David Gordon Green's Halloween (2018) opened the floodgates for successful horror reboots, and with the Strode vs. Myers series coming to a close in October with Halloween Ends, it feels as though the time has come for A Nightmare on Elm Street to get the same treatment.

Like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger's absence is a gap that will inevitably be filled, especially considering how many other top-tier horror icons have seen their franchises successfully revived alongside Michael Myers. Nia DaCosta's excellent continuation/reimagining of Candyman's legacy did well with critics, as did Syfy's excellent series, Chucky. Now that Ghostface is back to buying burner phones, fans want Robert Englund's Krueger to see if his razor gloves still fit. Letterboxd has them all ranked, including what is still the most recent entry: the 2010 remake.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010) — 2.1

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A Nightmare On Elm Street 2010

One of cinema's scariest supernatural slasher villains was reduced to a CGI mess in Samuel Bayer's A Nightmare on Elm Street remake. In spite of game participation from Jackie Earle Haley, the movie comes across more like an overly glossy music video than it does a chiller.

Rooney Mara leads the cast as Nancy Thompson, taking over the role from Heather Langenkamp, but she went on to bigger and better things. Most of the film's detractors cite the remake's verbatim copying of multiple iconic scenes from the original film, e.g. Freddy coming out of the wall and Tina Gray's death. However, even the special effects were less convincing in the remake than in the original, which had been released 26 years prior.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991) — 2.2

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Nightmare on Elm Street Freddys Dead with a smiling Feddy Kruger looking at the camera.

Freddy Krueger was initially a horror character inspired by real events, which was just one factor that went towards him being a legitimately intimidating presence even when he isn't in the room. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare features no scares nor does it contain any true attempts to frighten the audience.

RELATED: Freddy's Nightmares & 7 Other Once-Lost Horror Projects

Instead, the show takes blatant inspiration from the work of David Lynch, making it feel less like a Krueger film and more like a particularly silly episode of Twin Peaks with guest appearances by Roseanne and Tom Arnold.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) — 2.3

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Nightmare on Elm Street 5 The Dream Child

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child found the series officially spinning its wheels. The plot continues the "Bastard Son of 100 Maniacs" thread initiated in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and brings back Lisa Wilcox's Alice from A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, but doesn't deliver for either one.

RELATED: 10 Times Wes Craven Advanced Horror

Stephen Hopkins' (Predator 2The Ghost and the Darkness) chapter can't even deliver on the slasher promise of memorable kills. In fact, the film only has three, and they're placed so oddly that the film's pacing is irrevocably dinged. And, while the force-feeding death of Great Gibson is iconic Nightmare, surviving character Dan Jordan's motorcycle-merging death is too little too early, and the comic strip-inspired kill scene for Mark Gray was, at the time, the franchise's ridiculously silly nadir.

Freddy Vs. Jason (2003) — 2.7

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Freddy's claw as he faces against Jason

Freddy vs. Jason features the two horror movie legends and their iconic weapons finally clashing after years of being relegated to separate franchises (save for a clever Freddy cameo in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday).

The results were mixed as while the film did very well at the box office, it rarely functioned as an effective horror movie. With that being said, the final clash delivered for fans of the franchises, which was at least half the reason they bought a ticket to begin with.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) — 2.8

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Freddy Kreuger in the second A Nightmare on Elm Street film.

Wes Craven's original film instantly made Springwood, Ohio an iconic horror location, so A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge stayed put. Starting with an effectively eerie scene involving a school bus, Freddy's Revenge tells the viewer right off the bat that, while they're in for dream-based scares, the sequel is bringing a different tone to the table.

And it did, but at the time few were on board. Unlike every other installment of the franchise, the sophomore entry aims specific focus on possession. While the franchise-unique plot helps set Freddy's Revenge apart, it also reeks of a series that's yet to truly find its identity, like a sitcom in its debut season.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) — 2.8

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Freddy Kreuger wearing sunglasses in Nightmare on Elm Street 4

The highest-grossing horror film of the 1980sA Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master was Freddymania in full swing. If adjusted for inflation, utilizing an inflation calculator and data from Box Office Mojo, the first four films earned roughly $71 million, $80.6 million, $114 million, and $120 million.

The tallies would drop swiftly with A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child—roughly $51.8 million adjusted for inflation—but Nightmare 4 found a balance of comedy and scares that drew audiences in droves.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) — 3.4

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Freddy Krueger with claws out in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare found the director returning to the franchise he gave birth to for the first time since producing A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

RELATED: 10 Dream-Based Horror Films That Will Give You Nightmares

While New Nightmare has significant pacing issues and a lack of adequate Freddy time, it still stands as a horror film that was far ahead of its time. Craven's return to Springwood was a clear stomping ground for his impending self-aware journeys to the town of Woodsboro in the Scream series, it just doesn't work as well as the first two installments of the Ghostface saga.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) — 3.6

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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 - Freddy Krueger Welcome to Primetime Bitch

great slasher movie (and more) just like the original, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is the franchise's best sequel by a good margin.

ANOES 3 has many assets in its corner, primarily in terms of casting and screenwriting. Dream Warriors has the smartest script of the franchise and expands Freddy's mythology in a way that feels natural for both the character and the series' progression. Furthermore, the creativity of the death scenes is rivaled only by the original film, and there's an argument to be made that scenes like "Welcome to prime time, b****!" are even more inventive than what was seen in Craven's film.

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) — 3.8

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Sentient tongue scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984

Wes Craven's seminal A Nightmare on Elm Street was not just a highlight of his incredible career, but of cinema as a whole. Displaying a depth and level of intelligence not seen in any other slasher film, Craven's masterpiece (one of two) did far more than establish a horror icon to rival Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees.

One of the absolute best examples of the genres, A Nightmare on Elm Street has as fair a claim to the title of "Best 1980s Horror Movie" as The ThingThe Shining, or Friday the 13th. With scenes that only become increasingly interesting, almost everything about ANOES clicks like clockwork and it is still, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most horrifying Freddy has ever been or will ever be.

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