History YMMV / ANightmareOnElmStreet

** Freddy's post-mortem killing spree being motivated by revenge in the first place. While Nancy's mother admits that she and the other parents killed Freddy to prevent him from getting away with his crimes, Freddy himself never brings this up as a reason for originally targeting Nancy and her friends, and later starts targeting unrelated groups of teens. If anything, he just seems to be continuing where he left off, rather than as some sort of outrage over his vigilante execution.

* CommonKnowledge: Combined with AdaptationDisplacement, many viewers refer to Freddy Krueger as a pedophile in the original continuity. While it was heavily implied and Wes Craven originally wrote him as such, the original films carefully referred to him as a child murderer with the remake being the film that used child molestation as part of his backstory.

* CompleteMonster: [[Characters/FreddyVsJason Freddy Krueger]]

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Freddy Krueger]]

* FirstInstallmentWins: First film is hailed as a horror classic. Opinions on the sequels vary.

** The third movie can be a tempting stopping point, given how the remaining films are all {{Contested sequel}}s to some degree and kill off still more well-liked survivors of earlier movies. Adding to this sentiment is how Creator/WesCraven had no involvement with any of the subsequent movies aside from ''Film/WesCravensNewNightmare,'' which is set in a different reality.

** ''The Dream Master'': The last good film in the franchise, with some of the most impressive and creative scenes in the franchise, in addition to introducing the great protagonist Alice? Or the first bad sequel, more interested in the visual effects show in telling a story, in addition to treating Freddy Krueger as a joke?

** The third movie can be a tempting stopping point, given how the remaining films are all {{Contested sequel}}s to some degree and kill off still more well-liked survivors of earlier movies.

* MoralEventHorizon: Freddy Krueger crosses the line when he murders his own wife for discovering he was the Springwood Slasher.

* CompleteMonster:

* CompleteMonster: In the original continuity, [[CardCarryingVillain Freddy Krueger]] is the dream-invading ghost of a [[WouldHurtAChild child murderer]], seeking to continue his [[SerialKiller spree]]. In life, he kept missing children's pictures of his victims in a scrapbook and posed as an unassuming, caring father before his wife discovered the truth; he then murders his wife with no hesitation. When he got off on a technicality, the people of Springwood lynched Freddy, at which point he makes a bargain with demonic forces to become, in his own words, "what nightmares are made of". He uses his newfound powers to find increasingly creative ways to torture and murder his dozens of victims for his own amusement by using their primal fears against them, all the while [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor cracking sick jokes]]; afterwards, he [[YourSoulIsMine harvests the souls of his victims]] and keeps them in a [[AndIMustScream hellish state]] within his body to draw their power. By the time of ''[[Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare The Final Nightmare]]'', Freddy's body count was in the hundreds, reducing Springwood to a child's graveyard and driving the adults into madness. He goes on to taunt a girl by appearing as her sexually abusive father, and even attempts to murder his own daughter Kathryn upon reuniting with her. Freddy makes it clear to Kathryn of his intent to continue his killing spree across the world until he runs out of victims, declaring "every town has an elm street." In ''Film/FreddyVsJason'', Freddy resurrects [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] from Hell and loosing him onto Springwood to spread fear in his name. Growing annoyed that Jason is killing those he wanted for himself, Freddy makes an attempt to kill his pawn; it's revealed he murdered Lori Campbell's mother and attempts to rape Lori herself in her nightmare when she tries to help Jason. Freddy is one of the few SlasherMovie killers with a distinct and talkative personality, and has always simply been a sadistic monster who extends his victims' suffering [[ForTheEvulz for its own sake]].
** He's just as bad in [[YMMV/ANightmareOnElmStreet2010 the remake]]. See that page for more details.

** Creator/RobertEnglund and John Saxon, who both played Freddy Krueger and Lt. Donald Thompson, had both played enemies of Franchise/WonderWoman in two-parter episodes of Creator/DCComics TV shows (Englund would voice Felix Faust in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', while Saxon had played a CanonForeigner as a Nazi Kreigsmarine officer in a two-part episode of ''Series/WonderWoman''). Both Englund's and Saxon's villain characters had the similar goal of invading Paradise Island/Themyscira and conquering Hippolyta and the Amazons for the island's resources.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: While you honestly can't blame the parents of Springwood for burning Freddy to death, this act of vigilantism ultimately allowed Freddy to become a powerful dream demon who would kill hundreds and by the end of the series, poses a global threat.

** The nursery rhyme about Freddy becomes more amusing when one realises how well it fits with Freddy ''Fazbear'' from VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys.

** Creator/RobertEnglund and John Saxon, who both played Freddy Krueger and Lt. Donald Thompson, had both played enemies of Franchise/WonderWoman in two-parter episodes of Creator/DCComics TV shows (Englund would voice Felix Faust in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', while Saxon had played a CanonForeigner as a Nazi Kreigsmarine officer in an episode of ''Series/WonderWoman''). Both Englund's and Saxon's villain characters had the similar goal of invading Paradise Island/Themyscira and conquering Hippolyta and the Amazons for the island's resources.

