• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

LTTP: A Nightmare on Elm Street Series

Status
Not open for further replies.

rrc1594

Member
A Nightmare on Elm Street Series

After watching the first one on Halloween, I decide to watch the whole series. Watching all 9 movies like most horror franchise the movies get worse as the series goes one. I agree with most around the web and feel that A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is the best of the sequels that have to do with the movie timeline. Wes Craven's New Nightmare is the best Nightmare on Elm Street to me. It has the best design Freddy and frightening. I read that this is the Freddy, Craven wanted. I can see that because Freddy has always been more corny then scary to me. I really enjoyed the female protagonist through out the series, they weren’t afraid of Freddy and took the fight to him. What I like most about the franchise was, just the unique concept of something able to kill you in your dreams. You are never safe.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Wow this Freddy is an asshole. I can get you being evil and coming back to cause more mayhem. What are you coming back for this time because you got caught? Why not kill the parents? Way to many jump scares and the dream sequences were boring. The reasoning for the parents killing Freddy is this one was dumb to me. I can understand killing him in the original series, because he got away with it and set free. I would of accepted to abuse my kid; I’m going to kill you. Killing him because you didn’t want your kids to remember was pretty weak.

When I look at other horror icons Freddy has to be the most evil. When I was a kid the biggest thing I use to hold on to when it came to horror movies is they don’t kill kids. Jason never killed a kid; Michael never successfully killed a kid. Freddy was a legit child murder; he killed 20 kids in 3 years that’s fucking crazy.

Favorite Character
Alice Johnson. She went Karate Kid on Freddy

Worst Character
Joey Crusel. Dumbass fell for some trick twice

Best Freddy
New-Nightmare-Freddy.jpg
 

Savitar

Member
I don't care what anyone says, Jackie Haley did a good Freddy.

Horror fans tend to be stuck on certain people playing certain roles, see Jason.
 

rrc1594

Member
I don't care what anyone says, Jackie Haley did a good Freddy.

Horror fans tend to be stuck on certain people playing certain roles, see Jason.

I enjoyed his Freddy also. Not the design tho, he did really well with what they gave him.
 
Nightmare on elm street
Nightmare on elm street 3 dream warriors
Wes cravens new nightmare
Nightmare 2
Nightmare 4
Nightmare 5
Freddys dead.

Id rank the original films in that order.
 

Xemnas89

Member
1, 3, and New Nightmare are the best but I have a soft spot for all of them. I've come to appreciate the absurdity of Freddy's Dead, and I love the sets on Part 5. 2 has it's issues but I love Freddy in that one. Part 4 feels the most mainstream which is appropriate as the series popularity was at it's peak during that time.
 

Gig

One man's junk is another man's treasure
Freddy's Dead is so campy, I mean, I think it's more campy than Jason X.

Also, Freddy's makeup in the remake is crap.
 

rrc1594

Member
Also it's heavily implied that the original house Nancy was in was Freddy's house before he died. Which is crazy to me that you move into a house of a man you killed.
 

zeemumu

Member
I was always wondering why the dad in Freddy vs Jason kept trying to sedate his daughter even though by then all of the adults knew about Freddy's dream powers.

"Go to sleep so I can protect you from the dream monster."
Dream Warriors will always be my guilty pleasure.

The wizard forgot that he was ranged dps
 

matt360

Member
I think Wes Craven's New Nightmare gets too much praise. I appreciated the meta aspect. It was creative and fresh, and a good precursor to the Scream series, but I hated the portrayal of Freddy. I understand why they changed him, but it didn't sit well with me. Freddy should be taunting and playful, making bad puns left and right. And his make-up looked terrible in New Nightmare. It was still good, but it shouldn't be as high on most people's lists as it tends to be.

My list goes like this:
1
3
4
5
New Nightmare
Freddy's Dead
2
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
Genuinely believe the original is the best horror film of all time, I watch it every Halloween and it still freaks me out. My order goes:

1
3
New Nightmare
FvJ (if it counts)
4
Remake
2/5/6 - All equally bad IMO

Whilst 3 is easily the best of the sequels, it introduced the worst parts of the franchise: The over-reliance on ironic set-piece kills and Freddy's sense of humor. I think people forget that he really only killed 3 people in the original, and only one was an extended dream.

Also it's heavily implied that the original house Nancy was in was Freddy's house before he died. Which is crazy to me that you move into a house of a man you killed.

