Halloween Horror: Ranking the Films of the Halloween Series

The past few Octobers I’ve worked my way through popular horror franchises in order to gain a broader appreciation of horror in all its forms. I first worked my way through the Paranormal Activity series, a personal favourite, and explored the ways that it exemplified the best of the found-footage subgenre that dominated horror in the early 2010s. I then looked at the Nightmare on Elm Street series and how it infused horror with absurdist imagery and goofy humour, defanging the slasher film even as it indulged in some truly imaginative filmmaking. And now I’ve turned to perhaps the most iconic horror franchise of them all, Halloween.

Perhaps it’s the name or the iconography of the series, or the fact that no franchise captures the silent dread of an October night more thoroughly than the Halloween series, but there’s likely no better horror series to watch during the month of October. Like all horror series, Halloween is wildly uneven, but the series is nevertheless iconic. In order to explore the successes and failures of the Halloween series, I’ve ranked all the films in the series, including Rob Zombie’s remakes and David Gordon Green’s revival trilogy. It’s likely that my ranking looks very different than most other folks’. But in ranking the films, I’ve attempted to wrestle with what makes the series unique and interesting and explain why it’s worth exploring the series, even if it contains more bad films than good.

1. Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter

Back in 2015, I wrote that the power of John Carpenter’s original film had faded over the years. I was wrong. Upon a revisit, Carpenter’s film proves itself to have an enduring power that capitalizes on the quiet of a fall night like few other films. Its greatest strength is its primal power. It distills the horror movie villain into an avatar of sheer malice and death—the Bogeyman—and simplifies the horror approach in such an elegant manner that horror movies have been attempting to duplicate its success for the past 40 years. It weaponizes adolescent fears of sexuality and looming adulthood, even as it plays into the uncanny elements of nightmares with Michael Myers’ almost supernatural quiet and invincibility. The camerawork is stunning, with Carpenter’s gliding camera implicating the viewer in its assumption of Michael Myers’ point of view, even as it thrills us with its voyeuristic gaze. This is a work of overwhelming atmosphere and a classic in the horror genre. And let’s not forget the score, which is among the best in Hollywood history.

2. Halloween (2018) dir. David Gordon Green

David Gordon Green’s sequel is second only to the original due to its being the scariest entry in the series. It cannot exist outside of connection to the original Carpenter film, but in many ways it refines beats and visual approaches in the original and updates them for the world of horror circa 2018. Halloween acts as a diegetic reboot like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with its repetitions of the original film and meta-commentary on the series as a pop-culture icon. But it’s also an elegant horror film that explores trauma in meaningful ways while also returning the series to the primal horrors that it was founded upon. It removes the unwieldy mythology and goes back to basics. Most importantly, it’s genuinely scary. If the series has dulled the terror of Michael Myers over the years, Green’s film returns all of that preternatural terror to the masked spectre at its centre.

3. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) dir. Tommy Lee Wallace

If only the series had continued on the track laid out in Season of the Witch, which tried to turn the series into an anthology of disconnected horror stories set during Halloween. But instead of becoming the new template for the series, Season of the Witch is the exception, the sole film without Michael Myers or any of the characters from Haddonfield and Smith’s Grove Asylum. What we’re left with is a deeply weird horror film that draws on science-fiction impulses in its tale of a sinister toymaker, mythological connections to Stonehenge, and murderous robots. Season of the Witch channels the paranoia of the original in a different direction, focusing on the horrors of corporations and the feeling of living in a world that is not what it seems—themes picked up on by Carpenter in They Live. Season of the Witch is more eerie than scary, but its bizarre ideas are genuinely original and well-executed without being silly or redundant. It’s a horror gem of the early eighties.

4. Halloween Ends (2022) dir. David Gordon Green

Halloween Ends is as idiosyncratic as these films get, and mostly the better for it. Billed as the epic conclusion to the struggle between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, Halloween Ends is hardly about Laurie or Michael. Rather, it’s an exploration of the nature of evil through a character portrait of Corey Cunningham (Roham Campbell), a young man who accidentally kills a child in the opening scene and is pushed through social ostracization and personal resentment to become a killer. The first half of the film is a dark romance between Corey and Allyson (Andi Matichak), Laurie’s granddaughter, showing the dangerous, sensual pull between two individuals on the fringes of society. It acts more like one of Green’s indie films than a conventional horror film. The second half shows Corey unleashing his rage at the town of Haddonfield and reawakening Michael Myers, who sets out to finally kill Laurie Strode. As a conclusion to one of the most iconic horror franchises, Halloween Ends is not entirely satisfying, but its commitment to character and provocative interrogation of what causes evil in the world—which confronts the typical horror movie viewer in the process of its investigation—makes it among the most interesting films in the series.

