The original Halloween is not only one of the best and most iconic horror movies of all time. Since its release in 1978, it has spawned over a dozen sequels, spinoffs, and reboots of varying quality. Michael Myers is among the most iconic slasher villains, and the franchise has some of the highest highs and the lowest lows. Since what is being dubbed the final movie in the franchise, Halloween Ends, is now upon us, we’ve counted down the 13 preceding Halloween movies! Follow along and let us know @SiftPop what your ranking is!
Look, I know better than to believe Halloween: Resurrection won’t end up at the bottom. And honestly, it deserves it. It is a mess, but I had a blast watching it! Let’s start with the premise: Michael kills Laurie in the intro in a way that feels so undeserved. Especially after the writers had to write themselves out of a hole after killing Michael at the end of H20. With Laurie gone, what is left for Michael to do except go home? The problem: it’s Halloween night and Busta Rhymes has convinced a small group of college students to spend Halloween night and have it live-streamed for the world to see. It’s a simple setup that has a lot of potential, but only ends up making you laugh instead of scream. At one point, Busta kicks Michael out a window with a karate kick; that’s about all you need to know for this movie. To me, this film belongs in the ranks of The Room, Birdemic, and Manos: Hands of Fate. It’s not so bad it’s good, but it is so bad that you’ll have a great time with some friends and a few choice beverages. (Aaron Schweitzer)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers will get credit because it’s the final performance of Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Other than his sister Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), Dr. Loomis will go down as Michael’s top nemesis. The weird thing about this movie is that it’s the last of this alleged “thorn” trilogy, the payoff for the setup of Halloween: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween: The Revenge of Michael Myers. The payoff is predominantly in Curse because it focuses more on the Cult of Thorns. This also concludes the Jamie Lloyd (J.C. Brandy) storyline, to varying results. Jamie shifts from a character you sympathize with in Return to a character you are super confused about in Revenge. In Curse, she is largely cannon fodder, as so many others tend to be in the Halloween series. The introduction of another generation (Jamie has a baby) is largely unexplained, but becomes the latest target of Michael Myers. This series has certainly fallen on hard times when Michael Myers has to resort to killing babies. Curse also has an interesting connection to the original Halloween, having a boy Laurie babysat named Tommy (Paul Rudd) playing the role of trying to figure out why Michael Myers is killing his family. What we get in Curse is a flimsy conclusion to an idea (whether it’s good or bad is irrelevant at this point) of how we can explain away why Michael Myers is the way that he is. After this one, this trilogy is largely forgotten by all the other movies and reboots, which goes to show just how weird of an entry this trilogy is to the franchise as a whole. (Mike Hilty)
The Revenge of Michael Myers, the sequel to The Return Of Michael Myers, doesn’t make a lick of sense. If I could pick a moment when the Halloween series jumps the shark, it would be in Revenge. We introduce telepathy and an out-of-nowhere man in black that is searching for Michael Myers. In this the fifth entry of the franchise (but the fourth with Michael Myers), Jamie (Danielle Harris) has been committed following the events of Return. In an interesting turn of events, she follows in Michael’s footsteps with a violent outburst on her family. After the trauma she suffers, she’s forced to confront Michael once again, and she tries to do everything she can to help Dr. Loomis, who is now turning into a silly character, obsessed with taking down Myers. The body count is surprisingly large, as Michael is killing large groups of people. This is a super campy and borderline insane movie that introduces supernatural elements to a killer that was terrifying on his own. Less is more in some cases, and some killers don’t really need an explanation about why they do the things they do to be frightening. The ending of this movie is a gut-punch. How much can we make this poor girl suffer in order for her to reach a breaking point? Revenge does give people more kills and more interesting ways to kill people. The way this sets up the final chapter of this series doesn’t make any sense either. Revenge feels like it knows its franchise is running on fumes, and is trying really hard to tell a compelling story. This is where we enter silly territory in this franchise. (Mike Hilty)
Will evil die tonight? Heck no… and Halloween Kills was stupid for trying to make us think it would. There is at least one other movie in this rebooted series! Not one minute did we think that evil (a.k.a. Michael Myers) would die in this film. That would have been a shocking and impressively bold decision. But Halloween Kills is not that bold nor impressive. But they certainly made the bold choice to have Laurie Strode never leave a hospital room (wait… like Halloween II?). Jamie Lee Curtis is the star of this franchise, and they do her dirty in this installment. The film focuses too much on a mob, which represents our society’s mob mentality (except with zero finesse at all). This overly drawn-out middle section of a trilogy probably could have been just the end of the first and beginning of the third film. They pulled a The Hobbit on this one. But… the body count is insane. The kills are quite impressive. There is an engaging flashback sequence. The film is directed well, too, by David Gordon Green. And there are some real stakes. This one might be a huge disappointment, but at least there are a few memorable and redeeming qualities. (Shane Conto)
