So a lot of people are saying they want a Nightmare on Elm Street pin. I had never seen the movies, although I got the gist through pop culture osmosis (in particular Scary Terry in R&M and that one Treehouse of Horror segment that legit terrified me when I was 8). I plowed through all of them over a couple days, curious about how well it would translate to pinball. It would need to be an original adventure, because I don't think any one particular movie would be great for pinball.
Here are my two cents while I kill time between meetings
Elm Street 1 = the original. The production values are pretty low but it works well enough. It sets up the basic mythos and rules of the franchise. I didn't love it, but I respect it for the originality of the idea and starting the franchise. It's solid
Elm Street 2 = super gay. Not in a derogatory way, but actually gay. Some of it is a bit problematic in 2021 lenses, but all the subtext makes it more interesting than some of the later movies. I didn't know this going in and halfway through the movie I had to take a break to make sure I wasn't imagining it. Then I saw it was intentional and is considered a somewhat important work in gay cinema. It breaks certain rules of the franchise and is mostly ignored in cannon (probably for the best). They recently made a documentary about this entry and I want to check it out.
Elm Street 3 = easily the best one in the franchise. If you only see one, this is the one. Best production values in the series. Interesting and great kills. Does a great job expanding the mythos and rules of the franchise. Freddy's personality is fully realized by this point with a nice blend of menace, vulgar antagonism, and funny one liners. The only one I would consider re-watching.
Elm Street 4 = solid follow up to 3. It's fine
Elm Street 5 = interesting premise but incredibly boring. Only one fun kill that is a rip off of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Elm Street 6 = what is this slapstick train wreck? Did they realize they were killing the franchise during production and decide to go with it for the name of the movie? It's like a dark comedy that isn't funny (Carlos's kill is a little amusing). Its tone is all over the place. The highlight is when it's over and they do a montage of all the iconic moments from the previous films during the credits. Seriously, what happened? It has a Roseanne and Tom Arnold cameo FFS.
1-2, 4-6 are on HBO Max. I thought it was weird I had to go rent 3, but it's the best of the franchise so I guess it's not that surprising they're milking it.
side note: Eight Ball Deluxe is in 3. There is what appears to be a 60s William EM pin in 6 but I couldn't ID it and didn't see it on some of the sites that list pinballs in movies.
I need to go try to find the Gottlieb machine. It looks like it has some neat toys on it.