Every A Nightmare On Elm Street Movie Ranked Worst To Best

6. Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984
New Line Cinema

As mentioned, so poorly received was A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, the only way New Line could realistically serve up another Elm Street movie was on the promise that it was a farewell to the series.

Thus, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare was indeed intended to be the end for the franchise, with Freddy Krueger being truly banished once and for all. So much so, part of the marketing for Freddy's Dead saw an actual public, promotional funeral held for Springwood's most infamous son.

By now, the Elm Street series was more about knowing, cheesy slapstick comedy more than it was actual terror, and that's conveyed in so much of The Final Nightmare; not least in that Wicked Witch parody, or the video game death of Breckin Meyer's stoner Spencer. Then there's the larger plot revolving the whodunnit-esque mystery over who is secretly Freddy's offspring.

Most pleasing for franchise fans here, is Rachel Talalay getting to making her directing debut, with Talalay having worked her way through the ranks since starting as a production assistant on the first Elm Street. It was also nice to see Johnny Depp back in a cameo role, with Depp having made his feature film debut in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street.

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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.