It was? A lot of people seem to think that but I don't really know where it came from. In the original her mother just keeps the glove in the basement. If it comes from anywhere it's the sequel I suppose, as the house is the only thing that links the two protagonists and Freddy is in the basement.
 
I think Wes Craven's New Nightmare gets too much praise. I appreciated the meta aspect. It was creative and fresh, and a good precursor to the Scream series, but I hated the portrayal of Freddy. I understand why they changed him, but it didn't sit well with me. Freddy should be taunting and playful, making bad puns left and right. And his make-up looked terrible in New Nightmare. It was still good, but it shouldn't be as high on most people's lists as it tends to be.

My list goes like this:
1
3
4
5
New Nightmare
Freddy's Dead
2
Well done!! The first is the best in the series. Parts 3-4-5 is where the deaths starts getting creative and they really get into the lore of Freddy. Part 2 is the worst.
 

zerotol

Banned
When number 3 Dream Warriors came out there was some deal the movie had with the band Dokken. They did the song for it. You could mail them money and they were supposed to mail you back something, I can't even remember what. I mailed off my letter with the money and got nothing in return. This thread just reminded me of that.
 

Exodust

Banned
Nightmare On Elm Street
Dream Warriors
Dream Master
Dream Child
New Nightmare

That's how I'd rank Nightmare movies barring the absolute crap ones(remake, Freddy's Revenge and Freddy's dead). The first one is the only truly great one IMO. While the dream movies are a lot of fun, even when they're terrible they're fun.

I used to love New Nightmare and count it as my second favorite, and possible favorite. But I don't think it holds up well on repeat viewings. The kid ends up really getting on my nerves after the initial watch and the cool meta novelty doesn't really last that long for me. Cool idea, definitely not bad, just not what I would put on a pedestal.

Worst Freddy movie is easily Freddy's Dead. Yes, worse than 2 and the remake. The former at least has some kitsch value to it and the remake is just boring, generic horror movie remake. Freddy's Dead is pure and complete trite with no redeeming qualities. Fuck that movie.
 

Karu

Member
Like 1 a lot, a lot. Thought 2 was garbage. 3 was great. 4 and 5 were also pretty bad/garbage. Haven't seen 6. Stopped 7 halfway through, may finish it sometime. Have no interest in the remake.
 

Into

Member
I highly recommend you watch Never Sleep Again The Elm Street Legacy documentary, if you havent seen it yet.

Its the most comprehensive movie doc ive ever seen. A true love letter to the series, but its also somewhat critical of some of the entries

But as the thread, yeah i think the consensus regarding the series is very much identical to yours. Nightmare 1, 3 and New are the best.

I like 3 a lot, dont get me wrong, but its not good because its scary, its rather because it oozes so much 80s pop culture. Its the Top Gun of horror movies. And New Nightmare i think did the "meta" stuff better than any of the Scream films. And the original is just great
 

Brakke

Banned
Didn't see any of these until kind of recently. The effects in the first movie are wild. That blood geyser is cool as shit and it's obvious they did it by building an upside-down room. It looked good on film and it stayed cool even once you realized how they did it. But also those goopy stairs were the dumbest of all time. There's just holes in the stairs and they bolted buckets of slime under the holes? lame af imo.

Also how stupid is that demon car at the end of the first. They want you to leave the movie scared but I left laughing my ass off.

Shouts out to Rick and Morty's testacular version of Freddy:

11-2.jpg
 

Exodust

Banned
I highly recommend you watch Never Sleep Again The Elm Street Legacy documentary, if you havent seen it yet.

Fantastic documentary. 4 hours long but most definitely worth the watch.

I like 3 a lot, dont get me wrong, but its not good because its scary, its rather because it oozes so much 80s pop culture. Its the Top Gun of horror movies. And New Nightmare i think did the "meta" stuff better than any of the Scream films. And the original is just great

Dream Warriors is the mid-80's personified. It's not a great horror movie, hell you could argue it's not a great movie. But man is it entertaining.
 
I think I'm losing my mind as I get older. I'm starting to come around to the ridiculousness of Freddy's Dead. The last 20 minutes are still anticlimactic but it's like a horror movie version of looney toons up to that point.

As mentioned previously, watch Never Sleep Again. Then watch all of the Fridays followed by Crystal Lake Memories. Good stuff.
 
My order is similar to most when it comes to the top movies.

1
3
New Nightmare

However the bottom is a bit different.

2
4
5
Freddy's Dead

I have a soft spot for 2 because it's the most "get shit past the radar" 80s movie I've ever seen. I just wish it was way better structured.

