MY TOP 5 FAVORITE HORROR FILMS!

I have loved the horror genre since before I had any actual thoughts and memories. What I do remember is that my older brother, Jason, introduced me to a ton of horror films that became my absolute favorites. That said, I went through a lengthy list of horror films that I know I’ve seen over the years in order to develop my own top five favorite horror movies.

It was a tough list to devise because there were stellar entries out there, some of whom would have made my top 10 or 20 to be sure. However, I’m pretty pleased with the films I chose and wanted to share my thoughts about them here with you.

Of course, I don’t think this is a definitive list. I don’t think there can be such a thing considering that movies are a subjective art form and everyone has their own list. In fact, I would love to hear about your favorite films in the comments below.

Now, let’s get to it…

5. SCREAM (1996)

I was finally at the right age to discover horror films on my own when this classic film originally came out. I actually rented the movie when I was visiting an aunt and uncle’s place and the first time a phone rang in the movie, my aunt and uncle’s phone rang at the exact same time and freaked me out.

For those who have been living under a rock for the past three decades, the movie follows Sydney Prescott as a masked killer begins to stalk her and her group of friends. The Ghostface Killer, as he would come to be known, would quiz the victim about horror movies and if the victim got the answer wrong, they died.

I loved “Scream” and became a life long fan of the series. What scared me the most about this movie was that it was about a psycho killer(s) that was stalking a group of teens. Ghostface wasn’t some zombie or ghoul. He was a deranged person with a morbid obsession with the horror genre.

The tagline for the movie, “Someone has taken their love of horror movies too far.” was perfect. The movie has a meta narrative where writer Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven break down and actually examine the effects the horror genre could possibly have on one’s psyche. The movie is also a fun mystery as you wonder who the killer is and why they are doing what they’re doing.

Of course, in the history of the horror genre, “Scream” also helped resuscitate the genre at the box office after it suffered during the first half of the 1990s. Many imitators such as “I Know What You Did Last Summer”, “The Faculty”, “Urban Cut”, and “Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later” emerged with hip young casts being stalked by a mysterious killer or entity. However, they all pale in comparison to “Scream” and I also heavily recommend that you check out what has been, for the most part, a pretty stellar horror series.

4. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS (1987)

The third film in the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” is my personal favorite in the series, so that’s why it made the list and not the original movie. To be honest, though, this film is on here in order to represent my favorite horror film series. Despite a couple of hiccups in the series, it was always great to see dream stalker Freddy Krueger back in another film.

Freddy is a serial killer who was burned alive only to come back as a heavily scarred monster in the nightmares of the children whose parents killed him. The twist here is that if Freddy kills you in your nightmares, you die for real. The first movie was written and directed by Wes Craven and it was inspired by a number of unrelated articles where young boys, usually refugees, claimed that if they fell asleep, they would die.

Sure enough, when these kids finally had to give in and go to sleep, their parents would find them dead the next day. The character of Freddy Krueger was inspired by an incident where, as a kid, Craven saw a man out of the window of his apartment late one night. The man looked straight up at him, smiled, and then proceeded to act like he was going to come into the apartment.

The reason the third film is on this list is due not just to being my favorite in the series. I feel that the third film is where the story hit the ground running and established where the series would go from that point on. The rules are firmly established unlike the previous film that was rushed into development, “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge”.

Beyond the second film and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child”, I would say that this series, ranging from true horror to black comedy, is pretty solid overall. I recently did a ranking of the films that can be found HERE.

3. THE THING (1982)

Back in the late '70s and early ‘80s, director John Carpenter was on the rise as a master of horror that started with the massive success of 1978’s “Halloween”. He had several projects in the works and this is the film… that destroyed them all.

“The Thing” is about a group of men at an Antarctic research outpost who come across an alien that can disguise itself as any living creature. This means that any of the men could actually be the alien and this leads to dissent and severe trust issues in a movie that was also commenting on the communist scare brought on by the Cold War at the time. It also has a rather nihilistic ending, which is why audiences and critics weren’t buying it at the time.

During its initial theatrical run, “The Thing” was up against not only a busy schedule at the box office, but ‘82 was also the year of “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, a film about a friendly alien. Nobody wanted to see the negative and gory alien featured in “The Thing”. After bombing at the box office, the movie cost Carpenter his contract with Universal and projects such as “Firestarter” fell out of his hands and he had to return to being an independent filmmaker.

