Here’s all Halloween movies ranked from the entire franchise, including the newly released Halloween Ends.
All Halloween Movies Ranked
Irrevocably lodged in the pop culture consciousness like a kitchen knife to the skull, Halloween has been an utterly unkillable force for over four decades now.
Few franchises can hold a candle to Halloween’s durability, and even fewer can do so with such wildly fluctuating output. What started out in such relatively low-key fashion back in 1978, swiftly grew into a true horror monster, with a wide array of instalments that have swung violently from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again.
From reboots to remakes to everything in between, it’s fair to say Halloween has been far from the most consistent movie series out there, yet it has endured like no other.
So here we are, 44 years on from Michael Myers first slashing his way into our hearts and the end appears to have finally arrived. Or has it? Who truly knows.
Whatever the future of the franchise holds, however, the release of Halloween Ends marks the perfect moment to pause and reflect on how far we’ve come with a big old ranking of every Halloween film to date!
13. HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION (2002)
Remember when Halloween just went “screw it” and had Busta Rhymes kung-fu kick Michael Myers through a window? No. Well count yourself lucky, because I do, and it was just as rough as it sounds.
After the modest step forward with H20, the franchise took a huge one back again with Resurrection, turning Halloween into the worst kind of horny noughties teen slasher. Painfully bland and thunderously dumb, Resurrection is the nadir of a franchise that’s had more than its fair share of nadirs.
12. HALLOWEEN II (2009)
Say what you want about Rob Zombie movies (and trust me, I have) but at least they’re not boring. Ruthless, ugly, and outrageously dumb, yes. But not boring.
And that’s precisely what Halloween II is. It’s an ugly mess of a film that drains Michael Myers of every last drop of mystique, however, it’s all so oddly alluring and never less than intriguing throughout.
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11. HALLOWEEN 6: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1995)
Going to painfully great lengths to position Michael Myers not as the unthinking embodiment of evil, but a tortured victim, The Curse of Michael Myers is just a big misstep of a film.
Mostly notable for the final film appearance of Donald Pleasance and an ‘introducing’ credit for a fresh-faced Paul Rudd, Halloween 6 is a confused, thunderously dumb, achingly boring movie that strips Michael Myers of everything that made him so fascinating.
10. HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1989)
Sure, there are worse Halloween entries than The Revenge of Michael Myers out there, but you’ll be hard pressed to find a duller one.
Spurning the compelling cliff hanger of its predecessor, Halloween 5 bottles it completely in a mishmash of tones and plot threads that would mark the beginning of the franchise’s steep decline.
9. HALLOWEEN KILLS (2021)
Part pertinent stab at the dangers of mob mentality, part grisly throwback slasher, Halloween Kills is one tonally confused film.
Bizarrely confining Laurie Strode to a hospital bed for much of its runtime, Kills just feels terminally pointless, and after 2018’s Halloween breathed new life into the slowly dying series, it exposes a franchise completely unable to learn from its mistakes.
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8. HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988)
When Season of the Witch was roundly (and unfairly) rejected by audiences, those involved with Halloween knew they had to bring back Michael Myers in a big way for its follow-up.
Not bad, not entirely good, The Return of Michael Myers does a sound job of capturing the first film’s spirit without doing anything new with it. The iconic villain is back, and although the lack of Jamie Lee Curtis is a shame, the return of Donald Pleasance to chew every inch of scenery is an undeniable delight.
7. HALLOWEEN II (1981)
Essentially a feature-length post-credits scene, there’s nothing inherently bad with Halloween II, it just feels so superfluous.
Picking up immediately after the events of the first film, Halloween II basically does Halloween again, just in a hospital and with less Jamie Lee Curtis. And if that wasn’t enough, they went and gave us that sibling twist that sent the franchise on a tailspin of ridiculousness that lasted decades.
6. HALLOWEEN (2007)
Now on its third reboot, this rejigged Halloween really had to do something different to keep people engaged. And boy is it different.
With Rob Zombie’s bloody fingerprints all over it, Halloween couldn’t be less like John Carpenter’s original vision if it tried, which is what makes it so fascinating. At its best as an unabashed Zombie joint, the film is a brutally bizarre chapter in the long-running franchise.
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5. HALLOWEEN ENDS (2022)
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from its 44 years on Earth, it’s that the Halloween franchise’s ability to miss an open goal should never be underestimated. It’s done it time and time again, and Halloween Ends makes for another fine example of a golden opportunity wasted.
Overly stoic and caught fumbling an interesting premise, Halloween Ends at least tries something different, yet it all feels so underwhelming, and not at all the final chapter the 2018 reboot once promised.
4. HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982)
A strange one for sure, Season of the Witch is definitely the most interesting Halloween installment going. Want your Halloween films without even a sniff of Michael Myers? Well, this is the film for you.
While that prospect seems bizarre in hindsight, the result is actually pretty decent. Who knows where we’d be if they’d stuck with the anthology concept, however, the huge backlash to the decision meant the franchise was always going to go running back to Michael.
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3. HALLOWEEN H20: 20 YEARS LATER (1998)
After two decades of diminishing returns, the only real remaining option for the Halloween series was to rip it up and start again.
Picking things up twenty years after Halloween II and wisely ignoring the guff in between, H20 brings back an in-her-prime Jamie Lee Curtis, goes back to basics, and repackages the franchise as a 90s teen slasher with solid results.
2. HALLOWEEN (2018)
Keeping things simple, Blumhouse took a no-frills stab at a franchise in real danger of bleeding out completely. While the honed approach offers nothing new, Halloween effectively expands the original’s world with smart character development, while setting up a full-blown franchise resurrection as it went.
With the return of John Carpenter in something more than a passing credits mention and Curtis back in full force, it was just nice to see a little love poured into the franchise once again.
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1. HALLOWEEN (1978)
Well of course it is. What else did you expect?
Despite the Halloween franchise’s surprising longevity, none of the subsequent instalments have even come close to matching the original.
The OG slasher, 1978’s Halloween is low-cost horror perfection, putting every penny of its minuscule budget to good use.
Led with scream queen majesty by Jamie Lee Curtis and horror’s most unstoppable serial killer, Halloween is, like Myers himself, an absolute force of nature that’s lost none of its power to have you checking the dark corners of your home even after all these years.
Check out the Halloween movies here.
NEXT: Halloween Ends Movie Review
