This month’s Halloween Ends (2022) marks the 13th installment in the Halloween franchise. Since Halloween (1978) introduced the world to Michael Myers (Nick Castle) and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Halloween has mashed, crashed, and slashed its way through over 40 years of material. As with any long-running franchise, especially one that lived through the late 1980s, Halloween offers an eclectic variety of approaches in terms of style and content. Not to mention all the convoluted timelines beset by retooling and rebooting just about every decade. We have covered quite a bit of ground since John Carpenter, Debra Hill, and friends first took us to Haddonfield, Illinois.
With the end declared (for now), it only seems fitting to take stock of the whole franchise. Check your corners and grab your biggest kitchen knife for good measure—it’s time to rank Halloween.
13. Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
It may have brought franchise veteran Rick Rosenthal on to direct, but no Halloween pedigree can save the charred jack-o-lantern that is Halloween: Resurrection. A shameless attempt to capitalize on the found footage craze, Resurrection kills off Laure Strode in the opening set piece so that a group of college students can play reality TV haunted house in the decrepit Myer’s home. The knife fodder are overseen by the producing team of a show called “DangerTainment” played by [checks notes] Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks. Due to some truly half-assed plot mechanics, Michael Myers has survived being decapitated to reign terror down once again. Everyone in front of and behind the camera except for Rhymes, who has the camptastic time of his life, seems to work on auto-pilot. Resurrection is a soulless and art-free installment in the franchise that is best ignored and forgotten.
12. Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers cannot be blamed for introducing haywire Celtic mythology into the franchise, but it made sure to resoundingly make the case no one should ever do so again. The endpoint of the “Thorn Trilogy” that follows Laurie’s daughter Jamie after Strode’s off-screen death (not the Resurrection one for anyone keeping score), Halloween VI has my vote for the franchise’s most asinine cast of characters. A group of Laurie’s distant cousins has moved into the old Myers’ house without realizing it was the site of the original massacre. It has been six years since Michael last killed, but he returns after [deep breath] Jamie (J.C. Brandy) escapes the cult compound where she was held captive, taking her and Michael’s incestuous baby with her. The rest is paint-by-numbers slasher without personality or a single scene that makes any larger narrative sense.
11. Halloween Ends (2022)
The closing number of David Gordon Green’s sequel trilogy, Halloween Ends’ biggest achievement is finding a way to make a Halloween story numbingly boring. If you turn down the lights, put on high-prescription glasses, and squint hard you might catch a glimpse of Green and co-writers orbiting entertaining ideas. What we end up with is a tale about a troubled young man named Corey (Rohan Campbell) who accidentally killed a boy he was babysitting. Haddonfield vilified him, and now he’s a loner who Laurie helps out, leading to a surprise romance between Corey and Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). Corey stumbles on a sewer-bound Myers and becomes his student of sorts, but almost the entirety of the movie is devoted to half-baked character drama that poorly recycles previous ideas. Halloween Ends is perfunctory and hopefully enough to put the franchise on ice until someone has a good idea again.
10. Halloween (2007)
If you hack off the first 35 minutes of Rob Zombie’s rebooted Halloween, there’s an argument that what’s left is a moderately successful vulgar auteur take on the first Myers-Strode faceoff. But alas, Zombie insists on including a cliché-saturated investigation into how Michael became a monster. Part of what made Myers’ original introduction so menacing was that he came with no explanation. As stated in various forms by Dr. Loomis, he was simply “evil” incarnate. Zombie was not the first to lop on backstory, but what he does in Halloween is reduce Myers to a story of psychopath nature and nurture we have seen so many times before it practically spits dust at every plot turn. Such a tedious start mars any verve in the rest of the film, one that also suffers from trying too hard to recreate iconic moments.
9. Halloween Kills (2021)
The word that comes most directly to mind when thinking of Halloween Kills is flaccid. Yes, Green pulls off a number of dynamic sequences because he is a talented director. A 1978 flashback is nostalgia-bating, yes, but still engaging. Yet, the screenplay that he co-wrote is an incongruous reheating of plotlines and character beats from previous installments. The townsfolk rising up to take on Myers. An extension of what happened after Myers fell out the window in the first movie. Even Laurie in the hospital. Some of those beats could be interesting, but Halloween Kills treats them like treading water while Laurie is locked away to ensure getting to Halloween Ends with the chance of a final showdown intact. The repeated “Evil dies tonight!” is downright farcical in hindsight, a line and a movie that’s little more than a trailer for the trilogy capper, which was itself utterly unnecessary.
8. Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
In the aftermath of Jamie’s (Danielle Harris) shocking turn to attempted killer at the end of the proceeding movie, Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers centers on her guilt and the town’s concern about her becoming another Michael. It is also the most explicitly supernatural of the mainline films, foregrounding a growing psychic connection between Jamie and Michael. Early goings provide a compelling riff on Frankenstein when a kind fisherman nurses Michael to health only for Michael to kill him, but after that, the film mostly rehashes ideas from Halloween IV. That being said, Halloween V marks the point on this ranking when we transition from what I would argue are failed entries into at least flawed but interesting movies. Derivations are clear, but between some creative kills and attempts at reinvigorating the mythos, Halloween V succeeds at being a fine hang.
7. Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Carpenter and Hill decided to go in the anthology direction with the third Halloween film. It turns out the filmgoing public was rather unhappy with that move. You need only look at the title of Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers to know the selling point. Laurie is dead off-screen, her daughter Jamie has been adopted, and Jamie’s step-sister Rachel (Ellie Cornell) looks after her. Michael has been in a coma but awakens upon hearing about Jamie. The burned but alive Dr. Loomis flies back to Haddonfield. What follows is a clunky but nonetheless fun and stylish slasher buoyed by a sensational performance from Cornell who makes a clear case for Rachel as the best post-Laurie final girl in the franchise. It’s also a joy to see Pleasance chew the scenery as Loomis, and Jamie’s turn in the final moments is an all-time plot twist.
6. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
If Carpenter and Hill had their way, Halloween III: Season of the Witch would have kicked off a string of anthology-style films linked by a Halloween setting. That was not to be the case, as Halloween III was a commercial and critical failure at its release. With some distance though, Halloween III stands alone as a fascinating capsule of early 1980s horror. The script focuses on Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) who tends to a patient one night who ends up murdered. When the patient’s daughter Ellie Grimbridge (Stacy Nelkin) comes by, the two figure out that local mask company Silver Shamrock may be implicated. They investigate and discover that Silver Shamrock founder Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy) is using bewitched masks to prepare a nationwide child sacrifice. Regular Carpenter collaborator Tommy Lee Wallace finds a slew of wonderful sequences here, including the most chilling ending in the franchise.
5. Halloween II (2009)
Zombie’s Halloween II succeeds in nearly every way that its precursor fails. Eschewing any prerogative to remake the original Halloween II, Zombie delivers the most aesthetically compelling entry since the original. After a tongue-in-cheek opening sequence that recreates Laurie in the hospital, Zombie time jumps to a year later when Laurie is just trying to make it by. Of course, Michael has survived, and he’s coming back, this time spurned on by nightmarish visions of his dead mother telling him to “reunite the family.” Zombie leans into the surreal, lending Halloween II a distinct and enchanting directorial vision. The script has its shortcomings, such as an entirely unnecessary Loomis (Malcolm McDowell) storyline, but Zombie blows past those pitfalls through sheer force of aesthetic will. I maintain my qualms with his first film, but his treatment of the family connection and history here feels purposeful. Halloween II deserves some love.
4. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Released two years after Scream (1996) reinvigorated the genre, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later is a clear response, even going so far as to have Scream scribe Kevin Williamson executive produce. Ignoring all the sequels except for Halloween II, H20 finds Laurie, post-faked death, working as a private school headmaster in California. Her son John (Josh Hartnett) is a student there, and as it approaches Halloween, Laurie’s fear rises. H20 is the most obvious precursor to Green’s trilogy, leaning into Laurie’s trauma and how it creates a strained relationship with those around her. She’s an alcoholic, divorced, and always fighting with John. When Michael inevitably arrives, the boarding school campus is a perfect place for his spree, one that leans into the teen factor reminiscent of Scream. H20 also explicitly honors the debt the whole franchise owes Psycho (1960), enlisting Janet Leigh for a small role across from her daughter.
3. Halloween II (1981)
Fast-tracked because of Halloween’s success, Halloween II picks up immediately after the end of the original. EMT’s take Laurie to the hospital while Loomis and the police search for Myers. Dean Cundey serves as cinematographer again, but Rick Rosenthal, in his feature debut, steps in for Carpenter, who still co-wrote the script with Hill. That creative continuity means that Halloween II looks and moves much like the original. It drips with shadow and a kinetic camera, even if Rosenthal cannot match Carpenter. We know now that the studio insisted on the “Michael is Laurie’s brother” plot twist, but the ramifications of that only bog down installments after this one. With an even split between Haddonfielders reckoning with Myer’s spree and his continued killing once he arrives at the hospital in pursuit of Laurie, Halloween II is a fantastic sequel. Just maybe don’t watch it in a hot tub.
2. Halloween (2018)
Announced as a direct follow-up to the original, Green’s Halloween debuted with the task of justifying its dismissal of decades of sequels. In terms both critical and commercial, it succeeded. Laurie is a prepper-style loner isolated from her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson. Why? Michael is in prison, but Laurie’s conviction he will escape is treated like hysteria. But on Halloween, he breaks out and unleashes hell on Haddonfield again as he stalks Laurie. Keeping the film lean and brutal, Green channels so much of what made the original tick while giving it his own spin replete with a welcome return to morbid humor. Curtis delivers an astounding performance as a tortured final girl, and she is joined by a game supporting cast. To borrow a sports phrase, Halloween triumphs by returning to fundamentals and pulls off a minor miracle of sequel filmmaking.
1. Halloween (1978)
Did you really expect anything else? The lore around the making of Halloween and the film’s legacy are practically mythical at this point. Yet, when you put that all aside, there is still a movie that numbers among the handful of most perfect horror vehicles ever made.
On a writing and technical level, Carpenter, Hill, and Cundey pull off a miracle of low-budget filmmaking. The story is as sharp as Myer’s kitchen knife, and Hill’s touch ensures that every character aches with personality. Carpenter and Cundey craft electric sequences, turning Haddonfield into a gothic nightmare come sundown. This is also the film that gave us Laurie Strode, brought to life by an arguably now underappreciated performance from Curtis. She remains a final girl par excellence, a blueprint that horror has chased for decades with arguably only Scream (1996) and Sidney Prescott equaling her. Throw in the most lasting slasher villain of our time in Myers, and even over 40 years later, Halloween persists as a textbook example of thrilling and inspired filmmaking. No matter how many imitators and sequels come our way, Halloween towers above the competition. Long live the original bogeyman.
Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.