5. Halloween: H20: 20 Years Later (1998) dir. Steve Minor

In many ways, Halloween: H20: 20 Years Later is a reactive film, pivoting the series into meta-horror and the kind of slick, music-video inspired filmmaking that was popularized in the nineties by Wes Craven’s Scream. But it’s also a return to form for the series, entirely due to Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Laurie Strode. While Laurie was initially killed off prior to Halloween 4, H20 brings her back and ignores the mythology of films four through six. It plays as a furiously-paced revenge film, with a superficial exploration of trauma and alcoholism added on to give it some dramatic texture. It’s hardly deep, but Curtis’s performance brings back some of the genuine terror of Michael Myers and the kills here are inventive and appropriately gruesome. As well, the young cast, including the likes of Michelle Williams and Josh Hartnett, is strong, and the most egregious nineties cliches are largely masked by its fast pace and clear filmmaking. Also, that opening, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is a hoot.

6. Halloween II (1981) dir. Rick Rosenthal

Halloween II is not a bad film, but it’s entirely redundant. It plays essentially as an epilogue for the first film, extending the showdown between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers on Halloween night in 1978, pivoting the majority of the action to the hospital where Laurie is receiving care. The film is best when it indulges in Michael Myers’ brutality—the scene where he murders a man by submerging him in boiling water is horrifying. But the actual arc of the film is largely a repeat of the first film. Furthermore, Halloween II is responsible for the biggest mistake in the entire series: the decision to reveal that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers’ sister. Most of the problems of the films that are to follow can be traced back to this misguided decision that shrinks the storyworld and reduces Michael Myers to human dimensions, robbing him of his preternatural terror.

7. Halloween Kills (2021) dir. David Gordon Green

Less a horror movie than an action film, Halloween Kills operates like a supercut of grisly Michael Myers murders. Michael Myers is truly brutal here, with a kill count in the dozens and some of the most inventive and horrifying murders in the series. The thematic heft of the film comes from its focus on the inhabitants of Haddonfield, who form a posse at the behest of Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), who survived Michael Myers’ rampage on Halloween night 1978, and turn into a violent mob on the hunt for Michael Myers. But of course, the mob causes more harm than good, creating scapegoats and driving the community into a frenzy of hate and fear. There’s something intriguing about the conception of Halloween Kills and the way that it extends the fear, and by extension, the role of villain from Michael Myers to the community as a whole. But the execution doesn’t live up to the concept, partially because so many of the proceedings have to do with half-baked characters introduced in this film while sidelining Laurie Strode and Deputy Hawkins. Green and company still know how to deliver a brutally entertaining slasher film, but as a commentary on social breakdowns in the face of violence, Halloween Kills is a mixed bag.

8. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) dir. Dwight H. Little

The Return of Michael Myers plays as a soft reboot of the first film, killing off Laurie and replacing her with another babysitter, Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell), who just so happens to be looking after Laurie’s daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). It has many of the same beats as the first film, and a similar home-invasion approach, which gives it much of its appeal. But the lower budget, poorly-written characters, and visually indistinct filmmaking make its repetitions ring hollow. It’s a decent horror picture, but does little to stand out from other low-rent slashers of the late eighties and early nineties. Also, the ending, which repeats the opening of the original film with Jamie taking Michael’s place, is an inexplicable plot turn that is meant to be chilling, but ends up being merely aggravating.

9. Halloween II (2009) dir. Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie’s Halloween II is barely a Halloween film at all. Tonally, visually, and narratively distinct from every other film in the series, Halloween II finds Zombie indulging his grindhouse aesthetic and trying to dig into the trauma that underpins the character of Laurie Strode, here played by Scout Taylor-Compton. I say “trying” because Zombie isn’t completely successful in his attempts to dig into the pain and suffering caused by Michael in the first film, and the way that trauma affects both killers and victims. He saddles Taylor-Compton with more than she can handle, and plays every scene for maximum misery. As well, Zombie’s approach to the material is actually too trashy. For every scene trying to delicately handle Laurie’s mental anguish, there’s one of Michael Myers brutalizing a woman in the most ghastly ways imaginable. The murder scenes go on several beats too long in every instance, and for all the avowed interest in the women in the film, the way that Zombie lusts over their deaths suggests his real interests. The film is more successful when it explores the implications of true crime media and profiting off of death in its plotline following Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell). Bonus points for how many Deadwood alumni show up in bit parts.

