Here we go. All nine cinematic appearances of Freddy Krueger and friends, including "Freddy vs. Jason" and the 2010 reboot, ranked below from best to worst. Before we begin, I want to make it clear that I had fun watching all nine of these movies. Because the number of films is higher than I normally cover for these features, I'm splitting the post into two parts.
1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) - The original "Nightmare" is still easily the best. I'm not just saying that because Johnny Depp gets eaten by a bed. Wes Craven really digs into the premise, spends time setting up his characters, and finding all these ways to break the usual rules of movie reality. It's an absolute delight every time Freddy or his claws show up somewhere unexpected, especially the famous bathtub scene. That's why I love this series in particular - it presents so many opportunities for creative visuals and lets the story traipse off into the fantasy genre occasionally. While I love that Nancy gets to be a badass in the end, and is truly one of the best "Final Girls" in horror movie history, I admit that I absolutely love how mean the ending is to her.
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) - The idea of Freddy's victims being able to control their dreams and fight back on Freddy's turf changed the direction of the franchise, and would heavily influence the later films. With Nancy and her father returning, Amanda making her first appearance, and a few extra kids surviving to be in the sequel, "Nightmare" started building a bigger mythology, for better or for worse. However, this installment stands out in particular because I think that it has the best death sequences and special effects work in the whole series. The puppeteer Freddy, the death by television, and the various dream world showdowns all happen here, and they still hold up beautifully. "Dream Warriors" also has one of the best settings - an imposing mental facility for troubled youth.
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) - Probably my most controversial placement, but I was struck by how well put together this film is. The editing is great, especially the transitions, and it has some really strong, interesting visuals in the dreams. There's the M.C. Escher stairs sequence, the motorcycle that eats a kid, and the comic book scene - admittedly very silly, but it looks great. The execution is shaky at times, but Stephen Hopkins makes a film with a clear, simple narrative, characters with some signs of inner life, and wrangles all the thematic stuff involving pregnancy and motherhood fairly well. As a slasher, it's very mediocre, but as a fantasy film it accomplishes some good things. Of all the older "Elm Street" films, I think this one is most in need of some rediscovering and reevaluation.
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) - First things first. Jackie Earle Haley's Freddy Krueger does nothing for me. There's something about the makeup, about the performance, that falls straight into uncanny valley for me. I wish they'd updated the look, the costume, or something to differentiate him from Robert Englund's Freddy more. Otherwise, the rest of the movie does what it sets out to. I think it's an effective thriller with some good scare sequences, and the performances from Rooney Mara and Kyle Gallner are a big step up from other installments of the series. With a dearth of interesting dream sequences and a Freddy that doesn't really work, I don't think this is a very good "Nightmare on Elm Street" film. However, it's a perfectly solid movie in its own right.
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