** Creator/RobertEnglund and John Saxon, who both played Freddy Krueger and Lt. Donald Thompson, had both played enemies of Franchise/WonderWoman in Creator/DCComics TV shows (Englund would voice Felix Faust in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', while Saxon had played a CanonForeigner as a Nazi Kreigsmarine officer in an episode of ''Series/WonderWoman''). Both Englund's and Saxon's villain characters had the similar goal of invading Paradise Island/Themyscira and conquering Hippolyta and the Amazons for the island's resources.

* BrokenBase: The first, third and seventh films are unanimously considered the best in the franchise by fans, while the sixth and remake are considered the worst. The fans really split and fight over the quality of parts 2, 4 and 5.

* OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: The installments with Creator/WesCraven's involvement tend to gather more praise from fans and critics.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Outside of primarily ''Dream Warriors'' and ''New Nightmare'', every one of the sequels receives a sizeable amount of dislike. It didn't help that they were rushed so they could come out every year or two (Nightmare 4's script had to be written in 7 days due to the writers' strike, and Nightmare 5's script was being written and rewritten on the fly during the shoots).

*** Speaking of ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Englund coincidentally worked won the same show as Creator/ClancyBrown, who voiced ComicBook/LexLuthor on the show and appeared in the 2010 remake.

** Creator/RobertEnglund and John Saxon, who both played Freddy Krueger and Lt. Donald Thompson, had both played enemies of Franchise/WonderWoman in Creator/DCComics TV shows (Englund would voice Felix Faust in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', while Saxon had played a CanonForeigner OneShotVillain as a Nazi Kreigsmarine officer in an episode of ''Series/WonderWoman''). Both Englund's and Saxon's villain characters had the similar goal of invading Paradise Island/Themyscira and conquering Hippolyta and the Amazons for the island's resources.

* {{Sequelitis}}: Outside of primarily ''Dream Warriors'' and ''New Nightmare'', every one of the sequels receives a sizeable amount of dislike. It didn't help that they were rushed so they could come out every year or two (Nightmare 4's script had to be written in 7 days due to the writers' strike).

* CompleteMonster: In the original continuity, [[CardCarryingVillain Freddy Krueger]] is the dream-invading ghost of a [[WouldHurtAChild child murderer]], seeking to continue his [[SerialKiller spree]]. In life, he kept missing children's pictures of his victims in a scrapbook and posed as an unassuming, caring father before his wife discovered the truth; he then murders his wife with no hesitation. When he got off on a technicality, the people of Springwood lynched Freddy, at which point he makes a bargain with demonic forces to become, in his own words, "what nightmares are made of". He uses his newfound powers to find increasingly creative ways to torture and murder his dozens of victims for his own amusement by using their primal fears against them, all the while [[EvilHasABadSenseOfHumor cracking sick jokes]]; afterwards, he [[YourSoulIsMine harvests the souls of his victims]] and keeps them in a [[AndIMustScream hellish state]] within his body to draw their power. By the time of ''[[Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare The Final Nightmare]]'', Freddy's body count had the hundreds, reducing Springwood to a child's graveyard and driving the adults into madness. He goes on to taunt a girl by appearing as her sexually abusive father, and even attempts to murder his own daughter Kathryn upon reuniting with her. Freddy makes it clear to Kathryn of his intent to continue his killing spree across the world until he runs out of victims, declaring "every town has an elm street." In ''Film/FreddyVsJason'', Freddy resurrects [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] from Hell and loosing him onto Springwood to spread fear in his name. Growing annoyed that Jason is killing those he wanted for himself, Freddy makes an attempt to kill his pawn; it's revealed he murdered Lori Campbell's mother and attempts to rape Lori herself in her nightmare when she tries to help Jason. Freddy is one of the few SlasherMovie killers with a distinct and talkative personality, and has always simply been a sadistic monster who extends his victims' suffering [[ForTheEvulz for its own sake]].

* JerkassWoobie: Freddy might have a sympathetic backstory, but his monstrous actions outweigh TheWoobie side, however.

* AwesomeArt: The poster art for most of the films are amazingly done (and pretty trippy).

* CompleteMonster: Freddy Krueger, known as the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast "Bastard-Son-Of-A-Hundred-Maniacs"]], is the dream-invading, SerialKiller antagonist of the franchise who was a [[WouldHurtAChild child killer]] ''before'' he became a ghost. He kept a scrapbook of the "Have you seen this..." pictures of his child victims [[{{Squick}} and licked them.]] After his death he makes a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with demonic forces]] to become, in his own words, "the stuff nightmares are made of." He uses his newfound powers to find increasingly creative ways to torture and murder his dozens of victims for his own amusement by using their primal fears against them, all the while cracking sick jokes. Then he harvests the teenagers' souls and keeps them in a perpetual AndIMustScream state inside his body to drain them for energy. Even in the utterly {{Narm}}-filled ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare,'' he had his moments, like when he taunts Tracy by appearing as her [[ParentalIncest sexually abusive father]] ("Give daddy some honey...no one has to know..."). By the end of that same film his bodycount is already numbering in the hundreds, as he has [[ChildlessDystopia turned all of Springwood into a children's graveyard]] and [[DrivenToMadness driven the adult survivors to madness]]. He makes clear his intent to continue his killing spree [[OmnicidalManiac until he simply runs out of victims]], since "every town has an Elm Street". Freddy is one of the few SlasherMovie killers with a distinct and talkative personality, and has always simply been a sadistic monster who extends his victims' suffering [[ForTheEvulz for its own sake]].