Thankfully, audiences rediscovered the movie on home video and it began to thrive. With its fantastic setting, its original monster, and great special-effects to bring it to life, “The Thing” is now considered one of the greatest horror films ever made. I first saw it when the then Sci-Fi Channel showed it on TV in 2002 in order to promote a video game that acted as a sequel to the movie.

I loved the movie so much that I immediately went to Sam Goody and bought the DVD so I could watch it again unedited. I also bought the video game which, at the time, was a pretty decent survival horror game. In 2011, another film titled “The Thing” came out and its story was actually a prequel leading up to the events of the first movie.

The prequel has largely been forgotten, but despite some truly dodgy CGI, the movie is actually pretty good and, if you can find it, I recommend you check that out as well. Of course, nothing will compare to “The Thing”, a movie that has truly earned its status as one of the best horror films ever made.

2. THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)

Director Tobe Hooper and co-writer Kim Henkel created a dark and gritty masterpiece when they unleashed “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” upon the world. Gunnar Hansen’s Leatherface was the template for many more masked killers to come and Marilyn Burns’ Sally Hardesty set the trail for several other “final girls” to appear in horror movies.

The movie is not really as bloody as one might assume with a story about a family of cannibals terrorizing some young college students. The kills are more suggestive and your mind makes up the rest. The horror is also helped by the film’s almost documentary style filmmaking which makes it seem all the more real.

I was in high school when I first discovered the movie, which is a great time to be discovering horror classics by the way! At that time, there had only been three sequels, but soon there would be a whole slew of remakes, reboots, and direct sequels and prequels. To be honest, the only one I can recommend is “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2” from returning director Hooper because it’s at least a crazy horror comedy that’s worth it.

At the end of the day, none of the follow-up films could quite capture the gritty, low-budget feel of this truly original horror movie. It pushed the slasher up to a whole new level and inspired many other slashers that would soon dominate the genre in the ‘80s.

Now, it’s time for my number one favorite horror film of all time!

1. HALLOWEEN (1978)

While “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” definitely lit the fuse for the slasher movie powder keg, it was John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s “Halloween” that caused the explosion. The movie was made for only $300,000 but went on to gross over $70 million, primarily based on word-of-mouth.

The movie follows a group of high school teens that are being stalked by Michael Myers, a psychiatric patient that recently escaped from the hospital. He is being pursued by his doctor, Sam Loomis, but nothing can prepare them for Myers.

My brother first showed me this movie when I was young and it scared the living shit out of me. Michael’s pale and emotionless mask stuck with me long after the movie. Also, even though I know how this movie was made today, I still can’t quite escape an uneasy feeling when I watch the movie.

I think it’s not surprising at all that Jamie Lee Curtis became the definitive “final girl” and a bonafide Scream Queen. I also loved Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis, a man obsessed with finding and stopping Michael.

The movie has more of a moody and atmospheric tone to it than actual blood violence. Yet, by the end of the movie, you felt that you watched a massacre of epic proportions as Carpenter makes you use your imagination to fill in far more bloodier encounters.

Of course, this movie led to a massive movie franchise. I do like the immediate sequel, “Halloween II”. I love “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” as a film in its own right. I also love “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” though I do believe that “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” is trash and “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” at least tried to right the ship.

I think that “Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later” caps off a pretty decent trilogy by being a direct sequel to “Halloween” and “Halloween II”. I simply act like “Halloween: Resurrection” doesn’t exist and I was not a fan of Rob Zombie’s remakes, especially 2009’s “Halloween II”.

I did really enjoy director David Gordon Green’s most recent trilogy of films. I liked how they all had something different to say and that it had a definitive conclusion. 2018’s “Halloween” focused on long-term PTSD and is admittedly the best of the three, in my opinion. “Halloween Kills” is my least favorite as they go a little too heavy on the “mob justice” theme, but the kills are pretty great and I forgive a lot of its flaws.

Then, there’s “Halloween Ends”, the very divisive entry in the series that I think needs a strong re-evaluation. In fact, I just wrote a whole article about this movie and you can find that article HERE!

For me, the best of all the “Halloween” timelines is the H40 timeline. The first movie and Green’s trilogy is the best of the series. Although, and I know I’ve repeated this with the other films, the original movie just can’t be matched. There may have been some great sequels and some real stinkers in the series, but nothing can compare to Carpenter and Hill’s terrifying classic!

