The Nightmare On Elm Street Movies Ranked

nightmare on elm street ranked — New Line Cinema

In 1984, a little-known studio named New Line Cinema released a low budget slasher movie called A Nightmare On Elm Street about Freddy Krueger, a hideously burned supernatural killer that haunts his victims’ dreams. They hoped that it would make a modest profit and save the studio from bankruptcy. Here are all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies ranked.

To the surprise of everyone involved, the movie became a major hit and launched a franchise. New Line Cinema was later dubbed “The house that Freddy built.”

A Nightmare On Elm Street was directed by Wes Craven, a filmmaker who had already gained notoriety for helming The Last House on the Left and The Hills Have Eyes. It starred actor Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger.

Krueger was a child serial killer who was acquitted on a technicality. Enraged that he would not go to prison for his crimes, the parents of Springwood, the town where Krueger lived, formed a vigilante squad to stop him. After locating Krueger inside an abandoned boiler room, the parents set the building on fire, burning the maniac to death.

Years later, Krueger returned as a supernatural specter to haunt the dreams of the parents’ teenage children. If the kids die in their dreams, they die in real life. Unlike flesh and blood villains, there is no easy way to escape from Freddy. After all, everyone needs to sleep eventually.

Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Langenkamp, is the feisty teenage daughter of two of the vigilante parents. Nancy and her friends start having terrifying nightmares of a hideously burned man with claw for fingers. Nancy’s dad, played by John Saxon, is the town’s police chief. Her mom eventually confesses the truth to her daughter, and Nancy desperately tries to find a way to stop Freddy before it’s too late.

**The Nightmare on Elm Street Movies in Order**

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

There are currently nine installments in the series. Unlike Halloween and Friday the 13^th, this franchise can’t simply hire a stuntman to play the villain because (unlike Jason and Michael) Freddy talks and does not wear a mask. Robert Englund retired from the role after Freddy vs. Jason. The 2010 remake replaced him with Jackie Earle Haley, with disastrous results.

The inability to easily replace Englund has left the franchise with an uncertain future. Freddy Krueger is one of the most famous horror villains in the world, so it’s likely that he will be back someday. Kevin Bacon has been speculated as a possibility to take over the role.

The Nightmare On Elm Street Movies ranked

9. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

A cartoonish, superficial mess that disregards the continuity of all the previous films and replaces it with a battle between Freddy and his never-before-mentioned daughter. This movie is a total sell-out and feels more like a 90-minute commercial than a legitimate film.

8. A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)

A dreary remake that was made without any of the style or imagination of the original film. Jackie Earle Haley is a skilled actor, but he was not up to the impossible task of replacing Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. A bland, boring, and forgettable movie.

7. A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

This weird movie was ahead of its time in some ways. Jesse, an apparently gay teenager (‘80s movies rarely had openly LGBT characters, so Jesse’s sexuality is left somewhat ambiguous), is terrorized by Freddy. For some stupid reason, Krueger wants to possess the teen’s body so that he can become human again.

Why would Freddy want to do this, when he has virtually unlimited power in the dream world? Beats the hell out of us. This movie has all sorts of bizarre stuff in it: exploding birds, demon dogs, a possessed towel, and Freddy running around chasing people at a pool party. It’s no surprise that most of the other sequels ignore this installment.

6. A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

The Dream Child features a solid lead performance from Lisa Wilcox (returning as Alice, the “dream master” from the previous film) and deserves credit for being one of the few slasher films to discuss a controversial political issue (abortion). But the formula is wearing thin at this point.

The rushed, poorly written script is filled with flimsy characterization and cheesy dialogue. The film makes an unsuccessful attempt to merge the “scary” Freddy from the first movie with the “funny” Freddy of the sequels. Most memorable moment: the stomach-churning scene when Freddy force-feeds a victim her own organs.

5. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Freddy narrates this battle of horror icons as he takes on Jason Voorhees from “Friday the 13^th”. After dying and being banished to Hell, Freddy attempts to use Jason to convince Springwood that Freddy has returned.

But he learns that Jason is a mad dog who can’t be controlled by anyone. Robert Englund is entertaining in his eighth, and apparently last, performance as Freddy. This movie has more plot than most installments and loads of gore. If you’re looking for serious scares, you won’t find them here.

4. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

In a movie (slightly) ahead of its time, New Nightmare is set in the “real world” where the Nightmare On Elm Street films are acknowledged as works of fiction. Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, and Robert Englund portray fictionalized versions of themselves. They are terrorized by a demon who has taken on the persona of Freddy Krueger.

This type of postmodern take on the horror genre became popular a couple of years later when Scream was released, but New Nightmare went mostly unnoticed. It’s an interesting take on the series, but Scream is a far wittier film.

3. Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

The Dream Master was the box office apex of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise, a smash hit that propelled Freddy Kreuger into pop icon status.

After being revived by a dog peeing on his grave (yes, really), Freddy gets revenge against the remaining dream warriors from the previous movie. Then he battles a new arch-nemesis, Alice (Lisa Wilcox), a shy teenager with supernatural powers who supposedly has the power to defeat him once and for all.

Freddy had become a comedic figure at this point, with only glimmers of the creepiness and menace of the earlier films. The Dream Master is entertaining but lacks atmosphere or creepiness.

2. Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors (1987)

In one of the best slasher sequels ever made, Freddy returns to terrorize a group of Springwood teens who are in a mental hospital. The doctors believe that the teens are suicidal. In reality, they are being attacked by Freddy because they are the last of the Elm Street children.

Heather Langenkamp returns as Nancy and John Saxon is back as her dad. Patricia Arquette plays Kristen, the movie’s final girl. Arquette screams like a champ and delivers an emotional performance. It’s too bad that she went mainstream after this and wasn’t in more horror movies.

1. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

I seriously considered putting Dream Warriors in this spot, but ultimately, you can’t beat the O.G. Wes Craven gave the slasher genre new life with a cerebral twist that captured audiences’ imaginations.

Robert Englund’s career-making turn as Freddy Krueger and Wes Craven’s direction helped set Nightmare On Elm Street apart from the myriad of other ‘80s slasher movies.