10 Movie Threequels That Redeemed Their Franchise

The original A Nightmare On Elm Street was always going to be a tricky one to follow, and while director Jack Sholder's Freddy's Revenge had its moments of terror, and the homoerotic themes he stealthily imbedded in the subtext are now gloriously coming to the surface, the film was too close a retread of its predecessor to really stand alone. The result was studio New Line Cinema considering pulling the plug on the burgeoning franchise altogether.

That all changed when creator Wes Craven returned to the series and wrote what is now the best Freddy adventure to date. The first masterstroke was going right back to what made Freddy scary in the first place, which is his ability to send a bunch of teens into a state of maddening fear. This concept is then playfully taken very literally, by being set in an asylum with Craven's story looping back to the original with Heather Lagenkamp's Nancy anchoring the action.

But it wouldn't be an Elm Street picture without a Freddy firing on all cylinders, and in Dream Warriors we have him turning into a killer TV, a master puppeteer (in one of the grimmest horror set pieces you'll ever see) and a slimy slug monster. An inspired sequel that was enough of a box office beast to see that Freddy remained in cinemas well into the 21st century.