibly innovative, especially the talk-show TV bit with Zsa Zsa Gabor leading to the iconic “Welcome to Prime Time, Bitch” line delivery, and of course the amazing Freddy using Phillip as a marionette sequence. The quality of the effects in all of these sequences are still mind blowing to this day. They aren’t exactly campy, but they aren’t too serious as well. A perfect amalgamation of tones for this franchise. Like you said, setting this film in a mental institution was perfect situationally for the storytelling…
Dream Warriors also has far and away the most interesting behind the scenes ‘making of’ out of all of the films in this franchise. Regarding the credited writers, Bruce Wagner, Wes Craven, Frank Darabont and Chuck Russell is a wildly random group of writers to be credited on a project, especially a horror threequel. Of course, there was complications throughout the development on the direction that the film should go, with Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner penning a very dark and serious project, and then Chuck Russell and Frank Darabont altering the course towards a more darkly humorous and commercially viable approach, with New Line opting for the latter. Chuck Russell took over at the helm of Dream Warriors, and the rest is history. This decision truly ended up being the fork in the road moment for the Elm Street franchise, as the subsequent movies, and Robert Englund, mostly took on the identity of Dream Warriors for the remainder of the franchises’ life span. I find this interesting, because I am such a massive fan of Bruce Wagner’s out-there writing, so I would have loved to see the direction that Wagner and Craven would have taken with the third Elm Street movie. The reason I find this interesting is because I love Dream Warriors, so I can’t imagine it being anything else, but for me, this is one of the great horror what-ifs…
Dream Warriors has my favorite Englund performance as Freddy, as well as my favorite kill scene in the franchise with the Zsa Zsa Gabor bit. There is a lot of bullshit in this movie that drives me insane, like the theme song for one, “DREAM WARRIORS!”, but it would be disingenuous to say it isn’t the best in the franchise. So, I am in lockstep with you here…
Alright then, that will do it! To close this out, it is worth reiterating how much the both of us love this franchise, and all of the craziness that took place during it. There hasn’t been a new A Nightmare on Elm Street movie in almost fifteen years now, which is far too long, and can’t come back from the dead soon enough. Like Freddy said though, “Being dead wasn’t a problem, but being forgotten, now that’s a BITCH!”. It’s safe to say the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and the legacy of Freddy Krueger, will never be forgotten, especially by us…
Special thanks again to my cousin, Sam, for his help with this piece…
