A Nightmare on Elm Street Films - Ranked

The Dream Child was far worse than I remembered it being. This installment in the franchise features perhaps the two dumbest and cringiest kills out of all the A Nightmare on Elm Street films. Chef Freddy and that comic book kill is shockingly terrible. It ridicules Freddy completely. The rest of the film is not much to care for either. It's naturally all camp and no scares, but it's frighteningly boring and unfunny with a very annoying cast at the top of that.

There are some decent body horror effects at display here, but aside from that, Freddy's Revenge is a frustrating experience. It takes a very different approach than some of the other films, but in doing so it breaks so much of its own logic and the rules that itself has established. I'm not necessarily saying that it's crucial for a film like this to be consistent with itself and its predecessor. I generally tend to overlook it if the entertainment factor is high enough and the kills are creatively done. Sadly, I think this is missing hugely from this film, which is why I find the lack logical consistency to be a huge problem. The kills are as standard and dull as they could possibly be, and the whole film is just strange and weird in an uninteresting way. The odd underlying homoeroticism of it is also slightly distracting. I think this film undercuts what Freddy Krueger is. He's neither scary, creepy or funny in this one. At least that is what I think.

A lot of the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET sequels are pretty bad. The way the franchise rather quickly turned Freddy Krueger, one of the most iconic horror villains, from a terrifying murderer to a commercial joke is a bit sad. Wes Craven did a lot of damage control with his NEW NIGHTMARE and in this remake of the original 1984 masterpiece, the filmmakers have attempted to truly make Freddy Krueger a monster again. Which he certainly is.

It's not an easy task to take over the role from Robert Englund, who cemented himself in film history with his performance, but Jackie Earle Haley does a fine job as Freddy. Unfortunately the rest of the film is far from being on par with Haley's performance.

By being mostly a less creative and slightly boring retread of the original A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, this 2010 remake brings very little new to the table. It never manages to quite justify its existence upon being anything other than a cash grab and it's hard to see what the filmmakers creatively wanted with this film. The performances from the teens are mostly bad, the kills doesn't hit you as hard as they should, the scares are absent and it's quite overall not very exciting. I bet that there has been made many sleep-puns on this film's behalf over the years since it came out, but this is one of those films that are more likely to put you to sleep than to make you afraid of turning the lights off.

It feels very much like a cartoon brought to life. There's absolutely nothing serious about it, and in some ways it doesn't really feel like it belongs with the rest of the franchise in terms of how it treats Freddy. I do kinda amusingly enough enjoy the idea that Freddy has basically killed every child in Springwood and that the adults there have gone insane because of that, but that idea is shamefully never explored.

Gone is the sinister, creepy and mysterious persona of Freddy Krueger. This film is full-on camp from the very beginning until the very end. It doesn't bother me too much that Freddy turned into a complete comedian, but I do wish that there were at least something sinister about him still present. Alas, it isn't.

I do like some of the kills, and as usual, the practical effects are amazing. The film does a good job in displaying some of its body horror. It's just a shame that all the good work wasn't done in favor of a better cast of characters and a slightly more creepy tone.

As far as horror sequels go, Dream Warriors is a lot better than it really should be. This despite me liking it slightly less now than when I saw it the very first time. I think for instance that the film handles Heather Langenkamp's return a bit poorly.

The film is a success first and foremost in the way that it handles so many of its other characters and how it gives everyone of them something interesting to do. This is huge thanks to the introduction of dream powers, which in the end is the result of some interesting deaths, but also because of some fine characterization. The main triumph is however the creativity and imagination that went into this film. This is the film that started turning Freddy into the slightly more comedic camp side of him, but the deaths and dream sequences in this film are quite simply wonderful, with the effects being top-notch for what they are.

The film is dumb as fuck, but for what it is, it's rather brilliant. The reason they came up with for why Freddy and Jason would fight each other actually makes a lot of sense. It makes sense that Freddy would try to stop Jason because Jason won't stop killing the teenagers that Freddy wants to kill. In this universe, that's perfectly plausible, so just go with it. The film is completely shameless and it's pure fan service. The kills are great. The gore is fine. The nudity is all there. While the fight between Freddy and Jason is just as entertaining as it should be. The human characters are all waste of space, but that's not too important. It's a dumb film, but it deliver the goods.

The concept of this film is brilliant. It's also a terrifying idea. Wes Craven did certainly take the franchise back to greatness again after it had turned into comedic schlock. Freddy Krueger is menacing again and he's sparsely used, to great effect. I'm not really sure if I like how they updated his look, but his persona is completely dark in this film, which I adore.

I do think that the film struggles a bit with wrapping itself up in a neat way, as the ending is kinda disappointing. I do also wish that they would have perhaps just given us one more kill, as the film runs a bit long without anything significant happening.

It's one of my favorite horror films and Freddy Krueger is one of the coolest horror villains to ever be put on film. His iconic presence in this film is essentially everything I want from slasher villain. He's mysterious, ruthless, funny and diabolical. His weapon, outfit and powers are great, while his kills are imaginative and fun. A Nightmare on Elm Street is not necessarily a scary film any more, but it's a fiendishly entertaining film that manages to put on a spooky atmosphere and combine it with creativity and fun. There's never a dull moment in it and the outdated effects only adds to the charm of it. Wes Craven was hailed as the master of horror by some people, and I think this is his absolute masterpiece.