10 Horror Movie Sequels That Had No Right To Be This Good

By 1994, the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise was believed to finally be dead after a run of three pretty dreadful movies in The Dream Master, The Dream Child, and Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Franchise fatigue had long set in with this series, and the chilling terror of Wes Craven's first Elm Street picture had long been replaced by slapstick humour. Sure, there was always a mischievous dark humour to Robert Englund's Freddy Krueger as far back as that 1984 original outing, but that was massively outweighed by the utter dread Krueger brought to the screen.

Truth be told, '91's Final Nightmare was a mercy kill.

Having become a shell of its former self, the Elm Street franchise was put out of its misery with that sixth picture. So much so, New Line even held a public funeral for Freddy and the series. What made Krueger special had been lost, the nerve-shredding kills had been replaced by all-out comedy, and Freddy was now in on the joke.

So, when The Final Nightmare proved not so final and Wes Craven's New Nightmare arrived in '94, interest was at an all-time low. To make the film sound just as gimmicky as its predecessors, the premise of Freddy as a presence in the real world of the franchise's actors looked dreadful on paper.

New Nightmare threatened to yet again jump the shark for the Elm Street IP, yet the end result was a welcome return to the terrifying roots of what made this franchise so special in the first place.