Summary

• The Nightmare On Elm Street franchise began in 1984 and includes nine movies, with Freddy Krueger haunting teens in their dreams.
• Success of the franchise in the '80s and '90s was largely due to Robert Englund's iconic portrayal of Krueger.
• Remembering the franchise's viewing order can be challenging after nine movies, but streaming services make it easy to catch up.

The Nightmare On Elm Street franchise includes nine movies, which has prompted some viewers to wonder what order these installments take place in. A Nightmare On Elm Street proved a huge hit when director Wes Craven’s iconic slasher horror movie was released in 1984. The story of a serial killer who returned from the dead to haunt the children of his murderers from beyond the grave, A Nightmare On Elm Street’s scariest innovation was its villain. Freddy Krueger was a dream demon who attacked the heroes in their sleep, meaning the franchise’s teens weren’t safe anywhere.

The Nightmare On Elm Street movies have remained one of the biggest slasher franchises thanks to the success found in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Robert Englund’s unforgettable Krueger went down in horror history as one of the sub-genre’s most memorable monsters, inspiring countless parodies and imitations in the years after the original movie’s success. Freddy's distinct scarred visage and his killer one-liners made it so that audiences continued to have an interest in seeing more movies involving him. However, the series' chronology can be easy to forget or misunderstand after nine movies.

The Nightmare On Elm Street Movies In Release Order

Nightmare On Elm Street Movies Released Between 1984 And 2010

The Nightmare On Elm Street movies began in 1984 with A Nightmare On Elm Street. This sleeper hit marked the beginning of an impressive run where six movies came out in the span of only eight years. This began with the often misjudged A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge coming a year later, and then a rare gap taken as A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors epitomized the potential of the franchise by leaning into its outlandish elements. The next two sequels continued this approach, but to diminishing returns, as Dream Warriors secretly ruined the franchise.

The critically abhorred outing effectively killed any lingering interest in the franchise until original director Wes Craven returned.

Freddy was reduced to spouting corny quips and killing celebrities during ill-advised cameos by the time Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare arrived. The critically abhorred outing effectively killed any lingering interest in the franchise until original director Wes Craven returned. New Nightmare preceded Scream’s meta-takedown of slasher tropes but failed to set the box office alight. The franchise then sought reinvention through the slasher showdown Freddy Vs Jason, only for Kreuger to remain inactive until the Nightmare On Elm Street remake. This is the correct viewing order for when each Nightmare On Elm Street movie came out.

A Nightmare On Elm Street

Released In 1984

While the chronology of the series is a little choppy later on, the series definitively begins with 1984’s original A Nightmare On Elm Street. This slasher sees Heather Langenkamp’s Nancy Thompson try to work out the identity of the monstrous figure haunting her dreams as he kills off her friends. John Saxon plays Nancy’s father, while a young Johnny Depp plays her love interest. The movie features some of the most iconic imagery from the franchise, like Freddy's tongue coming through the phone, or Depp's character being swallowed by a bed.

With a 91-minute runtime, A Nightmare On Elm Street earned a whopping $57 million upon release. It is also now regarded as a slasher classic, even if it doesn't exactly satisfy the slasher trope of a masked man stalking the main characters with its many supernatural elements.

A Nightmare on Elm Street is available to stream on Netflix.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge

Released In 1985

1985’s A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge sees its hero Jesse move into Nancy’s old house but otherwise bears no relation to the preceding movie. The only reason the audience knows that it must come after the first movie is that Nancy's family isn't living in her house. Bizarrely, Freddy barely invades any dreams in the sequel, instead just possessing Jesse as though the movies were ghost stories.

At 87 minutes, A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge is one of the franchise’s shorter outings and one of its less successful movies, with a box office of only $30 million. The simplest explanation is that the audience missed the character they had grown to know in the first movie and had been hoping for Nancy to have a large role.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

Released In 1987

At 96 minutes, A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors was a return to form for the series. Set several years after the first movie, this outing saw Nancy return as an adult psychiatrist treating a group of patients who were picked off by Freddy. This sequel introduced the premise of "Dream Warriors," characters who could use their own dream powers to defeat Freddy. One is Kristen, played by Patricia Arquette, whose mother has her admitted to the psychiatric hospital when Freddy injures Kristen in her sleep, and her mother thinks she's hurting herself.

Kristen actually has the ability to bring others into her dreams. Though the premise might seem outlandish to some, it fits perfectly in line with Freddy Kreuger, a demonic entity who uses people's dreams to attempt to cross over into the real world. Bringing in a new generation of teens with new abilities, but maintaining a connection to Nancy is exactly what the audience wanted in a sequel. With a box office of $44 million and better reviews than its predecessor, the outing firmly brought the franchise back on track.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is available to stream on Netflix.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

Released In 1988

Director Renny Harlin took over after the third outing and A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master picked up only one year after the previous movie’s ending, bringing back numerous characters from its predecessor. Kristen passes the torch to one of her friends as she and her fellow dream warriors fall victim to Freddy. However, A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master’s plot was a little more threadbare as Freddy simply started killing victims at random after getting his revenge on the Elm Street families.

Although the sequel’s fast-paced 93-minute runtime features the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise’s best nightmare, long-time franchise fans might believe this one still didn’t deserve its massive $49 million box office. According to a 1988 issue of Cinefantastique, Wes Craven pitched a different idea for this sequel but was turned down by New Line Cinema.

A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

Released In 1989

This sequel takes place not long after the fourth movie and saw Lisa Wilcox return as Alice Johnson, one of the franchise’s most resilient Final Girls. However, A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child’s story was a disappointing mashup of earlier, stronger outings for a lot of fans. It brought some of Freddy's family history, which had been hinted at in previous installments, to the screen, and continued the story of Alice from the fourth movie. The movie saw Freddy using Alice's unborn child to attempt to bring himself back to life.

Despite that being very low for the franchise, it was still the highest grossing slasher of 1989.

After the disappointing reception of A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, it is no surprise that A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child earned only $22 million at the box office. Despite that being very low for the franchise, it was still the highest grossing slasher of 1989.

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare

Released In 1991

Set ten years in the future, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare had few canon connections with the earlier movies and mostly focused on an all-new cast that proved to be full of forgettable characters. The movie attempted to expand Freddy's lore by revealing his daughter and connection to the "dream demons" that give him power in people's nightmares. It was also supposed to be the final installment of the franchise, as New Line Cinema had other franchises the studio wanted to focus on.

1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare was something of a comeback for Krueger in financial terms, earning $35 million upon release. However, the movie was a major letdown for fans who loved the original movie. Some fans were ready to let the franchise go, but there are still more Nightmare on Elm Street movies in order.

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

Released In 1994

Released in 1994, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare saved the franchise, but it was the first movie to mess up the franchise timeline. Wes Craven finally returned to the franchise as director and made a story about Freddy attacking his real-life creator, Heather Langenkamp, and even Robert Englund, a trippy meta-joke that meant this entire movie took place outside of the franchise’s timeline. In reality, it only needs to be watched after Heather Langenkamp's appearances in the franchise to make sense, but the movie is clearly dated as taking place in the early '90s.

With a beefed-up runtime of 112 minutes, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare found critical acclaim but disappointed at the box office by earning just shy of $20 million. It did, however, renew interest in the franchise and paved the way for more meta takes in horror. Scream would hit theaters in 1996 and change the slasher genre forever, but it was certainly primed by the likes of this Nightmare installment.

Freddy Vs Jason

Released In 2003