Every movie is someone’s favorite movie. If you are a fan of the Halloween franchise and see your personal favorite movie ranked at or near the bottom of this list…don’t take it personally. Every movie has value.
Spoilers for the series and individual films are unavoidable.
13. Halloween: Resurrection
Fresh Out of Good Ideas
The cost of Halloween H20 having a satisfying ending is that its direct sequel has to immediately undo it. I don’t know if there was a good way to bring Michael Myers back from his beheading at the hands of Laurie Strode…but Halloween: Resurrection certainly didn’t have one. Jamie Lee Curtis comes back for an extended cameo in the opening scene. It’s the only scene worth watching and gives people an alternate ending to the Laurie/Michael storyline if they want it.
After Laurie is, literally, out of the picture…the movie just goes to hell. The plot is centered around an online reality show putting people in the Myers’ house overnight. People usually refer to Resurrection as the one where Busta Rhymes beats up Michael Myers, and look…that sucked, but it’s not even close to the biggest problem in the movie. The technology angle was never going to age well but it doesn’t even feel relevant to the time it was in. Rick Rosenthal (Halloween II) returns to direct and make people wonder exactly how much of that sequel John Carpenter fixed. Ranking Halloween: Resurrection at the bottom is an easy call.
Read our full review
12. Halloween II (2009)
More Dirt, Less Brains
Rob Zombie’s Halloween II does the impossible. It finds a way to make the unlikable characters in his remake even worse. I want to start by giving Zombie credit for doing something new with the series here. The problem is the disdain he appears to have for these characters permeates every frame of his ugly film. Loomis and Laurie are both portrayed as a series worst here…and that is not the fault of the actors. Brad Dourif and Danielle Harris do their best to give you something to care about.
Zombie’s world view is so dark and depressing here. The best of these movies is about the survival of innocence and strength of survival. Halloween II posits that no one is innocent, and you can never truly escape. Yay?
10. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Loomis Goes Bananas
Halloween 4 ended with a bang, opening the franchise up to an interesting new path. Halloween 5 almost completely ignores it. That is the first of many, many mistakes. There have been some bad masks in the Halloween series, but this might take the cake. Dr. Loomis is full on out of his mind at this point. He spends most of the movie terrorizing a now mute Jamie Lloyd. That’s not what the movie is really intending you to read into it…but it’s impossible not to.
Danielle Harris has to do most of her performance without speaking this time around…and she’s still great here. Playing both Jamie Lloyd as a child and Annie Brackett in Rob Zombie’s movies, Harris gets more bad scripts than good ones. She manages to crush every performance anyway. Halloween 5 is no exception. Other than her performance and a decent suspense scene at the end (in a Myers house that is now hilariously different) there’s nothing here worth seeking out. Unless you really love unhinged Loomis. …which I do.
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11. Halloween (2007)
What If We Told the Same Story but You Hated Everyone?
They got the timing of a Halloween reboot right. Halloween: Resurrection showed a franchise out of ideas…but there is always more juice in the Michael Myers character. Rob Zombie boldly gives us all of the backstory to Michael Myers that we can handle. Unfortunately, outside of a filthy home and foul-mouthed family…he doesn’t actually have anything to say.
Unlike the bottom three on this list, Halloween (2007) isn’t really a bad movie. Ranking Halloween (2007) is one of the more difficult tasks. It has the things you like…just not the way you like them. The extra look at pre-adult Michael is at least something new. The remake portion of the movie is passable. The problem with the movie isn’t the story…it’s the characters. There are so many unlikable characters thrown at you so quickly it never recovers. It does have a very good Michael Myers mask and an intimidating performance as The Shape from Tyler Mane. It’s a watchable movie that adds things that don’t add a thing.
9. Halloween Kills
Evil Dies Eventually
Halloween Kills makes the choice to sideline Laurie Strode in favor of examining how the town of Haddonfield would react to the return of the boogeyman. Narratively it’s a fine angle. In execution it’s a bit of a mess. We do get to see a Michael Myers at the peak of his power here, which provides some fun. Unfortunately, the new and returning characters range from annoying to unnecessary.
Like Halloween II, Kills is a continuation of the same night of its predecessor…which means, like Halloween II…Laurie spends the night in a hospital. This time, Michael doesn’t come for her. This should have provided the latest sequel series with a path to do some great character development work. Instead, like too much of the trilogy, it doesn’t think that hard about it.
Read our Halloween Kills Review
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8. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Doubling Down on the Wrong Thing
Full disclosure…Halloween 6 is not a good movie. But it is an incredibly watchable not good movie. Especially the Producer’s Cut which gives more answers to the Cult of Thorn storyline and better endings to pretty much all of our characters. It’s also ridiculous. By this point in the franchise, they’ve decided that we need to know why Michael Myers is unstoppable evil. No movie in the series goes farther into trying to solve this puzzle that no one was asking an answer to. Ranking Halloween 6 this high may seem like an odd choice…but if you’re going to turn your brain off and pop in a Halloween movie…this is one to do it to.
For some reason choosing to break all the rules of what made the original Halloween a masterpiece kind of works here. Not in making it a good film, mind you…more in making it the entertaining kind of nuts. This would be Donald Pleasence’s final time playing Dr. Loomis. He doesn’t have the energy to be Halloween 5 level insane…but he still tries. The theatrical cut had to undergo reshoots without him as he had already passed away…which really didn’t help the movie make more sense. The Producer’s Cut is the way to go with this one.