10. Halloween (2007) dir. Rob Zombie

Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake is a bold gambit on a character-based approach to the material. Too bad it doesn’t pay off. The first 30 minutes give us a backstory to Michael Myers that we don’t need, indulging every miserabilist notion of what creates killers, from neglectful parenting to abuse to poverty. It positions Michael as both a victim and a deranged killer, wanting to mythologize his capacity for violence even as it sympathizes with his childhood trauma. Unfortunately, this approach is a reductive literalization of the character of Michael Myers, robbing one of the most intriguing ciphers in horror cinema of his mystery, and, thus, his terror. Once the film returns to the main plot arc of the original film, it’s on steadier ground and is fairly entertaining. However, Zombie’s aesthetic is too gritty for the material, lacking any of the style and atmosphere that makes the original film so invigorating. Zombie succeeds in bringing Michael Myers down to earth here, but he ends up reducing the whole concept of Halloween to just another grisly slasher film.

11. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) dir. Joe Chappelle

The Curse of Michael Myers has the honour of being Paul Rudd’s first starring role. That’s about all that is good about it. That being said, the film is so disastrously imagined that it becomes entertaining in how bonkers it is. It’s a perfect example of how horror films often allow an expanded mythology to overwhelm their core concept, in this case, transforming Michael Myers into the latest in a long line of killers imbued with mystical, druidic powers meant to cyclically purge humanity of evil. The film reminded me of Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare from the Nightmare on Elm Street series in how bizarre it is. I’m shocked it was actually made. Also, the film is disappointingly low-rent. It came out only a year before Scream and yet looks like it was made in a different decade.

12. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) dir. Dominique Othenin-Girard

The Revenge of Michael Myers is a bad sequel, no more, no less. It runs around 98 minutes long, but almost nothing of note happens throughout that entire runtime. In fact, it removes what little interest there was in the new characters from The Return of Michael Myers. Instead of a parallel to Michael and a new victim traumatized by his presence, Jamie is robbed of the ability to speak here and is relegated to non-stop crying and screaming as her only way to communicate. Suffice to say, whoever thought it’d be a good idea to hinge an entire film on a child actor moaning and wailing throughout every scene should be banished from Hollywood forever.

13. Halloween: Resurrection (2002) dir. Rick Rosenthal

Killing off Laurie Strode in the first 10 minutes and then spending the rest of the film wallowing in a low-rent cyber thriller with Michael Myers as a lumbering villain is enough to sink this film to the bottom of the list. There is something to the film’s commentary on the Internet and voyeuristic aspects that could have given it exploitation interest, but it’s never capitalized on, instead acting as merely a vehicle for a sleazy thriller that just so happens to have Michael Myers as the villain. As well, seeing as the film came out in 2002, any of its social commentary is clearly accidental, more a result of the film trying to capitalize on a new trend than offering any substantial reflection on a new way of interacting in the world. It’s surprising that the failure of Resurrection didn’t kill the series for good.

Halloween (1978, USA)

Directed by John Carpenter; written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Donald Pleasance, Jamie Lee Curtis, P. J. Soles, Nancy Loomis, Charles Cyphers, Nick Castle.

Halloween II (1981, USA)

Directed by Rick Rosenthal; written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasance, Charles Cyphers, Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Dick Warlock.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, USA)

Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace; starring Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy, Michael Currie, Ralph Strait.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988, USA)

Directed by Dwight H. Little; written by Alan B. McElroy, based on a story by McElroy, Danny Lipsius, Larry Rattner, and Benjamin Ruffner, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Donald Pleasance, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, Michael Pataki, George P. Wilbur.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989, USA)

Directed by Dominique Othernin-Girard; written by Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othernin-Girard, and Shem Bitterman, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Donald Pleasance, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, Beau Starr, Wendy Kaplan, Tamara Glynn.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995, USA)

Directed by Joe Chappelle; written by Daniel Farrands, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Donald Pleasance, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan, Mitch Ryan.

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998, USA)

Directed by Steve Miner; written by Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg, based on a story by Robert Zappia, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Janet Leigh, Josh Hartnett, LL Cool J, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Halloween: Resurrection (2002, USA)

Directed by Rick Rosenthal; written by Larry Bond and Sean Hood, based on a story by Larry Bond, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kajich, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Ryan Merriman, Sean Patrick Thomas, Tyra Banks, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Lee Curtis.

Halloween (2007, USA)

Directed by Rob Zombie; written by Rob Zombie, based on the film by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie, Tyler Mane, Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, William Forsythe.

Halloween II (2009, USA)

Directed by Rob Zombie; written by Rob Zombie, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif, Danielle Harris, Scout Taylor-Compton.

Halloween (2018, USA)

Directed by David Gordon Green; written by Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Will Patton, Toby Huss, Virginia Gardner, Haluk Bilginer, Jefferson Hall, Rhian Rees.

Halloween Kills (2021, USA)

Directed by David Gordon Green; written by Scott Teems, Danny McBridge, and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall.

Halloween Ends (2022, USA)

Directed by David Gordon Green; written by Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill; starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, James Jude Courtney.

Editor’s note: This ranking was original published on October 31, 2019. It has been updated to include Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends.

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