Every Nightmare On Elm Street Film Ranked Worst To Best

1988's fourth Nightmare on Elm Street movie was the biggest in every key sense: it had the highest budget, and became the most commercially successful of the series up to that point. It remains an entertaining entry, with strong visuals and energetic direction from future action master Renny Harlin. However, it's almost certainly the corniest Nightmare, and the point at which Freddy's reliance on wisecracks went over the line.

For fans of the preceding film, The Dream Master is infuriating from the start. First off, it recasts Patricia Arquette's Kristen with the less charismatic Tuesday Knight (yes, that's really her name: she also sings theme song Nightmare), and then - spoiler alert - it quickly kills her off along with other surviving Dream Warriors in the first act. For those who grew to care for those characters in that superior sequel, this inevitably feels like a betrayal.

Worse yet, the new ensemble introduced in their stead are the least likeable bunch of victims-in-waiting lined up for Freddy up to that point (although, in fairness, the sequels that followed would give them a run for their money there), and Lisa Wilcox just doesn't have the charisma to be Freddy's supposed nemesis.

Given that the teen ensemble includes a big-haired fitness fanatic in spandex and a headband-wearing karate enthusiast, it's the most unequivocally 80s ensemble of the series; indeed, this film is the one that wears the era on its sleeve most blatantly, the power ballad-heavy soundtrack being a key factor there.