Favorite Freddy is Dream Warrior/Master. The jokes, crazy set pieces, his swagger (he's got it in spades in Dream Master). He wasn't at his scariest, but he was having way too much fun being a murdering prick.

Favorite character is Nancy. I loved the idea of a trapmaster final girl. Even more than an asskicking one, seeing how that is a well worn trope these days.

She wasn't nearly as much of a strategist in 3, and her fatal flaw made her do something pretty stupid, but at least in the first movie it was cool seeing a kid outmanuver a guy who fixes the game as drastically as Freddy.
 

phanphare

Banned
love this series, definitely my favorite horror movie franchise. even the bad ones are entertaining. I also like 4 and 5 more than most, it seems. I really enjoyed the weird as fuck lore they built and the one liners. I thought Freddy's Dead was pretty awful though. on the surface it seems like the same formula from the previous three movies but it was missing something. the vibe was off. the jokes missed and the mysteriously creepy atmosphere was gone. also the shoehorned in 3D section is so bad.

I'd probably rank the series

Nightmare = Dream Warriors > New Nightmare > The Dream Child > The Dream Master > Freddy's Revenge > Freddy's Dead

also Freddy vs. Jason is awesome. it's a dumb movie for sure but it's really fun, entertaining, and the fan service for both series is great.
 
I kinda dig part 2. Sure it ain't near as polished as, well, any other entry in the series, but its overt gay subtext is a hoot to watch and its got that plenty dang awesome werewolf/Freddy transformation scene.
 

Nekofrog

Banned
The best part of the fantastic 3 was the Freddyworm/Nancy encounter. The look of surprise on the puppet freddy that quickly turned to rage as it shouts "YOU" was done so well, and also served to reinforce Freddys limits. He knows everything about you as long as you dream it, but he had no idea at all that the one that defeated him was back.

Nothing really ever surprised Freddy, but that reveal said a lot about his character and how much he both hated and feared Nancy. Nothing ever got personal to him until that moment.
 

eldudebro

Member
I happened to have watched all the NOES films over the past few weeks.

The original will always be my favourite.

Freddy just got too comedic in the 4th instalment onwards. I personally preferred his darker character that was portrayed in the first two films. Shame they turned him into the pantomime villain.
 
I love the Elm Street series.

I like 1,3 and 4 are the best with 1 being a flawed but overall solid horror while 3 and 4 are varying levels of silly fun.

2 has a lot of unintentional comedy though going the possession route took away from the awesome dream concept and the ending is lackluster. Still oddly enjoyable despite it's many(many) shortcomings.

5 feels completely rushed(Which it was) and suffers as a result. Very watchable regardless of that though. I'm still disappointed the uncut vhs version was not released on dvd or bluray. The motorcycle kill is pretty brutal in the uncut ver and Freddy's "You are what you eat!" line during Greta's death works so much better with the footage of him feeding her her own guts that was cut from the theatrical ver.

Freddy's Dead is like...as a horror movie it's a piece of shit but when viewed as a comedy it's genuinely entertaining. No matter how you view it though, the way they killed Freddy was weak, rehashing the "Bring him out of the dream" aspect from part 1 was lazy and the explanation for how Freddy got his powers was, well, terrible.

Also, anyone watch the Elm Street tv series? Freddy is involved in several of the episodes and while said eps aren't very good, it sorta feels like you're watching these "lost" Freddy mini-movies. Pretty neat if you're a hardcore fan.
 

LifeLike

Member
2 has a lot of unintentional comedy though going the possession route took away from the awesome dream concept and the ending is lackluster. Still oddly enjoyable despite it's many(many) shortcomings.

Freddy's Revenge is an intentional homo-erotic story. Not my favorite but very good.
My favorite is probably the third one.
 
I find this series to be far more consistent then its peers - Friday the 13th, Halloween, Scream, etc. Generally good movies...most of the time. 3 good movies (1, 3, New Nightmare) is more then most other horror franchises can boast.

I haven't seen that 2010 remake because it probably sucks though
 
Freddy is my favorite horror villain but it's been a while since I watched all of them so my memory is too fuzzy to rank them. The classic ones I remember the most are the original and New Nightmare. In spite of its flaws I even like the newest one. Jackie's Freddy was pretty cool, too. I enjoyed the emphasis on making him scary again since some of the classics turned him into just an ugly comedian. His humor is fun, but that's not all he is.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom