A Nightmare on Elm Street poster

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Gatekeeper Strong in semis, fades in finals
1984 · Horror · Wes Craven

48% overall puts A Nightmare on Elm Street near the middle of the pack. The round data tells a sharper story: strong in semis, a different film in finals. Freddy Krueger is horror's great showman — charismatic where other slasher villains are silent, funny where they're mechanical. That personality makes this an unusually persuasive pick in a bracket full of more "serious" horror, because fun is a legitimate reason to choose a film. At 0.7s average, voters don't deliberate — this is an instant reaction, not a considered choice.

Synopsis

Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop's daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers' children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world...

Round 1
51.4%
147/286
Semifinals
63.9%
Where it thrives
Finals
10.6%
The ceiling

64% in the semis, 11% in finals. A Nightmare on Elm Street doesn't just struggle in the final — it barely registers. The round that should crown a champion exposes a film that isn't one.

Night Always Comes is the nearest thing to a true rival at 47%. The margin is slim and the outcome still feels unsettled. The extremes tell a clear story — 100% against Tin Soldier at one end, 0% against The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the other.

Closest Rival
BingeBracket Record
48%
Win Rate
#15 of 33 in Horror #9 of 20 from the 1980s
Scores based on real fan votes in head-to-head brackets. 50% = wins as often as it loses — perfectly average.
Featured Tournament

Featured in All Time Horror Classics.

Cast your vote.

A Nightmare on Elm Street #1
Halloween #2
The Shining #3
The Exorcist #4
Rosemary's Baby #5
Hereditary #6
Psycho #7
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre #8
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About These Rankings

BingeBracket ranks films through head-to-head matchups in 8-film brackets — no star ratings, no reviews, just direct comparison. Browse tournaments, try Discovery mode, or explore the leaderboards. You can also .