Ranking of the Elm Street VHS covers.

 Ranking of the Elm Street VHS covers.

I just realized that several other bloggers have done posts like this. I mean who knows, I might have even done it myself! I'm beginning to lose track about what subjects I've covered all ready! Any who, in celebrating with all things Elm Street I decided to do my very own personal ranking of all of the original Elm Street artwork from favorite to least favorite. What are yours?!!!

1) A Nightmare On Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors.

- Always a fan favorite. This artwork is absolutely stunning, and a cover I clearly remember from my childhood whenever I visited the horror section at the video store. What I love about this artwork, is the use of colors, as well as featuring the dream warriors all balancing on Freddy's blades. I love the Taryn one is as 80's as you can get, we also get who I believe is Kincaid and Joey. Front and center is a gray hair we all know and remember. Our Nancy, looking sexy, and a complete boss in a silk nightgown. I love the image of Freddy's face larger than life, staring at them, part of his face swirling colors. This basically shows how unstoppable Freddy is and even mirrors the scene where he's legit the size of the sky before killing Philip. I love the tiny little 1428 Elm Street house below. This is stunning artwork and I always squeal with delight whenever I see that somebody has it tattooed on them!

2) A Nightmare On Elm Street

- Another iconic image from my childhood. This movie completely terrified me as a child. I still remember clearly, we had family friends growing up with kids who were close in age to me and my sister. They constantly were watching the original film, and always trying to get me to watch it despite how terrified I was from it. It took YEARS before finally I was able to sit through this movie and I still owe it for being the main reason why I became so fascinated with horror to begin with. Still, talk about STUNNING artwork. It honestly is such a simple idea, that clearly works 100%. Here we have our main character Nancy, looking absolutely gorgeous, laying in bed, staring up, her big beautiful blue eyes looking half crazed. Her long hair is pooled around her, as well as the silver strands. Above her is Freddy's claw, as well as a dream demon swirling around. If you honestly ever get the chance to look at an original poster from this movie, the artwork is a huge reminder on why movie posters back then were a thousand times better than the shit they crank out today. What really sells it of course is the tagline "If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming...she won't wake up at all." Elm Street super fan, and Nancy cosplayer Diandra Lazor, best known for playing Nancy in Don't Fall Asleep actutaly re-created this poster and completely hit it out of the park.

3) A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 The Dream Master.

- My personal favorite out of the entire series. I think this artwork perfectly captures what a fun colorful music video thrill ride part 4 is. Here we see in my eyes some of the coolest artwork featuring Freddy. Love his claw going into his face, dragging it down showing an oversized eyeball. Here it appears he's engulfed by swirling colors (very similar to the ones featured in the Dream Warriors artwork.) Below we see a set of stunning eyes. I've always believed they belong to Alice, the dream master...but they could be Kristan's. What's so awesome about this artwork is that he's rising from his grave that looks like it's exploded wide open in the junk yard we visited in the last installment aka Freddy's final resting place. Love all of the car's headlights shinning. 

4) A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 The Dream Child.

- My buddy Chad is slowly warming me up to this entry. It's been my least favorite for years now, but I'm slowly starting to see it'a appeal. There are several versions of this artwork floating around (A really pretty one of Freddy is the sky using his finger to hush, while a bubble shows a baby carriage.) There are two more I've seen, but I'm picking the one I remember best from the video store. In 1989 Freddy was no longer the mysterious night stalker, he was at the highest of his popularity, and had a very loud personality. Of course a cover like this would make the rental sales skyrocket. They aren't playing around with this one, you are getting exactly what you see...a Freddy movie. Even though it isn't exactly artwork, and more of a photograph, it's image is still pretty cool. I HATE Freddy's makeup in this one and in Freddy's Dead. I've heard several different rumors on why exactly they switched it up (Different makeup artist, they made the pieces easier for Robert to put on and remove, ect.) Still, the use of colors they have in this cover, as well as the crazy scary baby carriage is pretty cool. I've always had to hand it to the director for trying to use gothic images in this movie, and the cover of Freddy standing over it is pretty brilliant. One of my favorites that I believe my buddy John from Freddy In Space has is a HUGE poster of Freddy with his hat down actually pregnant! Wild!

5) Freddy's Dead The Final Nightmare.

- Clearly one of the weakest in the entire film series. I've always preferred the artwork of Freddy's sweater, hat, and claw laying in a giant heap with the dates 1984-1991 across the white background. Simple, but pretty cool marketing wise. This artwork is what I remember best. Freddy actually looks like himself, larger than life in the sky, reaching down (the claws are supposed to look 3D I guess, reaching forward.) while the van drives off into the night. A simple use of artwork, but pretty cool nevertheless. I have seen different versions, including the original artist who worked on all the other pervious entries piece featured for this one, but I gotta say it's this one that wins it for me.

6) Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

- I love this movie, the artwork is very cool but nothing that truly jumped out at me. Still, I always loved Freddy's new design/makeup in this one. I always liked the whole Hansel and Gretel image of Heather and her son looking into the oven. Beautiful artwork, but honestly nothing that memorable. 

7) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 Freddy's Revenge.

- I really like part 2. Honestly I completely love how this movie was the gay icon/horror movie long before Mr. Babadook. It's a fun movie, but I always loved the artwork of Jessie looking in the mirror, holding his girlfriend Lisa seeing the haunting image staring back at him. There's also a fun little cover of Freddy standing over the school bus from the opening. Still, the most famous cover is of Freddy peeling back the VHS artwork of a dark blue sky/town at night, with flames behind him. Cool having Freddy front and center, and yet again you get what you paid for...this is a Freddy movie and in 1985 this was when he was shinning bright. Cool image but not my favorite.

8) Freddy Vs. Jason.

- Freddy Vs. Jason was the letdown heard around the world for horror fans. I like that the artwork was simple, but I truly believe it's because I don't like the movie so much that I honestly don't care about what they ended up with.

9) A Nightmare On Elm Street 2010

- Not a VHS cover, but still a piece of the Elm Street artwork universe. I HATED this movie. In fact, I'm not even going to go into why, and trust me it's not because it's a "remake" I love remakes. What I hate is when they miss a chance on making something awesome. This artwork features the HORRIBLE CGI makeup of Freddy. I'm sorry, but if this was in fact a VHS cover back in the 90's I might think it was a cartoon or something. Horrible, just plain horrible.

So what are yours?