There you have it, that’s my personal top five favorite horror films. That concludes this article, but I’ll be back with something else soon. In the meantime, be safe out there this Halloween season and I’ll see you at the movies!

Why 'Halloween Ends' is Worth the Revisit!

WARNING: In this article, I’ll be discussing “Halloween Ends” and there will be SPOILERS, not just for this movie but the two “Halloween” films that preceded it. If you still have not seen the movie, I recommend you do that first before reading the following article. If you don’t care or you’ve seen the movie, then please proceed and I hope you enjoy the read!

In 2018, director David Gordon Green and fellow co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley rebooted the “Halloween” franchise with a direct sequel to the original film that was also simply referred to as “Halloween” (I’ll admit, I sometimes like to unofficially call it “Halloween Returns”). The movie was a massive success for Blumhouse Productions and distributor Universal Pictures, having grossed $259.9 million at the box office on a mere budget of $10 million.

The 2018 film saw the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and is set 40 years after the original movie. None of the countless sequels or remakes were a part of the canon. Therefore, Michael was captured that night in ‘78 and has been in a mental hospital ever since.

He is also not Laurie’s brother, something that had actually been established in ‘81’s “Halloween II”. Laurie has been trying to get past that night, but she still exists in survival mode, having fortified her home and upping her survival skills. This has strained her relationships with her daughter Karen Nelson and granddaughter Allyson.

In 2018, Michael Myers returned with a vengeance in "Halloween"!

On Halloween night, Michael is being transferred to another institution and escapes. He manages to find his way back to Haddonfield and the chase is on to see if Laurie can find Michael before he kills too many people.

The first movie in what I call the “H40 Trilogy” is a blast almost from start to finish. I remember watching in theaters and the final fight between Laurie and Michael was satisfying and it was fun seeing Laurie finally standing up to her monster and seemingly taking him down.

When the movie was a success, though, Universal and Blumhouse proudly announced not just one, but two more sequels! They also surprised fans by announcing that Curtis would return for both films as Laurie Strode.

The first film was 2021’s “Halloween Kills” and I won’t talk about that one as much except to establish that it takes place on the same night as the previous movie and that there is a big message about vigilante justice and mob mentality that is a bit much, but the kills are great. The movie is darker and has a surprise ending when Michael kills Laurie’s daughter, Karen.

I do enjoy “Kills” but must admit that I understand why the fans are more critical towards this entry. It also doesn’t help that Laurie is pretty much out of most of the action due to the injuries she sustained in the previous movie.

Myers returned once again in 2022 in "Halloween Ends"!

In spite of any criticisms people may have had about “Kills”, though, it pales in comparison to how much fans were divided over the third and final film in the trilogy, “Halloween Ends”, which came out the following year. The movie is set four years after the events of the previous two films and Michael pretty much just disappeared after that fateful Halloween in 2018.

In the new movie, Corey Cunningham is babysitting a boy on Halloween in 2019. When the boy starts playing around with Corey, the boy locks Corey into a closet. Not knowing that the boy is on the other side, he kicks the door open and the kid accidentally falls over the railing on the second floor and dies. While it is confirmed that it was just a freak accident, Corey is shunned by the residents of Haddonfield and it doesn’t help that this accident happened not only while he was babysitting but also on Halloween night.

Three years later, Laurie is trying to truly move on with her life. She is writing her memoir and living with Allyson. Meanwhile, Corey is still being bullied by Haddonfield’s residents and it is starting to take a toll on him. Even so, Allyson takes a liking to Corey and they begin to go out.

Unfortunately, Corey is still being bullied and soon, he becomes the very monster that the town is afraid of. Taking refuge in the sewers after an encounter with said bullies, Corey discovers that Michael Myers is alive and has been surviving in the sewers for the past four years. For some reason, Michael doesn’t just kill Corey and the two start a new killing spree together.

Rohan Campbell plays Corey Campbell, the target of Haddonfield's fear in "Halloween Ends"!

Thinking he can strike out on his own, Corey tries to take out Michael and steals his mask. The movie then focuses on Corey for a good chunk of the remaining runtime. Eventually, he decides to take out Laurie, but she gets the upper hand before the real Michael returns and kills Corey. Then, Laurie and Michael have their final fight in a kitchen that is brutal, but surprisingly short as Laurie once again gains the upper hand on her attacker.