Begrudgingly, Rob Zombie stepped up to write and direct this sequel to his 2007 remake of Halloween. Set a year after the events of the previous film, Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton) is living with her friend Annie Brackett (Danielle Harris) and Sheriff Brackett (Brad Dourif), trying to put the pieces of her life back together. Zombie never intended to do a sequel, but the Weinsteins were moving forward with one with or without him, so he signed on so no one would ruin his story. Zombie’s remake of this iconic franchise was my introduction to Michael Myers, and it would stay that way until the 2018 reboot/sequel. His story, though tougher and rougher than Carpenters’, always appealed to me because I especially love the blood and gore. This is not the best of the Michael Myers stories (and definitely not the worst, either), but it’s also definitely not for everyone. Compton and Harris deliver amazing performances, which are ranked up there with the other final girls and scream queens in my book. Tyler Mane’s Michael Myers is especially terrifying as the villain in both, as he menacingly stalks his prey without saying a word, and his height adds a new level of fear to Michael. Malcolm McDowell returns as Dr. Samuel Loomis, and though not as good as Donald Pleasence, he still gives his all to the role and plays Loomis as more of a money hungry doctor than someone concerned for Michael. So if you are a completionist like me, then definitely check this one out. (Austen Terry)
What an interesting case study The Producer’s Cut is! I won’t lie and tell you that this edit of the Curse of Michael Myers turns the film into a masterpiece, but it can certainly seem that way when you watch the two cuts back to back. Not only does the film contain a significant amount of alternate footage, the footage that remains consistent across the two cuts is pieced together with an entirely different energy. The editing style is more smooth, the score utilizes more of the classic Carpenter themes from the original, and the sound design is no longer laughably terrible. One of the main reasons to appreciate this franchise is that it perfectly readies you for the spooky fall season, and few entries in the franchise better capture that energy than The Producer’s Cut. Wind blowing past your ears, the sound of crunching leaves, and vibrant Halloween decorations adding color to an otherwise colorless suburb. I truly love the atmosphere of this film in spite of (and if I am honest, because of) its campy, and occasionally cringe-worthy, energy. Plus, you’ve got one of the better Michael Myers masks of the franchise, as well as a hilariously serious performance from a young Paul Rudd. I won’t call The Producer’s Cut a great film, but it is leaps and bounds better than the theatrical cut, and it is the entry that has most grown on me since I first watched the series. (Foster Harlfinger)
One of the things many people point to as a strength of movies like Jaws is that the monster at the center of it all is so sparsely on screen; it creates a sense of dread all by itself that it’s just there, somewhere, lurking under the surface and waiting to strike. Halloween came out just a few years later and went against that by showing Michael just about everywhere in town; even driving by in the background while the viewer is focused on something else. And yet the movie kept the mystery of Myers intact by having him wear that iconic mask, not allowing him to speak, and perhaps most importantly, showing his origin as his first kill and nothing more than that. Rob Zombie’s remake, however, is a film that decides that everything we did not see is perhaps a lot more interesting than the things we didn’t. It’s essentially two movies, in which the second half serves as the remake, and the first half is an origin story that incorporates elements from some of the sequels to the original — things we all know, like Laurie’s relation to Michael. Whether this improves the character of Michael or not is obviously a subjective thing, but from my perspective, the brutality of the character loses a lot of impact when we’re subjected to him as a bullied, abused young boy in school and at home. While there are real world parallels there, the dread of the original was present because of this faceless, motiveless stalker who simply would not stop — and a lot is lost by presenting an explicit motive and an explicit history. Its slasher tendencies are visceral, and Tyler Mane is an enormously intimidating Myers, but it falls short in a number of ways and its main flaw is its compulsion in explaining something that did not need to be explained. (Chris Bakker)
Although Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers promised with its fun, meta title a more conventional Halloween tale after the critical failure of Season of the Witch, it also marked the first notable departure from the style of the first three films. More dramatic lighting, fewer establishing shots, and a more chaotic storyline allowed Return to put its own stamp on the franchise. Though it may not be my cup of tea, there is certainly much to appreciate when looking at the franchise as a whole. Halloween fans love a good opening credits sequence, and The Return has one of the best, setting in place those chilly fall vibes that we’ve come to expect with each new entry. Donald Pleasence, as per usual, gives an increasingly unhinged performance as Dr. Loomis, but the film deserves a lot of credit for introducing a young Danielle Harris as Laurie’s niece, Jamie. Harris would go on to become something of a horror icon given her starring roles in various horror movies over the years, but it all starts here with Return. The film may not reach the heights of the original Halloween, but it delivers exactly the sort of fun, campy experience you would hope to gain from watching any long-running horror franchise. (Foster Harlfinger)
