It’s hard to tell where the slasher genre actually started. Many think it was Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), but you could make the case that John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) did the trick, as it led to a slasher boom that lasted through the ’80s, ’90s, and even early 2000s.
Either way, one thing is certain: A Nightmare on Elm Street is the most frightening of them all. Unfortunately, as with any slasher franchise, it’s far from perfect (and we do mean far), as there are more than a few stinkers in the series. But for every bad film, there’s a great one.
While all the other iconic slashers continue to churn out new content — Scream 7 (2026) is in development, Friday the 13th and Halloween have TV shows in the works, and Chucky (2021) Season 3 has been and gone– there are no signs of an Elm Street reboot.
Though there are whispers, there’s no telling what the future holds for the Elm Street franchise, but the existing entries aren’t going anywhere, and there’s no better time to re-familiarize yourself with Freddy’s horrifying, literal nightmare-fueled reign of terror.
As it stands, the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise is made up of nine theatrical installments, and a TV series (which many fans don’t even know about). Among the film series, there are also sequels, spinoffs, and crossovers.
So, where to start? The continuity in this franchise is as fractured as it is in many other slashers, so we’ve broken down every timeline in the series.
Original Elm Street Timeline
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The “prime” Elm Street timeline begins with the 1984 classic by the late Wes Craven. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) introduces Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and the final girl, Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp).
Freddy’s Revenge
The first sequel in the series, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), sees the return of Freddy as he possesses a teenage boy. Though it was panned at the time, it has since gained cult status for being a misunderstood film due to its homoerotic themes.
Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) is widely considered the best film in the franchise. It sees the return of Nancy Thompson as she helps a group of teens in a psychiatric ward who are being picked off one by one by Freddy Krueger.
Many fans consider Dream Warriors to mark the end of one timeline in the same way Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) is considered the final outing in its respective timeline, with the follow-up, Halloween: Resurrection (2002), widely viewed as a purely “optional” sequel.
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The Dream Master
The franchise takes a razor-sharp nose dive in both quality and storytelling with A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), in which Freddy kills all the surviving Dream Warriors from the previous film (which didn’t go down well with audiences).
The Dream Child
In A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), we learn that Freddy is haunting the dreams of the main character’s unborn child. It’s a good idea on paper, but the film is as shockingly bad as its predecessor, and things only get worse with the next installment.
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
Forget about wearing old-school 3-D glasses for this film (it was released in 3-D) — all you need are some beer goggles. Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) is the final entry in the original Elm Street timeline, and it’s just as well because it’s so bad, it’s hilarious.
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A Nightmare on Elm Street TV Series
Freddy’s Nightmares (1988 — 1990) is an anthology and spinoff series. However, only eight of the 44 episodes feature Freddy (Robert Englund) as the main antagonist. He also talks to the camera, so this is best viewed as its own entity, even separate to the original 1984 film.
Nancy Thompson Trilogy
The “Nancy Thompson Trilogy” isn’t the official name given to these three particular films in the franchise, but naming it so makes a lot of sense because together, they form a trilogy whose throughline involves the titular final girl played by Heather Langenkamp.
It starts with the original 1984 film by Wes Craven, continues with Dream Warriors, which sees the return of Nancy, and concludes with the genre-defying and genre-defining Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994), a meta spinoff that takes place “outside” the Elm Street films.
You might wonder how this could be connected to the previous films, however, towards the end of New Nightmare, Heather Langenkamp starts to “become” Nancy Thompson, and her Los Angeles home also transforms into her Elm Street residence, so that she can face Freddy one last time.
Dream Warriors Trilogy
There’s no escaping the fact that the long-awaited crossover movie Freddy vs. Jason (2003) is a bad film. That said, the slasher-clasher is a masterpiece compared to the truly abysmal series-topper Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.
The way in which A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th are intertwined is quite clever. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), long weakened by Elm Street’s decision to cover up his reign of terror, leads Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger) into town to kill some teens so that everyone thinks it’s him, so that, in turn, he can regain his power through mass fear.
Freddy vs. Jason also feels mostly like an Elm Street film, which deserves some praise. It also acts as a loose sequel to Dream Warriors by revisiting a storyline from that film in which Weston Hills Hospital uses an experimental drug called “hypnocil.”
With that in mind, Freddy vs. Jason quite easily slots in as the final chapter in a trilogy that includes the original Wes Craven film and Dream Warriors. The fact that the crossover movie is widely considered canon to the original series (mainly on the Elm Street side) also helps.
Elm Street Reboot
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) is a direct reboot of the original 1984 film, and, as it never got any sequels or follow-ups, it’s a standalone film that can be viewed on its own. However, if you feel like comparing both films, they can of course be watched back to back.
The film stars Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger, who replaces Robert Englund after he played the character in the previous eight movies and the television series. However, this is Haley’s only outing as Freddy, and it’s unlikely he’ll return in the inevitable Elm Street reboot.
Will you be watching the Elm Street movies this year? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!
The post How To Watch the ‘Elm Street’ Movies, Including the Reboot and TV Series appeared first on Inside the Magic.
