12 Awful Movie Sequels That Franchises Completely Ignored

4. A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

Wiped Out By: A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

The biggest mistake the first Elm Street sequel made was not hiring Wes Craven to come back and care-take his greatest character creation. The second was f*cking with Craven's simple, compelling message of "don't go to sleep" by making it possible for Freddy to kill in the real world through possession. It was a betrayal.

Thankfully, after being cajouled into returning to the franchise he never actually wanted to be a franchise, Craven came back with some great ideas for Freddy (including what would become Wes Craven's New Nightmare and one about a sacred suicide location).

His best idea was to ignore the predecessor entirely, and Dream Warriors is brilliant as a result. Later, New Nightmare then retconned the series again, ignoring all of the sequels. It too was a winner, so hopefully someone will start paying attention that the best way to make Freddy films is to just ignore the other ones.