Horror Franchises
The Nightmare on Elm Street Movies, Scariest to Least Scary
Ranked by Fear score
The scariest: Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), at 7.8 on our Fear axis. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is next at 7.0.
Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) introduced Freddy Krueger, the killer who attacks teenagers in their dreams. The series ran through a string of sequels, Craven's own Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994) and a 2010 remake. This page ranks the films we have scored by Fear.
Fear is one of five scores Watch Darkly's curators give a film, each from 0 to 10. It measures how frightening a film is to watch and is scored separately from gore and intensity, so a bloody entry can still rank low here. Films we have not scored yet are listed after the ranking. How we score
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Ranked from scariest to least scary
- Curator Score 7.2
01Wes Craven's New Nightmare 1994
- Fear
- 7.8
- Gore
- 7.0
- Atmosphere
- 8.3
- Intensity
- 6.5
A demonic force has chosen Freddy Krueger as its portal to the real world. Can Heather Langenkamp play the part of Nancy one last time and trap the evil trying to enter our world?
- Curator Score 8.1
02A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984
- Fear
- 7.0
- Gore
- 8.0
- Atmosphere
- 8.0
- Intensity
- 7.8
Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...
- Curator Score 7.2
- Fear
- 4.4
- Gore
- 7.0
- Atmosphere
- 7.3
- Intensity
- 6.6
A psychiatrist, familiar with the knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger, helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.
- Curator Score 6.5
- Fear
- 4.0
- Gore
- 7.0
- Atmosphere
- 6.5
- Intensity
- 6.0
A teenage boy is haunted in his dreams by deceased child murderer Freddy Krueger, who is out to possess him in order to continue his reign of terror in the real world.
- Curator Score 5.5
05A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010
- Fear
- 4.0
- Gore
- 6.0
- Atmosphere
- 7.0
- Intensity
- 6.0
Teenagers Nancy, Quentin, Kris, Jesse and Dean are all neighborhood friends who begin having the same dream of a horribly disfigured man who wears a tattered sweater and a glove made of knives. The man terrorizes them in their dreams, and the only escape is to wake up. But when, one by one, they start dying violently, the friends realize that what happens in the dream world is real, and the only way to stay alive is to stay awake.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003) is ranked with the Friday the 13th films.
Not scored yet
The Nightmare on Elm Street movies in order
In release order.
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)
- Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
Common questions about the Nightmare on Elm Street movies
- What is the scariest Nightmare on Elm Street movie?
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), at 7.8 on our Fear axis. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is next at 7.0.
- What is the least scary Nightmare on Elm Street movie?
- A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) tie at 4.0 on our Fear axis.
- Which Nightmare on Elm Street movie is the goriest?
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), at 8.0 on our Gore axis.
- What is the best Nightmare on Elm Street movie?
- By Curator Score, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) has the highest at 8.1 out of 10. The Curator Score is our overall verdict on a film and is separate from Fear.
- What order should I watch the Nightmare on Elm Street movies in?
- In release order: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991), Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).