Nightmare on Elm Stree the best out of the 3? (1 Viewer)

[Eric Emma]

Yes the 3! I'm talking about Halloween, Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street... I enjoyed Halloween and Friday the 13th a lot but NoES is my favorite... I own the DVD set but I've only watched 1-5 so far... 1,3-5 I liked but did not like 2... I think Nightmare on Elm Street 1 is my favorite followed by 4... Anyone else an NoES fan?

 

[Matt Stone]

For me, it's Halloween...hands-down. The movie scared me as a child, and holds a special place in my heart

That's not to say that I don't love Nightmare...it's another fav. Just didn't scare me as much as Halloween. Of the Nightmare flicks, I like the first, followed by three, and New Nightmare. The others (aside from 2) have their good points, but on the whole I find them to be lacking in quality.

 

[Brian Kissinger]

An interesting question. I was most impressed with Halloween, and feel it is the superior of all the films and sequels. I would then move on to Nightmare on Elm Street. Funny thing is, when these movies and their respected sequels make it to the airwaves, I almost never watch them. However, I am drawn to all the Friday movies. Every time one is on, I always flip it on and watch at least part of it. As a matter of fact, I've caught part of Friday 2 probably at least five times in the last couple months.

 

[Eric Emma]

As a whole NoeS was a very good series imo... unlike Halloween which kind of fell a part and then the producers decided to start all over again...

 

[Scott Weinberg]

First question:

Of the three kings, I think Halloween is the better film by far. Second place easily goes to A Nightmare on Elm Street. Although the first few Friday the 13ths will always have a special place in my horror-freak heart, they're atrociously made in nearly every conceivable respect. I love 'em but they're cinematic junk.

Second:

I think the original Nightmare is absolutely the best entry. My next favorite would surely be New Nightmare. And aside from Dream Warriors, the sequels are not much more than FX shows and splatterfests. I love splattery FX shows, but it takes more than that to make a memorable movie. Plus I'm of the strong opinion that Freddy is awesome when he's scary and absolutely pathetic when he's funny.

 

[Ryan Wishton]

Ummm, lets see...

I think Nightmare on Elm Street was the best when it came to an original idea that was never done before... When Nightmare on Elm Street first came out, Freddy Krueger as well as the movie were very original... No one ever did a movie quite like it... I also feel this series has the most potential as far as what could be done with it... The series deals with dreams so that gives many options as to what direction to take it in... I would love to see an Elm Street movie with very good acting, adult characters, and a very huge budget... Can you imagine what you can do in Freddy Kruegers dream world with $100 million budget... It would be amazing... But, thats 99.9% never happening...

Halloween was good, but people refer to it as the first and best slasher... Being first is very important... You might not be the best, but being first has many advantages... The only reason why Halloween is so critically accepted as well as generally accepted IMO is because it was the first teen slasher to be hugely successful in America... If Halloween came out after the slasher boom started, most likely it would not be as accepted and would just be considered another typical slasher... Say it came out in 1984... Critics would dismiss it as a clinch movie... Psycho is a slasher and was done 18 years before... Also, Europe was doing slashers long before America started... Twitch of the Death Nerve is a good example on one from 1974 I believe... In fact, Friday the 13th Part 2 took some of the murders from this movie including the couple speared to the bed while having sex... Black Christmas was released 4 years previous to it and actually had a better script than Halloween IMO... There are also similar things about the 2 movies... For instance, you have 3 main girls... There was also more of a story to Black Christmas and more going on... The movie is also actually pretty clinch free for a movie from the 70's... For instance, the heroine was pregnant and not a virgin... The characters in general also seemed more with it and less annoying than those in Halloween... Linda for example in Halloween... The girl has worse acting talents than many other horror actresses...


Friday the 13th is a series that is both liked and hated... It had strange drawing powers back in the 80's... Even those who didnt care for the series watched them... Cory Feldman was cast in Goonies after Steven Speilburg saw him in a Friday the 13th movie... I actually dont mind the series... I dont hate it... I still watch certain parts once in awhile... I grew up in the 80's and 90's, so the series is a part of my generation... I dont like how they turned the series into a parody sideshow in later sequels though... The first 4 Fridays movies are generally hated by critics, but the audiences and the general people who used to pay to see movies took Jason way more seriously when he was just a mongaloid... It's when you turn the character into a zombie, send him to hell, and ship him off to Space to become Super Shredder that the character looses all credibility... Jason has had it the worst when it came to destroying his character... Although, after the whole Michael Myers and Busta Rhymes experience in H8, Michael is catching up losing his credibility as well...

It really is a shame...

 

[Matt Stone]

I still love watching the Friday the 13th flicks too. As I think I mentioned in another thread...on the 13th of last month (a Friday if you can believe it ), I got my wisdom teeth taken out. When I got home, I noticed TNN was running a Friday the 13th marathon...and that, combined with the immense amount of pain killers that I was taking, made for the greatest day of all time

Halloween scared the hell out of me, but the Friday movies never did. Therefore I watched a hell of a lot more of them as a kid. They rate as crummy burnt potato chips using the food analogy, but hey...sometimes I can really go for a burnt potato chip

 

[Eric Emma]

I believe after Freddy Vs. Jason, the ball-field going change! I hope Freddy Vs. JAson makes good money and then Freddy and Jason start making seperate films... In which we'll see good sequals

 

[Malcolm R]

I've always been partial to "Nightmare" over the other series. The original is the best, of course, but I also liked "New Nightmare" as well as parts 3, 4, and 5. Part 2 and "Freddy's Dead" were awful. I was always amazed the series survived past the mess that was Part 2.

