One, Two . . . How to Watch the A Nightmare on Elm Street Movies in Order

How do you watch the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies in order?

The fedora-rockin’, dream-dwelling slasher Freddy Krueger feeds off of your fear—but he might leave you alone if you stay up late watching his movies.

To help you test our hunch, we’ve prepared this guide on how to watch the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies in order. (Super)naturally, we can’t guarantee your Freddy binge-watch will work, but it (usually) doesn’t hurt to try.

Now let’s countdown to your Freddy-movie marathon: 1, 2, Freddy’s comin’ for you / 3, 4, better lock your door / 5, 6, grab your crucifix / 7, 8, better stay up late / 9, 10 . . . never sleep again . . . 

Jump to:

• What are the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies?
• Watch the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies in order
• How to rent or buy the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies
• How to watch Freddy’s Nightmares

In 1984, at the end of the slasher era, Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced to the world Freddy Krueger—the wisecracking, dream-squatting slasher with a sinister sense of humor, dirty fedora, all-scar complexion, green-and-red sweater, knives for fingers, and control of your dreams.

We were already afraid of the dark, of things going bump in the night, of silent stalkers waiting around corners with machetes. Freddy brought a new danger: If you fall asleep, you enter the Dreamworld, Freddy’s territory, where  can manipulate and torment us before raking our flesh with his bladed glove (among other things).

• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 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 5: The Dream Child (1989)
• Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

• Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
• Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
• A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
• Extra Freddy: Elm Street documentaries
• Extra Freddy: Freddy’s Nightmares TV series (1988–1990)

If you’ve seen A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), you recall the first time you saw Freddy’s dumpster-fire face, heard his metal claws scraping metal pipes, or heard his gleeful taunts and sneering snicker as he toyed with victims. If you haven’t seen writer-director Wes Craven’s classic supernatural slasher movie, well now you know some of what to expect.

Some say A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge is bad. Others say it’s comically bad. But most people say it’s all of the above, but mostly remarkable for its gay subtext, which is so obvious that you might as well swap out “subtext” for “plot.” Jack Sholder (Alone in the Dark, The Hidden) directs.

In the third Elm street film, Freddy’s back and armed with even more razor-sharp one-liners (and, of course, the glove). Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), the original film’s final girl, is back too—and so is series creator Wes Craven, who opted out of participating in Freddy’s Revenge. And there’s a totally bitchin’, hot-as-fire theme song courtesy of ’80s hair farmers Dokken. Directed by Chuck Russell (The Blob remake, upcoming Witchboard remake).

In Renny Harlin’s (Die Hard 2, The Strangers: Chapter 1) The Dream Master, some of the Dream Warriors, no longer patients at the Westin Hills mental hospital, return. Through them, we meet a new final girl, Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox), who fights Freddy in this movie and the next.

A year after the events of The Dream Master, Alice is pregnant and Freddy has a new strategy: Using her unborn baby’s dreams to get to Alice and her friends. Directed by Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, Lost in Space).

Rachel Talalay (Tank Girl) directs this “final nightmare” that wasn’t final, but was a nightmarishly bad father-daughter face-off. (Yes, that means Freddy Krueger the child killer has a daughter.)

Wes Craven returned to write and direct this sixth Elm Street sequel, where things get meta for the cast and crew of all the previous Elm Street films. A scarier, less funny Freddy, it seems, has found a way to get to them in real life.

Nobody in Springwood fears Freddy anymore. To cure his impotence, FK raises Jason Voorhees from the dead, poses as the Friday the 13th axe man’s late mother, and convinces Jason to kill for him. Directed by Ronny Yu (Bride of Chucky).

This remake—music video and commercial director Samuel Bayer’s only feature-film credit—goes for a scarier Freddy. To that end, Bayer cast Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen, The Bad News Bears) in the role, eschewed Freddy’s trademark wisecracks, and changed the character’s makeup to more closely resemble a burn victim. Meh.

The four-hour Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010) spans the entire series and features interviews Elm Street creator/director Wes Craven, all six sequel directors, and many of the actors (no Johnny Depp or Patricia Arquette, though—bummer).

Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street focuses on A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge star Mark Patton and the film’s gay subtext.

Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story is all about the man who originated the role of Freddy Krueger and played him in every sequel (but not the 2010 remake).

Freddy’s Nightmares, like Friday the 13th: The Series, is an anthology series. Unlike the Friday series, the main villain is actually in it—mostly to introduce episodes. Freddy Krueger does, however, appear in some of the stories. It’s too bad, though, that Freddy’s Nightmares is hard to find on streaming services or even on disc. We’ve seen the show on Screambox and Tubi before, but it’s not even on YouTube now. Hopefully, that’ll change soon.