Every A Nightmare On Elm Street Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare really tanked the series two years later, but the rot truly began with A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child in 1989.

The Dream Child has the dubious honour of having the biggest budget in the franchise up until that point, while simultaneously bringing home the lowest box office haul of the entire series. So bad was Elm Street 5, New Line Cinema decided the only possible way the franchise could move forward was if it officially killed off Freddy Krueger. Even director Stephen Hopkins labelled The Dream Child a "total embarrassment".

This fifth Elm Street did actually have some great SFX work at play, but the wider plot - Freddy using the dreams of an unborn child to wreak havoc - was just a bit naff. Added to that, the performances of our central protagonists ranged from just-about-passable to outright awful, and here we had yet another example of a Freddy Krueger who was leaning way too much into comedy to make him feel like a truly menacing presence.

The use of certain Gothic imagery brought something a little spooky to Elm Street 5, but those striking visuals were clearly not enough to save a film which made Krueger's backstory even more convoluted. And likewise, while the kills here were fun, there was sadly only three of film.