 

[DAN NEIR]

Halloween is the best of the 3 in my opinion.
Nightmare is a close second but both are part of my all time horror favs. As far as rating the entire Nightmare series I'd say:
Part 1 Excellent
Part 2 Poor, one of the worst in the series
Part 3 Good but I don't like what happens to Nancy, a pet peeve of mind is when survivors of one horror movie get axed in the next one.
Part 4 Good but the same complaint again in regards to Kristen.
Part 5 Ok/Fair This one is a little off to me.
Part 6 Very mediocre/Bad Too much comedy, Freddy has become a clown
Part 7 Ok but not really a part of the nightmare series in my opinion
On the Halloween flicks
Part 1 Excellent/ A classic
Part 2 Ok but the guy playing Michael is just not as good
Part 4 Good I like the story and seeing Loomis back(note I don't count 3 because that's not a real Halloween flick)
Part 5 Good, it kinda falls under the same category as 4
Part 6 Offensive/Unbelievable bad, it's ashame this is Donald Pleasance's last one
H2O Good, I liked H20 and liked the return of Jamie Lee.
Resurrection ok It's a bit of a letdown when compared to the others, I didn't like what happened to Laurie and the whole internet thing was a stupid Blair Witch rip off
Friday the 13th
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 Jason really starts to take off here.
Part 4 One of the best in the series I think
Part 5 ok the lack of Jason hurts this one
Part 6 The best one in my opinion
Part 7 is ok but the psychic girl thing is kinda stupid
Part 8 is really bad,
Part 9 is a cheap The Hidden rip off
Jason X I kinda like. I like the killer on the spaceship movies.

 

[Matt Pelham]

I think Friday the 13th is the best of the "big 3", followed by Nightmare and finally Halloween which had a great first installment and a bunch of crappy worthless sequels.

 

[Damin J Toell]

I think Halloween is the best made film of the three, although I find A Nightmare on Elm Street to both more enjoyable and frightening. Friday The 13th, while perhaps a bit fun, is shameless exploitation that isn't particularly well-made or engrossing.

DJ

 

[Seth Paxton]

I prefer Halloween for artistic film quality and think it is sometimes underrated in that way, but Nightmare 1 always scared me a bit more and was a great horror film.

I actually disagree a bit with Scott on Friday 1 and 2 because while some aspects are certainly sloppy, I think the general script structure/story for both films is pretty good. Especially the twist ending for 1 and then how they played that into 2.

Halloween 2 isn't so bad since its really just like a body count continuation of the killing spree end of 1 (which wasn't all that bloody).

To me Nightmare went downhill the quickest by making Freddy too cartoonish almost right away. Its amazing how little he has to say in the first film which is one of the reasons he is so menacing.


Pretty much every other film in any of these series is crap, although at least Halloween 3 went for something interestingly different. It just might not have been such a good idea to call it H3.

 

[Andy Olivera]

Best film of all: Halloween

This would be a tough call if it weren't for ANOES's atrocious acting...

Best series: A Nightmare On Elm Street

Easily the most creative(right from the start). That alone makes it the winner...

Worst film of all: Freddy's Revenge

NOES2 is bad, though I think several of the F13 sequels match it(such as 5 & 8). You could probably add NOES6, too. I just can't get past how NOES2 managed to screw up such an excellent concept on only the second outing, so it wins...

Worst series: Friday The 13th

Is there really any doubt? It's the only series that didn't manage to produce one genuinely good film(4 & 6 came closest)...

 

[Brian Kissinger]

You know what I think they should do with the Friday series? Turn it into video games. Resident Evil and such games seem to go over really well. Think how cool a Friday the 13th video game could be. You could have two different modes. One where you are the hero trying to avoid death, and two where you are Jason and are trying to kill all the campers. You wouldn't need all that clever of a script as long as the gameplay is enjoyable, and you could ignore some of the wackier things the movies did (Toxic waste turns Jason back into a child? Jason in space?)

 

[Marvin Richardson]

Well, I'd say it breaks down like this:

Best Movie: Halloween
Best Series: A Nightmare On Elm Street
Worst Movie: Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers/Halloween: Resurrection/A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge/Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare/Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning/Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan/Jason X
Worst Series: Friday The 13th

All stars are out of 5

The Halloween series had 1 ***** movie (1), two *** movies (2, 7), three ** movies (3, 4, 5) and two * movies (6, 8).

The Nightmare series had one ***** movie (1) two **** movies (3, 7), two *** ones (4, 5) and two * movies (2, 6).

Friday the 13th had two *** movies (1, 4), two ** movies (2, 3) and six * movies (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

Pretty obvious to me which series wins. Nightmare is the best, followed by Halloween and then DISTANTLY followed by Friday the 13th.

So how does everyone think Hellraiser and Texas Chainsaw stack up? What about Psycho?

 

[Simon_Lepine]

I agree with most people here, Halloween was the best original film in the 3 series. I never found Nightmare to be scary, but still find the concept interesting and the first one was great and on average is probably the best serie. Friday is just trashy fun and ranks a distant third.

As for a Friday the 13th videogame, there was Splatterhouse, where you played someone looking like Jason, but it was politically correct, so you didn't kill people:

 

[Scott Weinberg]

There was also an actual Friday the 13th video game for the NES.

 

[Matt Stone]

Oooh, fear the Red X

I'm not sure which series I like more. Either Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street...it's a closey. I've always thought that Halloween 2 was a good sequel. Despite the crappy guy playing Michael Myers, the images of him stalking deserted hospital hallways are pretty striking. I also like Halloween 4 quite a bit. IMO a good horror film on it's own, not to mention the return of Sammy Loomis. The rest are pretty disposable for me. H2O is far from horrible, but it was nothing new.

As for Nightmare, like most others I really like 3 and 7.

So I have two series that have 3 really likable films. Hmm...choices, choices.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Oooh, fear the Red X

Sorry. They're fixed now.

Wise-ass!