4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
Preceded by: A Nightmare on Elm Street, 1984. A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, 1985 (2 years before)
RottenTomatoes Rating: 73% Another Wes Craven brainchild here, with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The first film in the series is one of the most celebrated films in horror. With the creation of Freddy Krueger, Craven ensured nightmares and wet beds for kids and grown-ups alike, even now, almost two decades since its release. It's a classic. A true original, and proper scary. Freddy's Revenge came along a year later, and didn't do much in the way of scares, originality or fun. Although I'll always have a soft spot for it, it's easy to admit that it's mostly a lazy sequel. Dream Warriors, on the other hand, is a much stronger film. With Wes back on board, joining a writing team that included Frank Darabont, it was already looking in better shape. That, plus fan favourite Heather Langenkamp (AKA: Nancy Thomson from the first film) coming back did a lot to sell this one to the horror fanatics. Although none of the films in the Nightmare franchise have since surpassed the first in terms of scariness, - and 3 is no exception - when it comes to entertainment, ingenuity and fun, Dream Warriors surpasses the rest in spades. It can of course be argued that Freddy Krueger became something of a joke after the first film, but maybe it was just that he got wittier, huh? Freddy is at his most fun and most menacing in this film. The idea of having a bunch of reject kids more or less trapped in a hospital (asylum, clinic, whatever you want to call it) seems like the perfect setting for an entertaining Freddy flick. And it is.