This is when Laurie realizes the truth about Michael Myers. He is not evil incarnate, he is simply a disturbed man that has terrorized Haddonfield for far too long. She finally manages to slay her monster and she takes the body, along with Allyson and other Haddonfield residents, and they put Michael’s body into an industrial shredder, thus ending his reign of terror and giving the town a chance to finally move on.

When the movie came out in 2022, the critics were mostly against the movie and the fanbase was divided over the new direction of the movie. The critics didn’t like that the movie mostly focuses on Corey instead of Michael and they didn’t like that Green subverted their expectations.

I was on the other half of that and completely loved the movie! The fact that Green completely subverted any expectations was refreshing to me and he found a new way to look at the mythos around Michael Myers and the fear he spread throughout a traumatized Haddonfield.

Corey is an indirect product of Michael Myers. The residents fear him because he is too similar, in their minds anyway, to the terrible monster that went on a killing spree four years prior on Halloween. Over time, this has caused Corey’s mind to break as he feels he is alone and that no one is really there for him.

Ultimately, Michael and Laurie Strode have one last battle in "Halloween Ends"!

Now, I will say that if they had stuck with Corey as the new copycat Michael Myers until the end, I would have been let down if this was Laurie’s final battle with the Shape. But the filmmakers were wise and by the end of it, Michael is definitely back and the one that gets to square off with Laurie one last time.

Some people have complained about the final fight in the kitchen by stating that it’s too quick and Laurie gets the upper hand too soon. However, I disagree and think this is appropriate due to Laurie’s speech to Michael at the end that includes, “I’ve run from you. I have chased you. I have tried to contain you. I have tried to forgive you. I thought maybe you were the Boogeyman. No, you’re just a man who’s about to stop breathing.”

This is Laurie finally facing what Michael truly is: a psychopath that randomly targeted her in ‘78 and came back in a brutal way in 2018 when he once again escaped the hospital. He is not evil, he is flesh and blood… and he can be killed.

I’ve also heard people complain about the ending where they throw his ass into an industrial shredder. However, I think this is a great ending and I like the fact that Green definitively ends his trilogy. There is no cheesy ending to suggest that, somehow, Michael Myers will return.

By having Laurie and Allyson and the residents of Haddonfield give Michael an impromptu procession, they are finally letting go of the fear that this man has produced. It is a cathartic and satisfying conclusion to a story spanning over 40 years.

At the end of the day, if I’m going to watch more than one “Halloween” film beyond the classic original, I now prefer to watch it with the H40 trilogy. I feel that these sequels not only successfully continued the series but gave it a proper conclusion.

I am aware that not everyone will be satisfied with these films. All three have their detractors that will never change their minds and that’s fine. I just feel that if enough people would revisit this trilogy, in particular “Halloween Ends”, then they may end up reassessing the trilogy and realize that Green and co. did a great job of finally giving us a decent “Halloween” series.

THE 2025 HORROR MOVIE MARATHON SPECTACULAR! - "The Substance" (2024)

This is the first horror movie that I went into blind this October. I didn’t get to catch this movie when it was released last year. Thankfully, I’ve managed to avoid any spoilers about the movie and I’m glad I did as this is an audacious body horror comedy that I now regret missing last year.

Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a now 50-year-old former film star that is dismissed from her aerobics TV show by a truly diabolical producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), due to her age. After falling into a depression and getting into a car accident, she learns from a nurse of a mysterious black market drug known only as the Substance.

The Substance promises a younger, more perfect version of whoever takes it. Elisabeth takes the drug and soon after, she splits into another person that names herself Sue (Margaret Qualley). There are certain catches here as Sue can only be active for seven days before she must switch her consciousness back into Elisabeth and vice versa.

Demi Moore plays the self-doubting Elisabeth in "The Substance".

Sure enough, Sue becomes the newest, hottest woman on television after Harvey hires her for a new show to replace Elisabeth. Unfortunately, Sue starts to get mad that she doesn’t have more time and begins to let Elisabeth stay down longer than the seven days, thus stealing more of Elisabeth’s life force.

From there on is a wild journey where Elisabeth’s decline both physically and mentally clashes with a more and more aggressive Sue. The David Cronenberg-inspired body horror is imminent.