The Halloween franchise had a real identity crisis after the atrociously bad Curse of Michael Myers. Decades had gone by, and the landscape of the film industry had changed. What was once scary no longer was, and this series had truly run out of ideas. So what do you do? You create a new timeline. Keeping the original ‘78 Halloween and ‘81 Halloween II cannon, Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later disregards all of the other films, and follows Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode 20 years after the first film. She is suffering from intense post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety-fueled episodes plagued by visions of Michael Myers, and it actually leads to a stunning amount of character development for this franchise that feels surprisingly refreshing. But that time spent on characters like Laurie, or her son, comes at a cost. H20 really struggles to be a slasher horror. The movie is barely an hour and a half long, and Myers doesn’t even really start slashing and gashing until the one-hour mark of the film. A lot of the fear and tension that this movie is trying to create is just not there. To make up for it, H20 distinctly feels like an over-the-top zany ‘90s movie and has star power the likes of Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and LL Cool J to boot. While this may be a fairly average, or even mundane, movie overall, it still has its appeal (especially for fans of ‘90s schlock), and is certainly one of the better Halloween films. (Heath Lynch)
John Carpenter’s original vision of the Halloween franchise was to make an anthology series of horror films, each taking place on Halloween night. However, after the rousing success of the original film, the studio made Carpenter make a sequel with Michael Myers before continuing with his vision. Eventually, we got Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a film which is the obvious standout from the franchise. Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, this film has a reputation for being really disappointing, but after binging all of the Halloween films recently, it is the one that has stuck with me the most, and which I’m most excited to rewatch! Sure, the absence of Michael is noticeable, but that is only because he is the focus of every other film. Apart from that, the entire tone is different, and it really works. Rather than a slasher film, Halloween III is a tense, mysterious detective thriller. There aren’t any big twists or turns, but it is about the experience getting there. Tom Atkins and Dan O’Herlihy play their respective roles so well that I honestly didn’t miss Michael Myers. The film has very Soylent Green energy and a remarkable finale, although I would have preferred the original finale aired to test audiences. If Halloween III were simply titled Season of the Witch and separated from the Halloween franchise, I’m convinced it would be considered a classic rather than a stain on a popular franchise. (Aaron Schweitzer)
How can you possibly follow up one of the greatest slasher films in the history of cinema that transcended that subgenre of horror films? Maybe the anthology idea should have started a little earlier! Halloween II is not on the level of craft and execution of the original, but it does have an eye for slaughter. The craftsman ship moved out with Carpenter, but it is hard to deny that Halloween II still packs a bloody punch. Carpenter might not be behind the camera but his writing and (more importantly) his music are still felt in this sequel. There are some controversial twists and turns, but that cannot get in the way of the slasher elements that make it a fun time. There are also gruesome and brutal kills that lead up to an explosive and fiery finale that will be hard to forget. Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence still bring the spirit in this film, helping balance out some of the weaker elements of this inferior outing in the Halloween franchise. (Shane Conto)
40 years after the original Halloween was released, we get a proper sequel that shares the original’s name with 2018’s Halloween. Jamie Lee Curtis has a mature role here as an old and wisened Laurie Strode, who has been preparing for Michael Myers’ return for 40 years. Newcomers Judy Greer and Andi Matichak are good additions as the daughter and granddaughter of the ultimate final girl. Nick Castle returns as the shape himself and still scares us silly without a single syllable uttered. While the movie audibles for brutal violence instead of the atmospheric terrors of the original, it still is enough to strike fear into an audience. We are here to see our heroes fight back and the monster get his victims, and director David Gordon Green delivers that. Myers is more monstrous than ever, and that’s all we need. Sometimes the beast is just waiting to come back, and all you need to do is set it free. (Sam Nichols)
Depending on who you talk to, the original Halloween by John Carpenter might be the greatest slasher horror of all time. At bare minimum it is easily one of the most influential slashers ever made. It has since gone on to spawn a franchise that has lasted over a dozen entries and spanned almost 45 years. That is the impact and legacy of this tremendous masterpiece. What’s truly impressive is how well it holds up when you go back and rewatch the film to this day. It’s instantly apparent why it’s such a classic. It is brimming with terror. It showcases our killer in broad daylight stalking his prey, building tension and atmosphere. You have a breakout debut performance from Jamie Lee Curtis, who sets the standard for how to play a scream queen. There’s grotesque makeup special effects, brutal kills, and the foundations of the signature horror tropes like the final girl and premarital sex that spells your doom. And you cannot forget the signature John Carpenter original score. I’m sure you can hear that piano melody in your head right now, and feeling it send chills down your spine and raising the hairs on your arm. The attributes of this movie is a list that goes on forever. But just know that it all amounts to one thing — the original 1978 Halloween is a masterpiece of cinema, and one of the greatest horror movies you could ever watch. (Heath Lynch)