Just binged the series for the first time - here's my ranking
A few notes:
I like two a lot. I knew about the gay allegory stuff ahead of time, which definitely makes the story more interesting, but I had no idea it was going to be so funny. Jessie is a great protagonist.
I don't really like Nancy as a protagonist, so Nightmare 1 and New Nightmare are lower on my ranking. She's actually my least favourite part of Dream Warriors, although that is my favourite overall.
New Nightmare is the worst one for me. It's both boring and lame but even worse it's pretending to be about something when I really don't think it's saying anything interesting at all. Freddy's Dead isn't trying to say anything but there are a few good laughs in that one.
Freddy vs. Jason was amazing. A genuinely solid entry in the series as it follows the Nightmare formula and adds a few new ideas that I liked, such as the adults in town trying to exorcise Freddy from memory. They also used a lot of Dream Warriors canon which I appreciated.
I don't love Alice as protagonist but I can respect 4 and 5 for trying to keep a canon going - even if they do kill off my beloved Dream Warriors too early. The movie theatre sequence in 4 is an amazing scene and that movie would be higher if the cast was more interesting...every scene with Dan is like watching white bread try to act.