Of course, as we know now, Moore was nominated for an Academy Award and deservedly so. This may be her best character yet as Elisabeth deals not just with her own self-doubt but also the societal pressures that are put on women that makes that self-doubt even worse. I’m sure Moore, a veteran in the industry, was able to add her own personal experiences to the role and not only was she deservedly nominated for an Oscar, I’m fairly certain that she should have won.

Margaret Qualley plays Sue, a supposedly more beautiful version of Elisabeth, in "The Substance".

It’s no secret that one of Hollywood’s darker aspects is how fast they are willing to kick out women just because they may not make the cover of a magazine anymore or that they can no longer play the smoldering sex symbol.

Throughout the movie, there are focused shots on the female body as either Elisabeth or Sue dance during their shows that also puts a focus on the toxic male gaze. Quaid represents the worst of this theme as one of the slimiest characters I’ve seen in a long time that is sadly only a moderate exaggeration of some real producers in Hollywood. I’ll just put it this way and say that I don’t think it’s any coincidence that his character’s name is Harvey.

Moore isn’t the only one who turns in a dynamite performance here. Qualley is equally up to the task as Sue, a younger and seemingly more beautiful version of Elisabeth. Soon, after she gains success, she becomes addicted to the lifestyle and never wants it to end and makes choices that may not be so wise for either her or Elisabeth. I think Qualley was sort of snubbed by the awards shows as well.

As the movie progresses, it becomes intentionally more satirical and even more darkly comic as it addresses its feminist themes. I will say, though, that at two hours and twenty one minutes, I did feel that the movie was a tad too long and that it definitely dragged in a couple of places. Also, there were a couple of visual-effects that I think didn’t work quite as well, especially when compared to the extraordinary practical effects makeup that definitely earned the film its Best Makeup and Hairstyling award for Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli.

In spite of a few blemishes, though, “The Substance” is a nail-biting satire of how women are treated in the industry, especially on how they are treated when they age. Elisabeth is still a beautiful woman at the beginning of the movie, but she’s made to feel like she’s somehow deformed due to the influences of those around her.

Sadly, this leads her to make a decision that makes that self-doubt a brutally gory reality. It also makes this one of the best body horror films ever made.

THE 2025 HORROR MOVIE MARATHON SPECTACULAR! - A Look Back at "Nightmare on Elm Street"!

Believe it or not, even though the horror genre ruled in the 1980s, by the mid-80s the genre was already starting to show diminishing returns at the box office. This is one of the reasons that Paramount, for example, attempted to end the “Friday the 13th” series in ‘84 with “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter”.

However, little did audiences know that they were about to be introduced to a villain that would not only blow up the box office, but would bring new life to the genre. That creation was Freddy Krueger, a badly burned psycho killer who stalks teens in their nightmares as revenge to their parents who murdered him when he was alive.

Created by writer and director Wes Craven, the original movie spawned a massively successful series that also put a small distribution studio called New Line Cinema on the map. People at the studio accurately and affectionately referred to New Line as “the house that Freddy built.”

Down below, I’m going to give my brief thoughts about the main series and rank them from my least to best favorite films in the series. I am omitting the 2010 remake because… well… I don’t want to talk about that one. Anyway, let’s get started!

8. “A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD” (1989)

It was pretty obvious with the release of this movie that the people behind the scenes had run out of steam and ideas. There’s a couple of cool sequences, but overall, the gothic tone set by director Stephen Hopkins just doesn’t feel like a “Nightmare” film though it was good to see Lisa Wilcox back as Alice from “The Dream Master”.

The story of Freddy invading the dreams of Alice’s unborn baby was just a little too weird for me as well. I give it props for being original in a sense by this point in the series, but it just never really takes off.

Every time I’ve watched this movie, I’ve tried to enjoy it but I think it suffers from being that one thing that is the absolute worst thing a horror film can be: it’s boring.

7. “A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE” (1985)

This is a weird sequel and not one that I’m particularly fond of because it feels so out of place in the series. This was a quick cash grab sequel before the writers established the rules in the next entry that the series would follow.

The story is about a boy being possessed by Freddy so that Freddy can return to the real world, which makes no sense because he has more power in the dream world and is basically mortal in our world. The sequence at the pool party, Englund looked so much shorter than any of the teens and it’s probably the biggest time where Freddy looked his weakest.

It’s not my least favorite film in the series but it comes close. There are some good scenes including one where Freddy is literally cutting himself out of the main character’s body and the movie does have this weird sense of charm for being New Line’s first attempt to carry on the story. Unfortunately, the story had no real solid direction and this entry is often hard for me to rewatch when I revisit the series.