7. Halloween Ends
Purposely Divisive
It’s fitting that Halloween Ends falls right in the middle of the rankings. Though just released, it’s already proven to be one of the most divisive movies in the franchise. That said, look at the six movies under Ends and tell me divisiveness is anything new here. The bottom line with Halloween Ends is that it isn’t the movie people wanted. That doesn’t make it a bad movie. In fact, ranking Halloween Ends this quickly after release may be doing it a disservice. Time may end up kind to this one.
Once again it examines the effect of evil on the town of Haddonfield and largely sidelines Laurie Strode. Fortunately, unlike Kills, it does have something new to say about it. A story that is more about whether society will ever allow you to be anything other than what it labels you than the epic finale it was pitched as, Halloween Ends does have a worthwhile take on the strength and longevity of evil vs. the strength and longevity of survival.
Read our Halloween Ends Review
6. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The One Without Michael Myers…On Purpose
Halloween III is the horror equivalent to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The first Bond film without Sean Connery, it was not a fan favorite at the time of release. After decades go by and we get more and more Bond movies of varying quality…the movie was reassessed and was able to be taken on its own merits. Halloween III is the one that isn’t about Michael Myers.
It’s also a good movie. It just took decades for people to come around to it. The plan here was to keep the Halloween franchise going as an anthology not dependent on the established characters. Instead of a slasher movie, we get an investigation into a company that makes Halloween masks. I know that doesn’t sound fun…but it is. Tom Atkins is great as our lead and the ending is a banger. If you’ve side stepped this movie and think ranking Halloween III this high is a questionable move…it’s time to check it out.
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5. Halloween II
Laurie Takes a Nap
Halloween II is very entertaining in spite of making a lot of bad choices. This is the movie where Michael Myers was retconned as Laurie Strode’s brother. It would take 36 years for someone to decide to wipe out that misstep. That story caused problems throughout the franchise, but the bigger problem in Halloween II is that it leaves Laurie laying in a bed for most of it.
Michael Myers heads to the hospital to finish what he started. Because the slasher genre had exploded since (and because of) the first film, Halloween II ups the kill count and blood splatter to keep pace. There are fun kills here and, once Laurie rejoins the party, a great extended chase sequence. Dr. Loomis is already completely off the rails by this one…which is always fun.
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4. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
You Can’t Outrun Your Past
Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode for the first time since Halloween II. Set, and coming out, 20 years after the original…Halloween H20 is a lean sprint of a movie. This is the first reset of franchise timelines, choosing to ignore parts 4-6 and serve as a direct sequel to part 2. Basically, Laurie and Michael are still related here. Now the mother to a 17-year-old son, Laurie has changed her name and moved out of Haddonfield in fear that her brother would return.
And return he does. Michael makes his way to the boarding school Laurie works at and starts to cut his path towards her and her son. What makes H20 work is that nothing overstays its welcome. Yes, there is a bad mask again, but there’s a simple story led by a great performance by Curtis. It also may have the most purely satisfying ending of any movie in the series. Until Resurrection ruins it anyway.
3. Halloween (2018)
You (Still) Can’t Outrun Your Past
Jamie Lee Curtis returns, again. This time we are 40 years past the original Halloween night. Laurie is a survivalist who has pushed society and her family away as she prepares for an inevitable showdown with her boogeyman. This is another franchise reset, wiping out every movie but the original, finally undoing the Halloween II mistake of making Laurie Michael’s sister.
One of the highlights of the movie is how it treats the characters that are searching for answers to Michael Myers’ evil. The series has been bogged down repeatedly in answering questions…Halloween (2018) punishes the characters who ask them. Laurie, adopts more of the Loomis role here, knowing that there is nothing to learn other than to be prepared. Curtis shines, once again, as a Laurie Strode who has waited, and wasted, her whole life for this moment. Halloween (2018) presents another great ending that would be undone in service of more sequels.
Read our Halloween (2018) Review
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2. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Bad Mask, Great Sequel
Halloween fans were not pleased when Halloween III arrived without Michael Myers stalking around. As a result, they brought him back for the next sequel. They explain away that both he and Dr. Loomis burned to death at the end of Part 2 with…some light scarring. Jamie Lee Curtis did not return for this sequel, so they had her character die offscreen in a car accident. Taking the lead is Danielle Harris as Jamie Lloyd, Laurie Strode’s daughter. Harris gives one of the best performances in the franchise here.
Michael Myers wakes up from a ten-year coma to hunt down his niece on Halloween night. Dr. Loomis is back on his trail, as ineffective as ever. No movie in the franchise feels more like a sequel to Halloween than this one. Other movies deliver us Laurie vs. Michael and tell sequel stories…but Halloween 4 gets the feel the closest. It’s patient and suspenseful. It has likable characters, a great turn by Loomis and, despite a bad mask, a good Michael Myers.
Aside from the Rob Zombie movies, it’s telling that ranking Halloween movies sees the first entry of all the franchise resets ranked on top. The first chapters have delivered time and time again. They just go off track quickly.
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1. Halloween
The One
Every ranking here is very debatable except this one. Ranking Halloween anywhere but first would do a grave disservice to the masterpiece that started the franchise. John Carpenter captured lightning in a bottle on a small budget. The empty streets of Haddonfield add an atmosphere that the bigger budgeted sequels never fully recapture.
Everything that can be written about Halloween has been at this point. Including in our review linked below. The bottom line is that Halloween is as close to a perfect movie as the slasher genre has. The neighborhood setting, the unexplainable evil, the likable characters, the perfect ending. There’s nothing that Halloween does that any sequel improves upon. An iconic score, an iconic final girl, and an iconic killer combine into the best that the Halloween series has to offer.
