Whenever Halloween rolls around, fans love to dig out the boxed sets of their favorite horror franchises. Marathons of long-running horror franchises is a blast, whether you're an old school Karloff fan or into the Saw or Conjuring series. However, many fans fall back on two of the great long-running horror franchises: Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street.
Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger competed for fans long before they ever crossed paths in Freddy vs. Jason. These two slashers defined '80s horror and became mainstream icons in the process. But which franchise has the worst entries? Which franchise has the bigger duds? Which franchise, when met with critical and fan reactions, had the worst reception?
Fan vs. Critical Reactions
It would be easy for CBR to come to an arbitrary conclusion about which films are the worst, but in the interest of offering an unbiased reaction, we will be breaking things down into critical and fan responses. Rotten Tomatoes and MetaCritic offer a good aggregate of each franchise's reception, which will let us narrow down the bottom-ranked entries in each franchise.
Going in, fans often regard a few films as among the worst. For Nightmare on Elm Street, many fans hate three films in the franchise, in particular: Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, and the Nightmare on Elm Street remake from 2010. For some time, many fans also disliked the second film in the franchise because it was so different from its predecessor. However, over time, it has grown a cult following, partially due to its very obvious LGBTQA subtext.
In regards to Friday the 13th, fans seem divided on the Jason-less Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, hate the lackluster Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, and are absolutely split on Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X, and the Friday the 13th remake, done by the same people who produced the Nightmare remake. Fans also remain divided on Freddy vs. Jason. Some hate it, while others see it as a guilty pleasure.
Before even looking at the critical reception, it seemed obvious that one of the films from each franchise would be hated critically as well.
The Worst Friday
On Rotten Tomatoes, the Friday the 13th series has only once released a movie that over 60% of critics liked. The first film is the only fresh film on the site, with a 62%. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives came close with 52%. Still, after the inaugural film, everything went downhill. Most of the movies averaged between 20% and 30%, with even the fan-favorite fourth outing ranking at 20%.
However, by far, the worst received film was Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. It has an 8% on the site. The second worst, surprisingly, is Friday the 13th Part III -- the movie that introduced Jason's iconic hockey mask.
Over on MetaCritic, the results are even worse. The first film earned a paltry 22%. However, the lowest ranked film here is actually Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood with a 13% -- though Friday the 13th Part VIII has a 14%, making it a close call.
But critical consensus appears to be that Friday the 13th Part VIII is the worst film.
In regards to fan consensus, the results aren't too far off. Rotten Tomatoes' audience reactions put Jason Goes to Hell at the bottom with 24%, though Part VIII and Part V trail close behind. The second most critically-hated film, Part III, holds a 42% among audiences. The same holds true for MetaCritic, where Jason Goes to Hell ranks a 4 out of 10, while VIII and V rank slightly above 5. The critically hated Part VII holds a significantly higher 6.1 among audiences.
Fans have no love for these three, but, when measuring the scores up, it becomes necessary to come to a consensus. Ultimately, Part VIII is loathed by fans and critics alike far more than Jason Goes to Hell, which fared surprisingly well among critics (still bad, but not as bad). Jason Takes Manhattan is the worst Friday the 13th film.
The Worst Nightmare
As for Nightmare on Elm Street, the series has been far better received than the Friday the 13th films. Three of the films -- the original, A Nightmare on Elm Street III: The Dream Warriors, and Wes Craven's New Nightmare -- are fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. However, there are a few films that were received far less favorably. The same holds true on MetaCritic.
By far, the two worst films on Rotten Tomatoes are Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (20%) and A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010 (15%). The rest of the films were far better received critically. On MetaCritic, the results are fairly similar. The majority of films average between 40% and 60%. However, once again, the two extremes are Freddy's Dead (39%) and the remake (35%).
Critically, while both are hated, the remake is far more hated.
Audiences are far more forgiving. The remake has a 43% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it far above both Freddy's Dead (33%), A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (also 33%), and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (32%)! As for MetaCritic's fan ratings, the remake ranks at a 5, the same rating as the second film. On the other hand, Freddy's Dead has a 4.5, making it the worst film from the fans' perspective. The RT fan-hated Dream Child has a 6.3.
So, once again, fans are divided. Which is worse? The remake or Freddy's Dead? Ultimately, we at CBR side with the critics on this one. Freddy's Dead is bad, but the remake's blandness has left the series dead for almost a decade. Besides, Freddy's Dead has that power glove kill and features Krueger beating Johnny Depp over the head with a frying pan. In many ways, that's worth the price of admission.
Freddy vs. Jason?
While the film Freddy vs. Jason did relatively well among fans and critics, the question remains: which franchise had the worst films?
Undeniably, it's Friday the 13th. Critically, the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street still outranks the bottom two Friday the 13th films. Friday the 13th was never a critical darling.
However, fans of Nightmare on Elm Street were let down far more by the worst films in the franchise, due to the high standard the series set for itself until that point. Yet, overall, audiences and critics responded far better to Freddy Krueger's films. This isn't to say those movies are inherently better, but simply that, in a franchise as consistently entertaining as A Nightmare on Elm Street, the low-points feel far lower.