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Rewatching the best Halloween movies is a must every October. Michael Myers swinging an oversized kitchen knife at some unsuspecting teens is as integral to the spooky season as comfy jumpers and pumpkin spice lattes. Sadly, however, the Halloween franchise is a bit of a mess, with only a couple of entries worthy of being considered among the best horror movies around. That doesn't mean there aren't bloody treats to uncover, though, and if you wanted to know which of The Shape's outings are top-tier, you've knocked at the right house.
Running from John Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece right through to the latest entry, Halloween Ends, I've ranked all the movies starring Haddonfield's Boogeyman from worst to best down below. While some are nowhere near the best slashers available, most are still a fun time in some regard. And personally, if you're a fan of "good time bad movies," I'd recommend you check out every entry. If you don't have a huge amount of viewing time, though, our guide will let you know which flicks are crucial, at the very least.
The best Halloween movies, ranked from worst to best...
13. Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers
Year: 1995
Director: Joe Chappelle
Up until Halloween 6, every film in the series opened with an evolved variant of the first movie’s atmospheric, slow-burning, pumpkin-themed intro. The start of Halloween 6, though? A comically tortured assault of cold blue strobe lighting, distorted screams, and images of wailing faces. This is a film of cartoonishly grimy asylums, endless smash-zoom edits, random palette changes, and a soundtrack of relentless screams that occur even when no one is screaming.
The plot isn't much better, I'm afraid. Having established over the previous two films (also known as Halloween 4 and 5, and collectively referred to as the first two parts of The Cult of Thorn trilogy), that Michael is hunting down the last remaining members of his family, Halloween 6 finally decides to explain why. And oh boy, will you wish it hadn’t. Let’s just say that it involves an ancient druidic space-magic curse triggered by the alignment of the stars on Halloween, and that Michael is now basically murder-Jesus. If any one Halloween sequel is the reason that in 2018 we got a reset to the franchise's plot following the first film, it's this one.
12. Halloween Resurrection
Year: 2022
Director: Rick Rosenthal
OK, Halloween Resurrection is a mess, so much so that we can't in good faith rank it higher. However, it is a fun mess that falls into the "so bad it's kind of good" territory as well. I mean, who doesn't want to see Busta Rhymes roundhouse kick Michael Myers (yes, that's a real scene). You know how, when studio executives positively do not have a single idea left on what to do with a franchise, they’ll sometimes staple it to the latest idea of what "The Kids Are Into" in an attempt to catch the latest trend? This is the apocalypse version of that.
Michael Myers' old neighbourhood in Haddonfield is run-down and abandoned. But this year it’s going to be the site of a live-streamed internet horror reality-TV show. Because of the internet, right? Yes, it's as bad as you think. Yes, there are pranks gone wrong, and someone dressing up as Michael being taken down by the real Michael. This one even kills off Laurie while revealing that the Michael she killed at the end of the previous Halloween: H20 wasn't even Michael at all. It's an obvious cash grab, trying to get more juice out of H20's success, but hey, at least it's fun.
11. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Year: 1989
Director: Dominique Othenin-Girard
This is the film you'd get if Stranger Things was a satire of the decade's cinema rather than a tribute. The badboy boyfriends' hair is extravagant, the sunglasses are constant, and the plot is an unrestrained mess. Jettisoning any hint of supernatural-or-not ambiguity, Halloween 5 establishes a psychic link between Michael and his newfound niece Jamie, and sends him after her again.
Along the way, the film struggles to reconcile its decision to cast a nine-year-old child - rendered mute with trauma - as Final Girl, and so jumps protagonist duties to several different characters along the way, before settling (for a bit) on Tina, a nonsensical being apparently governed by an emotional random-number generator, whose dialogue frequently seems improvised to the end of genuine parody. Donald Pleasence's evolution of Loomis into a deranged obsessive is a nice, refreshing touch, and probably the only genuinely resonant element of the film. The rest of it, though, is kind of a mess.
