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Recently, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema showed all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies remastered in 4K – just in time for spooky season. I was able to catch a few of them in the theatre, which was a treat for me because I’ve never seen these movies on the big screen. As a kid and lucid dreamer, I loved and thought the Nightmare on Elm Street movies were so inventive, but I was utterly terrified of Freddy Krueger.
A big difference between watching these as a kid and watching them as an adult is realizing how not-scary Freddy Krueger has become. His cheesy dialogue and ridiculous jokes made him more of a comic relief rather than a bad guy, but that is a great quality for a 80s/90s B movie to possess.
I definitely stand by the original Nightmare on Elm Street being a classic horror that you should watch this spooky season, but the only part worth watching in most of the other movies are the extravagant death scenes, which I have painstakingly ranked for you.
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
Where Nightmare on Elm Street did well the second part takes a nose dive, like a school bus off a cliff. The story was convoluted, which made it hard to watch and tell when people were dying, so it was hard to pick a favorite human death. So instead of picking a human death, I’m picking an animal death as the best for this movie.
Many of the scenes in this movie felt out of left field and didn’t make much sense, much like the death of the main character’s family’s lovebirds. The family’s living room heats up to boiler room temps, and suddenly the caged and covered-up lovebirds go wild. Jesse, the main character in this movie, goes to uncover the lovebirds and one immediately falls down in a bloody mess. The other lovebird bolts out of its cage and causes a minute or two of havoc by scratching the father’s face before spontaneously combusting into flame and feathers.
How though? A gas leak? Firecrackers? “A god damn cherry bomb?” That crazy ol’ Krueger must have missed the mark and accidentally entered the lovebirds’ dreams.
Movie Rating: 4.5
8. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
There were a couple of alright extravagant deaths in this one, but the movie overall fell flat, so I’ll just cut right to the best death. Our buff lady friend, Debbie, is doing some heavy chest presses without a spotter, and oops, Freddy has managed to break her arm. This broken arm turns into some sort of bug limb, like a cockroach leg, and she slowly turns more and more into a roach-like creature. Her life ends when she gets dropped in a sticky roach motel and squished.
Movie Rating: 5.3
7. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
This was the Freddy flick I was most excited to see. When I was a kid, I slowly made my way through all the Krueger movies, with my father watching with me. However, the night we rented New Nightmare from Blockbuster, I got in trouble and I was forbidden from ever watching this movie. Before seeing this movie recently, I realized that I never tried to watch the movie since I was forbidden. Well, my curse has been lifted and just in time for me to watch what I think is the second best movie of the whole franchise.
We somehow get our heroine, Nancy, back, but she is actually playing her real-life self, Heather Langenkamp. If that sounds confusing, it’s because it is, especially if you haven’t seen the original and the third movie. This movie was definitely for the fans of the other movies, and I loved it.
While the plot was memorable, the death scenes themselves were kind of meh, but I choose the death of Rex the stuffed dinosaur as the best death of the movie. While Rex is a stuffed animal and not actually alive, having him sliced with Freddy’s signature four cuts was an interesting way to show Heather that Freddy is real and he is coming after her son.
Movie Rating: 7.6
6. Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
This unlikely battle happens after Freddy brings Jason back to strike fear in the hearts of Elm Street children, so that he can begin entering their dreams again. Kids are scared of Jason, who exists in the real world, but some other kids are afraid of Freddy. “Who cares about some dream guy? That psycho in the hockey mask was real!”
Does that make sense? Barely, which is all the sense a movie of this caliber needs. Also, if that wasn’t enough, we’ll throw one-third of Destiny’s Child into the cast.
The best death of the movie may have been when Jason kills not one, but two teenagers in one stab, and one of those teenagers was in a dream with Freddy. Jason stole Freddy’s kill, and that is when Freddy decided that Jason had to die. The death was a good segway to the impending supernatural forces battle, but I could have done without the date rape in this scene.
Movie Rating: 6.3
5. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
The third movie picks back up by inviting our heroine from the original movie back to help a group of kids fight off Kurger. I love the cheesyiness of the children becoming a group of dream-time superheroes, even if some of their powers were no match for Freddy.
The best death in this movie had to be the puppet master death. Being led out by your own veins in a marionette-fashion to a sucicide fall, while your friends helplessly watched was tragic.
Movie Rating: 6.8
4. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
In another forgettable movie, Freddy finally dies! Well, just kidding, since there are more Freddy movies, we know that’s not true. This death is fun because it reminded me of Mortal Kombat, which borrowed this FATALITY from Mr. Krueger. (NOTE: Even though there are mentions of other parts of Nightmare on Elm Street movies influencing Mortal Kombat, this scene is not called out, as far as I can find on the interwebs.)
John, the last original kid left in Springwood, thinks he can escape Freddy by jumping out of an airplane. However, Freddy appears and cuts the parachute cords, causing John to fall into a bed of spikes that Freddy has conveniently placed in John’s fall zone.
Movie Rating: 5.4
3. A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)
This was my least favorite of the original Nightmare on Elm Street Movies. I don’t know why, other than it being completely forgettable. The only thing I can remember is my favorite death from this movie, which is Mark’s.
Mark picks up a copy of “Nightmares from Hell”, a comic book, which has an obvious Freddy trademark scratch across the front cover. Mark is sucked into the comic book realm, and gets to play a good guy before Freddy turns Mark into a paper version of himself and cuts him, well, like the paper he has become.
Movie Rating: 4.2
2. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
This was a terrible re-telling of the original movie. This is the only Nightmare on Elm Street movie where Robert Englund didn’t play Freddy, and it felt wrong. Freddy was definitely more creepy and less cheesy, but this wasn’t in a good, spooky way, just a terrible, uninteresting way.
The only thing this movie did right was recreate the second best kill from the original movie, which gave me the opportunity to put it on this list! Even if you’ve never watched any Nightmare on Elm Street movies, you’ve probably seen the scene where the teenage girl is being thrown and dragged around by Freddy while he is cutting her in the dream world. While this is happening the friend(s) in the real world can see their friend levitate around the room, and up walls while more and more cuts and blood are appearing all over her body. This was Freddy’s first dream kill, and it was quite imaginative.
Movie Rating: 5.0
1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Where it all started is where this list ends: on the original movie. This movie shines in its cheesy yet simplistic plot. Bad man harms children, parents kill bad man, bad man comes back to kill these children in their dreams. The other movies have overly convoluted plots, but the original is chef’s kiss of terrible, yet fun 80s horror.
Did you know Johnny Depp got his acting start as a fountain of blood in the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie? Okay, well he wasn’t the fountain of blood in the movie, but I am giving his death, which is being pulled into his mattress and exploding into a fountain of blood as the best in this movie and the best Freddy kill overall. I had the privilege of watching this one in the theater and the audience erupted into laughter at this scene.
Movie rating: 8.0
Did the death rankings give you a taste of Freddy, and you want more, but you don’t want to watch them all? I would recommend watching these 3 as a trilogy:
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
- Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
What do you think? Did I miss any of your favorite deaths from Freddy?