A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Rating: ★★★★
Sep 5, 2002Dream-Invading Boogey Man
One of the most influential horror films of the 1980s, creating a series of dream horror copycats. Before the campy, makeup effects driven sequels kicked in, Wes Craven's original creates a genuinely unearthly series of nightmare jumps

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
Rating:
Jul 15, 2002Dream-Invading Boogey Man
The first and worst of the A Nightmare on Elm Street sequels. The dream logic becomes incoherent, while the film is twisted out of shape to become a bizarre gay Coming Out parable

Never Too Young to Die (1986)

Never Too Young to Die (1986)
Rating: ★★★★
Sep 15, 2012Gonzo Spy Film
Completely insane 1980s spy film – a madcap mahsup of elements including James Bond gadgetry, mad scientists, action and splatter served up with not a shred of realism. The crowning glory is a completely OTT Gene Simmons as a cross-dressing super-villain

A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors (1987)

A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors (1987)
Rating: ★★
Jul 29, 2002Dream-Invading Boogey Man
The point where the A Nightmare on Elm Street series became what everyone remembers, where Robert Englund's Freddy went from a boogeyman into the equivalent of Wile E. Coyote in a Road Runner cartoon, popping up like a malevolent jack-in-a-box to quip a one-liner and dispatch victims in a display of makeup effects virtuosity

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)
Rating: ★★½
Oct 19, 2002Dream-Invading Boogey Man
The fifth of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films offers up the same old thing but director Stephen Hopkins enters at an inspired level that transforms the set-pieces with a genuine weirdness

The Phantom of the Opera (1989)

The Phantom of the Opera (1989)
Rating: ★★★
Jan 6, 2003Disfigured Madman Beneath the Opera House/Time Travel
On the back of popularity of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and the Elm Street films, Robert Englund was cast in this version where the emphasis is on the slasher element, which works far better than you might think

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)
Rating:
Nov 1, 2002A Nightmare on Elm Street Sequel
The sixth of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films, sold with the gimmick of a 3D release. New director Rachel Talaly refuses to take the material seriously and turns the show into an absurd cartoon

Night Terrors (1993)

Night Terrors (1993)
Rating: ★★
Aug 22, 1999Sado-Sexual Games/Marquis De Sade's Descendant
Another example of Tobe Hooper's slight into mediocrity in the 1990s, an erotic thriller that features a madly overacting Robert Englund as the Marquis de Sade and an innocent being corrupted by his descendant in the modern day

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Rating: ★★★★
Dec 16, 2002Meta-Fictional A Nightmare on Elm Street Sequel
Seventh of the A Nightmare on Elm Street films where Wes Craven returns to direct the most remarkable of all the sequels, an extraordinary meta-fiction that takes place in the real world

The Mangler (1995)

The Mangler (1995)
Rating:
Mar 21, 2010Possessed Laundry Press/Stephen King Adaptation
The single worst Stephen King adaptation ever made. Director Tobe Hooper fails to approach the story of a possessed laundry press with the same drollness that King did and inflates it into something ridiculous

Urban Legend (1998)

Urban Legend (1998)
Rating: ★★½
May 9, 1999Slasher Film
Following the success of Scream, this was an attempt to make an upmarket slasher film based around the motif of urban legends in the same way that Scream used 1980s slasher films. It is a stretch to make urban legends fit in some cases but director Jamie Blanks delivers reasonable tension

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
Rating: ★★
Dec 2, 2003Friday the 13th/A Nightmare on Elm Street Crossover
The long promised crossover between the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street films, this seems caught in a juggling act that fails to satisfy the requirements of either franchise

2001 Maniacs (2005)

2001 Maniacs (2005)
Rating: ★★★
Nov 3, 2007Splatter/Southern Town of Maniacs
Eli Roth-produced remake of the Herschell Gordon Lewis splatter film Two Thousand Maniacs, this plants tongue in cheek, is fairly and squarely aimed at a frat boy audience and unapologetic about piling on copious amounts of gore and naked breasts

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
Rating: ★★★★
Mar 28, 2013Slasher Parody/Mockumentary
What starts out as a seeming mockumentary about a serial killer turns into an hilarious deconstruction of the tropes and cliches of the slasher film. Imagine a film like Man Bites Dog crossbred with Scream

Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer (2007)

Jack Brooks, Monster Slayer (2007)
Rating: ★★
Jun 3, 2013Horror Comedy
The way this film promotes itself, you go in expecting to see a horror comedy. Instead, we get a film that seems to spend half its running time in build-up with no comedy or monster slaying, although it does at least deliver on its initial promise with an entertainingly low-budget Evil Dead-styled climax

Strippers vs. Werewolves (2012)

Strippers vs. Werewolves (2012)
Rating:
Mar 2, 2013British Werewolf Comedy
Probably the next logical move after Zombie Strippers! Alas, where we should have had a fast, funny and sarcastic genre entry, the humour in this British entry becomes painfully belaboured in its constant unfunny efforts to get laughs

Fear Clinic (2015)

Fear Clinic (2015)
Rating: ★★
Feb 3, 2017Experimental Fear Treatment Opens Up Other Dimension
Film spun out from a web series. Robert Englund as a mad psychiatrist who creates a machine that helps people confront their phobias that somehow opens a doorway to creatures from another dimension

Kantemir (2015)

Kantemir (2015)
Rating: ★★½
Oct 24, 2016Cursed Play Takes Over Its Actors
Interesting effort about actors putting on a cursed play that comes to life and the characters start taking over the actors to replay events. That said, the idea is often stronger than its delivery as a horror film. Robert Englund in a rare non-villainous, non-over-acted lead role

Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019)

Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (2019)
Rating: ★★½
Jun 21, 2020Documentary About the Gay Subtext in A Nightmare on Elm Street II
A documentary that discusses the gay subtext in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part II: Freddy's Revenge and how lead actor Mark Patton claims it ruined his career

In Search of Darkness II: A Journey Into ’80s Horror Continues (2020)

In Search of Darkness II: A Journey Into ’80s Horror Continues (2020)
Rating: ★★
May 6, 2024Documentary About the 1980s Horror Film
A follow-up to the documentary about the 1980s horror film, this deals with some of the lesser-known and overlooked works that were not covered the first time around