Why Freddys Nightmares Has Never Been Given A Full Home Video Release

Here’s why A Nightmare On Elm Street’s spinoff series Freddy Nightmares has never received a complete DVD or Blu-ray release. Freddy Krueger reached the peak of his popularity around the time of A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master in 1988, which was the first entry that essentially made him the star. The character evolved from a terrifying slasher to a lovable prankster prone to killing victims with a cheap pun. Freddy’s popularity led to him appearing in music videos, video games and he even received his own TV series.

Freddy’s Nightmares debuted in 1988, with the first episode being “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” which was directed by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Tobe Hopper. This pilot was a prequel that depicted Freddy’s burning at the hands of Elm St’s parents, with subsequent episodes featuring the slasher “hosting” two interconnected tales of horror, though sometimes he was also the main threat. Freddy’s Nightmares wasn’t greeted with the warmest of reviews while it aired, and it hasn’t aged particularly gracefully in the years since.

Despite boasting a range of up-and-coming directors like Mick Garris or William Malone (House On Haunted Hill), most episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares suffered from a low budget and bad writing. That’s not to say there aren’t occasional gems, but whereas Friday The 13th: The Series is now considered a cult gem, Freddy’s Nightmares is often scorned. This might explain why, over 30 years after it first aired, the show has yet to receive a full home video release.

Freddy’s Nightmares has had several episodes released on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray, but never the entire show. Given the evergreen popularity of A Nightmare On Elm Street and Freddy Krueger, this is somewhat shocking, but not totally surprising. In fact, in 2003 Warner Home Video tested the waters with Freddy’s Nightmares: Volume 1 in the UK, but this disc – which contained the first three episodes – sold poorly. This led to plans for other Volumes being cancelled, and it was decided there wasn’t enough interest in a full series release to make it worth the investment.

That means Freddy’s Nightmares has yet to receive a full home video release, and at this point, it may never. The show isn’t impossible to find in its entirety and has been aired on the likes of Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey Network over the years, but the truth is there appears to be little appetite for a full Blu-ray release. Even among A Nightmare On Elm Street devotees, the show has a poor reputation, and while it would be nice to see it released someday, few seems to be clamoring for it.

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Padraig Cotter
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It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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