8 EXACT Moments Classic Horror Franchises Should Have Come To An End

3. Nightmare On Elm Street Ends With Freddy Attacking Marge

Halloween 2
New Line Cinema

While Wes Craven’s New Nightmare was all kinds of meta fun, the truth is that the Elm Street franchise should’ve ended after the first movie.

Bar some cheesily fun moments in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Elm Street was largely a dud when it came to genuinely great horror movies. As such, the perfect time to have culled this saga would’ve been with the closing moments of the 1984 original.

After Nancy had banished Freddy by refusing to be scared by him, that first Elm Street movie then saw a twist where Freddy was maybe (or maybe not) alive and chillingly well – and from there, Krueger brutally dragged Nancy’s mother Marge through her own front door. And there, my friends, is where the franchise should’ve ended.

At this point in time, Freddy Krueger was a genuinely terrifying character and destined for horror greatness. While Freddy is totally a horror icon of today, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was only the start of the merciless killer having his wings taken out from under him.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.