Welcome To Prime Time: Ranking The A Nightmare On Elm Street Films

Okay, we've done it.  A month of Freddy.  I hope you've enjoyed a month-long retrospective dedicated to one of my favorite cinematic villains of all time.  If you can't tell from my profile picture on this blog...I'm kinda  big fan of this series.  This franchise is one, unlike its contemporaries, that actually gets to sort of have its own story play out without dodging entries or starting fresh multiple times within the original canon.  Unfortunately it winds up being the one that had the worst of the remakes.  

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

1994

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes, John Saxon, Robert England, Wes Craven, Bob Shaye, David Newsom, Tracy Middendorf, Jsu Garcia, Tuesday Knight

Rated:  R

Screw your pass!

      ~Heather Langenkamp

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

1987

Director: Chuck Russell

Starring:  Robert England, Patricia Arquette, Heather Langenkamp, Jennifer Rubin, Craig Wasson, Ken Sagoes, Bradley Gregg, Ira Heiden, Laurence Fishburne, John Saxon, Priscilla Pointer, Dick Cavett and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Rated: R

Sorry kid, I don't believe in fairy tales

          ~Freddy Krueger

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare On Elm Street

1984

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: Robert England, Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Johnny Depp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia (credited as "Nick Corri"), Charles Fleischer, Lin Shaye

Rated: R

One, two Freddy's coming for you

Three, Four better lock your door

Five, Six grab your crucifix

Seven, Eight gonna stay up late

Nine, Ten never sleep...again...

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1997

Wow, another year that ends in 7 and another really difficult one to make cuts.  Big list that was hard to get down to 6.  The cuts like Fifth Element and the extremely underrated The Lost World sucked to do.  And I cut Gattaca because while I really loved that movie when I first saw it, I've owned it or never gone back to it because I'm afraid it might not hold up.  Yeah, I'm weird, but I really want to keep  my high from seeing it together.  This year I remember most because the Oscar race for Best Picture might have been the best and strongest I had ever seen.  Had Titanic not come this year, 3 of the other 4 nominees probably would have won Best Picture in any other year.  While I did see Titanic twice and it was deserving, I can't help that I liked 2 other films better, but that's me. 1997 is also notable as it was the year I was first able to see the Star Wars movies on the big screen and it was a fun and incredible 3 months when those 'Special Editions' were released.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1996

1996 turned out to be a difficult year to pick from for me.  It was also a pretty great year for comedy for me, unfortunately having to make the final cuts of Kingpin and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.  It sucks, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose.  Overall a pretty strong year for movies and the one that introduced me to the Coen Bros.  If young me would have told you about 1996 I would have been allllll about the Independence Day.  Its surprisingly a movie I never turn back to and am kind of afraid to do so.  But, in 1996, that movie and I had our time together and it was a good one.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1994

I remember following the 1994 Oscar race pretty closely.  It was a pretty high profile year from what I can remember.  And 12 year old Brandon had only seen Forrest Gump at the time of the race.  And little Brandon was really moved and affected by Forrest Gump.  Plus he was a Tom Hanks fan.  So, he was really rooting for that movie at the time and had a fantastic night watching that awards ceremony.  Well, in retrospect, older Brandon thinks the Oscars may have gotten this one pretty wrong.  But, its the one that's hot in the moment.  And sometimes, some movie are better off getting snubbed and not winning the award.  Movies that don't even get nominated become far more remembered and legendary more often than most Best Picture winners.  I still enjoy Forrest Gump, but I think maybe there was a better choice.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1984

This was a pretty damn good year in terms of having to weed films down.  It came down to being honest with myself.  Ultimately, Beverly Hills Cop was cut from this list as I hadn't picked up in forever until I did the retrospective this past summer.  The others on this list are ones I have seen countless times and have been with me for years and years and always jump with me from home video format to home video format.  1984 was a good year.  And, these films all hit the 30 year milestone this year.

Things Nobody Wants: SCREAM To Get An MTV Series

According to the Hollywood Reporter yesterday, it appears MTV will be sending a television version of the film franchise SCREAM into production.  If we want to be a bit inside baseball, this isn't the first SCREAM television program.  THE FOLLOWING, airing on FOX, is supposedly a reworked version of what Kevin Williamson had in mind for a 5th SCREAM film before the Weinstein's meddled and he quit SCREAM 4.  If you were ever wondering his why he quit or what his original intentions were for SCREAM 4 and you've seen THE FOLLOWING, you can kind of guess how the 4th installment was supposed to play out.