6. “FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE” (1991)

New Line decided to give the series a brief break when they released “Freddy’s Dead” in 1991. The resulting movie is maybe a little bit too silly even for a “Nightmare” movie but you can tell that everyone involved seemed to be having fun. The only other thing that hinders the movie is that the filmmakers attempted a cheesy 3D ending that does not work at all and ends the series on an anticlimactic note.

In the movie, Freddy has killed all of the kids in Springwood and needs to move on to new territory. He uses the last remaining teenager in town, John Doe, in order to get to a woman named Maggie in order to accomplish his mysterious plans.

One thing that I do love about this movie was that there are a few clever kills. One, in particular, involves using a teen as a character in a video game and another sinister moment involves Freddy picking on a partially deaf teen by screwing with his hearing aid.

I must admit that while this is a heavily flawed entry into the series, I have fun watching this movie and if it didn’t have the cheesy 3D ending, it maybe would be even higher on my list.

5. “A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER” (1988)

Riding high off the success of “Dream Warriors”, director Renny Harlin took the reins for the fourth film and delivered a solid sequel with fantastic kills and a good story surrounding our new protagonist, Alice. The movie is only a step down from the third film due to refocusing more on one character instead of giving us a group of teens that will work together to try and take down Freddy.

In the movie, the remaining Dream Warriors discover that Freddy isn’t quite dead yet and that he is regaining his strength after his supposed demise in the third film. Before he can get to Kristen (played by Tuesday Knight this time around), she passes on her ability to pull others into her dreams to Alice Johnson. This means that Freddy can now get to new teenagers through her now that the remaining Elm Street kids are gone.

What Freddy doesn’t expect is that Alice’s dream power is that she can absorb other the other teen’s powers after they die. This leads to an epic showdown between Freddy and Alice that leads to one of my favorite conclusions in any of the “Nightmare” films.

Englund is once again at the top of his game and Lisa Wilcox is great as Alice, a character that has easily become a fan-favorite character over the years.

For me, this was actually my favorite when I was younger, though that shifted as I got older. This was definitely the last film to come out during the series’ prime and at the height of Freddy Krueger’s popularity.

4. “FREDDY VS. JASON” (2003)

For years, New Line and Paramount wanted to make a “Freddy vs. Jason” movie, but they could never figure out the finances or how to split the profits. Eventually, Paramount sold the rights to the character of Jason Voorhees to New Line and a film could finally be made. Yet, in the early ‘90s, the horror genre wasn’t exactly hot at the box office and several attempts to write a script put the movie into development hell.

Eventually, though, writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift wrote a fun script brought to bloody life by “Bride of Chucky” director Ronny Yu. In the movie, the adults in Springwood have successfully made the teenagers forget Freddy Krueger and, as a result, he has no power over them in their dreams. Searching the depths of Hell, Freddy discovers Jason and revives him so he can head to Springwood and spread fear amongst the teens once again.

Freddy regains his powers, but is pissed when Jason won’t stop killing the teenagers that are supposed to be his victims. He soon realizes that he’s gonna have to take Jason down in order to continue his own path of destruction. The result is a film that has some great action and good dark humor as the movie never aims to take itself seriously. It just wants these two pop culture horror icons to have some fun and they most certainly do.

The movie is a fun mashup that has both dumb kids for Jason to dispatch and a smart main cast that teams up to try and figure out Freddy’s plan and how to stop him. I will say that the story is more of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” film with a heavy focus on Freddy that also guest stars Jason Voorhees.

This movie is a blast from start to finish and that’s all it has to be. I really enjoy this entertaining match-up that finally got to see the light of day after years of development.

3. “WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE” (1994)

Writer and director Wes Craven returned to ring in the 10th anniversary of the series with a new take on the material. The story suggests that a great and ancient evil had been trapped in the character of Freddy when the series was popular and while New Line was making new films. 

Now that the films are over, this entity is keeping Freddy’s form and trying to break into a real world where people like Craven, Heather Lagenkamp, and Robert Englund play fictionalized versions of themselves with Freddy trying to take out Lagenkamp due to her playing Freddy’s original nemesis, Nancy Thompson.

This is once again Craven being an original horror creator and finding something new to say with the then long-running series. The meta storyline was also his first attempt to make a comment on a genre that he helped define in the ‘80s, something that he would continue to do in ‘96 when he released “Scream” and kick started a whole new horror explosion.

