Halloween vs. Friday the 13th vs. Nightmare on Elm Street

[Amasov]

To me, when I think of horror movies of the 1980s, the three big series that come to mind are Halloween (though it started in 1978), Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street.

Out of these three, which would you consider to be the best?

I realize it could be hard to put these against each other, as they are so different, but I'd choose Halloween.

To me, the Halloween series seemed much more grounded in reality - the first movie, especially. The Friday the 13th films just kept getting sillier and sillier and the filmmakers knew it (and continuously played to it). The Nightmare on Elm Street series was straight up fantasy, yet pretty frightening and demented at times.

I'll open the floor up, which one do you prefer and why?

 

[Pingfah]

Definitely the Elm Street series.

It had some real ups and downs, but generally they were fun, creative fantasy movies, with some awesome and very inventive prosthetic effects, the scope for which was much broader than the other franchises because of the fantasy element.

For the most part the Halloween sequels and F13 sequels were just less interesting retreads of the original movies (H3 excepted), whereas Elm Street really evolved into something else and went from creepy slasher flick to a comedy vehicle for the unforgettable Freddie character.

 

[Starkers]

Yeah I think it would have been interesting if Carpenter had been allowed to follow through on his idea of every subsequent Halloween film being a different, stand alone story.

 

[Amasov]

Yeah I think it would have been interesting if Carpenter had been allowed to follow through on his idea of every subsequent Halloween film being a different, stand alone story.

Definitely, I saw in a documentary that if H3 had been a success, H4 would have been a paranormal story.

In the same vein, though, John Carpenter and Debra Hill actually championed a treatment for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. It dealt with sort of the longterm effects of what happened in the first two movies. Halloween would have been banned in Haddonfield and in their attempts to suppress the memory of Myers and that night, it would have brought him back. Just on the notion of, if you try to suppress something, it'll only rear its head stronger.

Ultimately, it didn't pan out and Carpenter and Hill sold their interests in the Halloween name shortly afterward.

 

[Pingfah]

I quite enjoy Halloween III personally, it's the only one apart from the first one I have ever bothered to rewatch. Fun, weird, creepy little effort. Loved the head pulling scene.

 

[Amasov]

I quite enjoy Halloween III personally, it's the only one apart from the first one I have ever bothered to rewatch. Fun, weird, creepy little effort. Loved the head pulling scene.

I just recently watched it. I like it on its own. It's got a great soundtrack, too. Plus a good amount of meta humor - love when you see the ad for the original Halloween on the TV screen when Challis is in the bar. It's like it's confirming, "No, Michael Myers will NOT be seen anywhere in this movie!"

 

[Starbreaker]

I'm a huge fan of all three original films. However, I think that Friday the 13th was the only one that managed to actually keep the quality fairly consistent through the first 7 films.

 

[Aldo]

It's definitely hard to choose between the three series, since I like all three (though with Halloween I haven't seen parts 3, 8, or the two Rob Zombie versions).

I think I'd have to say Friday the 13th though. they did the best in evoking real atmosphere on a small budget, I think part 4 is my favorite one (in case you don't remember, that's the one with Corey Feldman). F13 is also the best one at exploiting the "dead teenager" formula in that the characters are only introduced to either die, or kill Jason. If I can set some money aside in the near future I may splurge and get the whole blu-ray series set.

 

[Amasov]

It's definitely hard to choose between the three series, since I like all three (though with Halloween I haven't seen parts 3, 8, or the two Rob Zombie versions).

I think I'd have to say Friday the 13th though. they did the best in evoking real atmosphere on a small budget, I think part 4 is my favorite one (in case you don't remember, that's the one with Corey Feldman). F13 is also the best one at exploiting the "dead teenager" formula in that the characters are only introduced to either die, or kill Jason. If I can set some money aside in the near future I may splurge and get the whole blu-ray series set.

Of the Friday series, I quite like the first one. I think it's actually pretty scary. It's easily a riff on Halloween (as even admitted by the writer and producer), but it's still a fun little movie. Jason Lives is also a good one. I'm actually pretty convinced the idea for Scream came from this movie, as it contained a lot of references to horror movie cliches.

Plus, this is the one that had that awesomely absurd triple be-heading.

 

[inflatabledalek]

I'm not familiar enough with the Freddy films to comment on them, but of the other two, as a series I prefer the Jason movies, even though Halloween itself as a film is by far and away the best entry in either franchise.

The thing for me is, the Friday films are overall just a lot more fun in their cheap and cheerful way, whilst, with the honourable exception of the Myer-less third film, the Halloween movies have a tendency to be very pro-faced and serious as if everyone involved thinks they're making a film as good as the first when the final result... isn't.

 

[Harvey]

The first movies in the Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween franchises are pretty great.

The sequels of all three series are, well, programmers, with the exception of Wes Craven's New Nightmare, which is one of the most inventive horror sequel ever made. so, based on that merit (and the fact that the Jason movies are all crap to one degree or another, albeit often enjoyable crap) I'd give the edge to Freddy.

 

[Davros]

I was laughing too hard while watching it to consider Nightmare On Elm Street as a horror film. Of the three mentioned I only really found the first Friday The 13th to be all that scary. But it is the only one with a believable antagonist.

 

[Showdown]

 

[publiusr]

I can imagine all three in Hell, and each has power in relation to the number of people they killed. Something like the spiritual pressure from the anime BLEACH.

Then all three are cowed by a fourth figure that strides into the room.

"What's your name?" asks Freddy, since neither of the other two morons can speak.

"Oh, hi, my name is Curtis LeMay, United States Air Force."

 

[Caligula]

Halloween was the most well-made horror movie of the three. Having said that, my favorite horror movie is Friday the 13th. I love running marathons of it and (most of) its sequels.