The Nightmare on Elm Street Series - Rate/Rank/Thoughts

Any chance you also have thoughts on the Freddy's Nightmares TV series?

I only like the original, though the first 4 are entertaining to one extent or another. The only movie in the original 6 that I think it complete crap is Dream Child. Freddy vs. Jason is OTT nonsense, but it is amusing and the remake is uninspired lazy garbage. New Nightmare is a self-indulgent bore with an interesting concept at it's core. It doesn't play out in a satisfying way and the directing is bland. It tries too hard to be clever and ends up having the opposite effect of what was intended. I understand why people like New Nightmare, but it doesn't work for me at all.

Original - 7.5/10
Dream Warriors - 6/10
Dream Master - 5.5/10
Freddy's Revenge - 5.5/10
New Nightmare - 5/10
Freddy vs. Jason - 5/10
Freddy's Dead - 5/10
Dream Child - 4.5/10
Remake - 3.5/10

NOES - 9.5/10
Has to be the best. A terrifying concept executed by great filmmaking and timeless SFX.

NOES 3 - 9/10
Very close to being my favourite as it pretty much set ground rules for the whole franchise along with some of the best characters, quotes and death scenes in the series.

New Nightmare - 8/10
Very unique and creative. I think the ending was a bit underwhelming but otherwise a splendid return to form.

Freddy vs. Jason - 7.5/10
I find this to be a bit underrated; have a soft spot since I watched this before any of the other Nightmare movies and most of the Fridays. It pretty much delivers what you'd expect and it's fun as hell.

NOES 4 - 7/10
Although it is clear that the series was shifting towards comedy, it's still a solid flick. Alice was a great character.

NOES 2 - 6/10
Weird entry, but I think I like it? Looking past the gay undertones and laws is breaks within this universe (Freddy wanting to coexist in the Dreamworld and real world felt redundant), it's got a dark tone and some amazing sequences.

NOES 5 - 5.5/10
Also weird, but the good gets outweighed by the bad more here. The tone felt inconsistent and it's just forgettable for the most part. It has really good kills though.

Remake - 5.5/10
Yes, it's pointless and gets convoluted and contradictory but I don't think it's as bad as many say it is. I actually liked Haley in the role just fine and it at least kept its mean-spirited tone. I think it had potential and some of that shines through.

Freddy's Dead - 4.5/10
Very cheaply made, bad one-liners, bad acting and soulless 3D-baiting. I enjoy it in an ironic way but it's the film that ruined Freddy's reputation.

A Nightmare on Elm Street - 8/10
Dream Warriors - 7/10
New Nightmare - 7/10
Freddy's Revenge - 6.5/10
The Dream Master - 6/10
Freddy vs. Jason - 5/10
The Dream Child - 4.5/10
Freddy's Dead - 4/10
Remake - 4/10

I think the trench coat was a cool addition. Although if you're referring to the face makeup then I can see what you mean.

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - 8/10
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors - 7/10
3. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare - 7/10
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master - 7/10
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge - 6.5/10
6. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child - 6.5/10
7. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - 6.5/10
8. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare - 6.5/10

I enjoy the entire series. Even the worst ones are still entertaining.

Yeah, as poorly made as it was, I still found it mildly entertaining. But I did rank it last, at least.

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street
The original is still the best of the franchise for me. Holds up every time I've rewatched it. Great cast, creative effects, awesome music, and a genuinely frightening monster in the original iteration of Freddy. Honestly, for my money, it might be Wes Craven's best movie.
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Definitely the most fun out of all the sequels. It has some of the most creative dream sequences and Freddy effects, strong character arcs for both Nancy and her dad (and how badass is the line "I killed you once before you son of a bitch!" by the way?), an incredibly likeable cast of teens, and still what feels like the most definitive death for Freddy to me.
3. Wes Craven's New Nightmare
I like this one a lot, and it's honestly kind of a much smarter movie than it has any right to be. It's Craven doing the whole meta horror thing he did in Scream, but two years earlier and in a much cleverer, more creative way. Outside of the original, this is probably the scariest Freddy ever managed to be, and even as himself Robert Englund manages to creep me out a bit in this one. In a way, it really feels like a logical endpoint for the franchise. I mean, what else are you gonna do after you have Freddy bleed into the real world and start terrorizing Wes Craven and the actors from the original? Well, you do Freddy vs. Jason and the remake, apparently...
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
Pretty massively underrated by fans and critics, in my opinion. I always had a soft spot for this one. I really admire that unlike most other slasher sequels, this one didn't immediately try to copy the original and actually thought of some new stuff for Freddy to do. The slow, progressive possession angle is really cool, and the effects used to illustrate it are incredibly gruesome and realistic. Incredibly strong central performance by Mark Patton. It's low on kills, I grant you, but the ones we get are pretty memorable. Also, it's intensely homoerotic, which is rare for an 80's slasher, and definitely appealed to me when I first saw it as a teenager.
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
This one's okay, but it is where the series starts to head downhill for me. This is where Freddy basically stops being scary and starts to be a one-liner machine. Also, they never really give much of a good explanation for how he comes back from the death in part 3, and killing off the surviving Dream Warriors almost immediately just feels like a complete waste. I also don't really care for Tuesday Knight as a replacement for Patricia Arquette. I do like Lisa Wilcox as Alice, though. Probably my favorite series protagonist after Nancy.
6. Freddy vs. Jason
I know a lot of people were kinda disappointed by this one, and I'm sure there were better scripts among the numerous ones that were passed over than what eventually got made, but this is still a pretty fun movie in my book. It gets away with a lot more explicit gore effects than most of the 80's Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th sequels could pull off without being butchered by the MPAA (although granted, the '03 CGI that rears its ugly head here and there is pretty damned atrocious), and the Freddy vs. Jason action we finally get to is pretty great. It's a decent note for Robert Englund to exit on. (Unless he ever returns to the role. Who knows?)
7. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
This one's pretty weak. The effects aren't very good, most of the acting outside of Robert Englund and Lisa Wilcox stinks, and most of the death scenes are just silly. The unborn baby and Freddy fetus stuff is pretty gross and memorable, though.
8. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare
Not much to recommend this one. Lame deaths, lame jokes, just kinda lame and stupid all around. It doesn't remotely feel like a finale to the franchise. But there is some stuff I like here, still. Some of the cameos (in particular Alice Cooper and Johnny Depp) are pretty fun, I like the Iggy Pop song and the ending credits "best of Freddy" montage; and no matter how much this movie sucks, the sight of Yaphet Kotto wailing on Freddy Krueger with a baseball bat will forever be one of my favorite images ever committed to celluloid.
I've still never bothered with the remake.