This is a heavily underrated entry in the series that came and went from the box office. Thankfully, I am glad to see that it has gained more fans over the years. It’s a solid entry not only in the series, but also in Craven’s own filmography.

2. “A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET” (1984)

The first movie is dark and gritty and while Freddy does have some sarcastic wit as he terrorizes his victims, the horror is pretty straightforward. Robert Englund is so great as he introduces us to Freddy, a character that doesn’t just silently stalk and take out his prey like other horror movie villains of the day.

Today, everyone in the world knows who he is, but in ‘84, this was one of the most original creations to hit the horror scene. In the movie, Nancy Thompson and her friends are being terrorized by an evil entity in their sleep. Nancy soon discovers that it’s the evil spirity of Freddy Krueger, a man who was burned to death by Nancy and her friends’ parents.

The only thing that Nancy and her friends can do is stay awake because if they fall asleep and Freddy kills them in their nightmares, they die for real. Knowing she can’t fight against sleep forever, Nancy decides to take matters into her own hands and bring the fight to Freddy.

There’s not really much more that I can say about this original masterpiece. If by chance you’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor and check it out and if you have, you may be due for a rewatch for this creepy Halloween season.

1. “A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS” (1987)

With a story from Craven and Bruce Wagner and written by director Chuck Russell and writer Frank Darabont, this series finally found the right amount of both horror and dark humor that would carry on for the rest of the series. Craven and Wagner established that the kids would have to work together to stop an increasingly stronger Freddy while Russell and Darabont added the extra humor.

In the movie, a group of teens are in a mental institution after having faced off with Freddy in their nightmares, but the adults just think that they’re crazy. That is until survivor Nancy Thompson arrives as a new staff member. She knows that they’re telling the truth and has to band them together along with Kristen Parker, a smart teen who has the ability to pull people into her dreams.

Soon, the kids realize that they all have their own dream powers, but the question is if it’s enough to take on Freddy, a character who has grown stronger due to having absorbed the souls of those he has killed. What follows is an absolute banger of a horror film with several unique kills and witty one-liners from Krueger

This is easily my favorite entry in the series thanks to Langenkamp’s return, solid direction and special-effects, a cast of characters that I actually care about, and a very game Englund that took Freddy to the next level and solidified his status as a pop culture horror icon and the king of 1980s horror films.

THE FUTURE?

Okay, so I’ll talk about the remake for a second. After “Freddy vs. Jason” came out in 2003, the series went dormant for a few years. During the 2000s, it was popular to remake or reboot horror film series so it was really no shock that they remade “A Nightmare on Elm Street” in 2010. This time, Jackie Earle Haley took on the role of Freddy and to his credit, he did give his version of Freddy his own spin but I just wish he’d been in a better movie.

In reality, it’s not the worst remake out there but I wish New Line Cinema had the balls at the time to move forward with the remake’s original twist. Originally, the script was going to reveal that Freddy Krueger was innocent and wrongly accused and murdered by the parents of Springwood and that he was genuinely a vengeful spirit seeking revenge. However, at the last minute, the studio had the filmmakers renege on the twist.

While the remake was definitely not a box office failure (it made $117 million on a $35 million budget), the reception by the fanbase and the critics caused New Line Cinema to pause the series once again. After “The Conjuring” was released in 2013, New Line suddenly had a new and successful horror universe and Freddy wasn’t really needed.

It also didn't help that legal issues over the rights have been an issue as well. The Wes Craven estate retrieved the rights to the franchise in 2019, so it's not exactly sure what New Line could do with the franchise unless they made a deal with the estate. So, for now, the series remains in limbo.

Over the years, Robert Englund stated that he’d be willing to don the make-up one more time, but even more recently, Englund has started to tell fans that he’s just too old to play the part again. This means that if the series does come back, someone else will have to fill Freddy’s clawed glove and that’s still a tall order for any actor as this role is still synonymous with Englund.

To be honest, I’m not really interested in New Line revisiting this series as I still think the original series we got is a blast to this day! On the other hand, I know that a studio can never let a good IP rest for long, so all I’ll say is that I hope they get someone who can do something original with the idea while keeping the spirit of the original series alive.

In the meantime, you’ll have to excuse me. It’s primetime, bitch, and I have some “Nightmare” movies I need to revisit once again!