I have not seen the new movie, but I did recently watch all eight of the original films. Watching the entire series like that can really take it out of you, man. I do have to say the movies are not as good as they've been made out to be, Freddy is not very funny at all and most of the time he wasn't scary either. Like most of the 80's horror movies that have been remade lately, these are low-budget schlock with a couple good ideas in them that could have been made into something special in a remake. It's just too bad the remakes are being made with even less wit and creativity. Personally, I gave up on these horror remakes with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I didn't even see the original. I have seen a couple other remakes since that one, but usually out of boredom and it was a choice between, say, the Fog remake or Dr Quinn and I made the wrong choice.
In any case, here are my top three Nightmare movies in no particular order. Actually that are in release date order, which I guess is also chronological order. But you know what the hell I mean.
A Nightmare on Elm Street. What can I say? It's the original. It may be the only time in the series proper where Freddy comes close to scary. It's undermined by the low budget and bad acting, but for what it is, it works. It seems pretty tame these days. Keep in mind I'm not a horror movie buff and I'm jaded enough to not be impressed by this movie. But as the original, it does put forth the original idea and does something with it. The better sequels then tried to do something original with that same premise, few did.
Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Not part of the cannon, per se. Ten years after the original Nightmare and two years before his Scream series, Wes Craven made this strange horror outing where Freddy begins terrorizing the cast and crew making the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. This one is probably the scariest of the entire franchise. Throughout there is a constant feeling of dread that comes from Freddy Krueger even when he is not on screen. In fact, I'll say especially when he isn't on screen. Like the shark from Jaws, Krueger works better when he is unseen but you know he's there. Watching. Waiting. The original tried for this unease but fell a little short for some reason, but this one is right on the money. However, to fuly appreciate it, you need to see the original first. Watching these two movies back to back would make for a decent movie night, in fact.
Freddy Vs. Jason. This one is just plain fun. The makers of the Friday the 13th series likened their product to a funhouse ride and this movie is pretty much that, but it is fun. Crossovers like this rarely happen and they rarely work. (BTW who the hell watch the first Alien vs Predator enough to convince them to make another one?) But this one does. Personally, I liked Jason Voorhees better. He's filmed with flash that I doubt is in any of his actual movies, including the recent one, but I like it. I may even go watch it again after posting this. It's not scary at all, but it's fun watching these murderer ply their trade and the script is just clever enough to keep it from being totally stupid. Maybe my expectations were low, but I was pleasantly surprised. And come to think of it, my expectations weren't that low because I had read a review where the reviewer was pleasantly surprised. Usually that means I won't be, but I was anyway.
What of the other five films? By and large, they are all forgettable.
Some say A Nightmare On Elm Street: 3 Dream Warriors makes a trilogy with the original and New Nightmare, but I was disappointed in that one. It didn't seem to go anywhere interesting. I found it dull and plodding like Prince of Darkness.
The others are really not even memorable enough for me to really comment upon aside from Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. This movie was schizophrenic. At times it almost gets up to the original in terms of tone and dread and then it takes a sharp left turn into goofy. Watch it to see a young Breckin Meyer die by video game. It's so stupid you'll forget to laugh.