10. Halloween Ends
Year: 2022
Director: David Gordon Green
Halloween Ends closes David Gordon Green's Halloween timeline once and for all, and Michael is hardly in it. Instead, he makes a new friend in a sewer, the social outcast Corey (Rohan Campbell), who basically becomes his knife-wielding disciple. It is interesting to see Michael kind of passing on the torch to a new person. However, Michael is scary because, although he is a man, he is unpredictable; he kills with no real rhyme or reason. Corey, on the other hand, is a run-of-the-mill serial killer that the flick tries to humanize.
Halloween Ends is also way too long and just not fun enough to excuse all its clunky plot choices. Say what you want about Halloween Kills, but the action and gore were there. Halloween Ends feels confused about what franchise it's in, breaking too far from Carpenter's original vibe, and taking itself too seriously in the process. You can read more about it in our Halloween Ends review.
9. Halloween 2
Year: 2009
Director: Rob Zombie
To tell you the truth, I'm never quite sure where I rank Halloween 2. It's a weird film and also relentlessly brutal. It's even possible to argue that this thing isn't even a Halloween film at all, but a freewheeling slasher film meditation of Rob Zombie's own whim. But it is bloody interesting, and for all its uncontrolled excesses, something about it sticks in the head like a shard of broken glass in the brain.
Exploring what so few horror films have ever braved to do, and asking 'But what happens to the Final Girl the day after?', Halloween 2 2009 presents a character study of a Laurie Strode in a self-destructive spiral of PTSD, as she struggles to hold together what life she has left while Michael journeys ever-closer back to Haddonfield. Mixing elements of Halloweens 4 and 5 and actually foreshadowing a lot of the themes and ideas that Halloween 2018 has rightly been praised for, this second Halloween 2 is all kinds of good and bad. It contains sequences that could be deemed progressively surreal or deathly pretentious, depending on your mood. But it's a Halloween film that's trying to do something unique. Succeed or fail, that at least makes it stand out.
8. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Year: 1988
Director: Dwight H. Little
The first non-Laurie Halloween film to pick back up with the Michael story, in light of the films that came after it, Halloween 4 almost feels authentic. It isn't, mind. Make no mistake, Halloween 4 is pretty bad. It's just not as bad as things got later. At least it feels like trying. Spinning into a new narrative arc, Halloween 4 shifts the focus to the (now dead in a car crash) Laurie's young daughter, Jamie. Haunted by visions of 'The Nightmare Man', Michael’s niece swiftly becomes his next target, because hunting down family members is apparently now Just What He Does.
Donald Pleasence returns as Loomis, delivering a much-needed continuity link alongside a performance that these films do not remotely deserve. There's a refreshing switch-up in traditional slasher dynamics, in that after two Myers attacks, the authorities and local community completely believe the threat and rally around to help. Though the inevitable downside is the loss of Halloween's key sense of disconnected, suburban isolation and claustrophobia. A less-terrible Halloween sequel, then, but clearly the point that Michael’s power began to fade through careless handling.
7. Halloween Kills
Year: 2021
Director: David Gordon Green
Halloween Kills is a lot of fun if you go into it expecting a goofy time of a slasher. However, it could have been even more enjoyable if it were shorter. Unfortunately, it very quickly overstays its welcome and falls into "this movie is dragging on" territory. The big theme of this sequel is "mob mentality". Following the events of Halloween (2018), the community of Haddonfield decides to take matters into its own hands and try to kill Michael Myers once and for all. And in case the audience forgets that fact, they also say "evil dies tonight" in every other scene, just to really drive that point home.
Despite the very one-note social commentary, awkward script, and runtime, though, Halloween Kills puts action front and center. The kills are great, and every time Michael is on screen, you are giggling with glee. It's straight popcorn fare, but it also turns Michael into a semi-supernatural being who is basically bulletproof, which, as the whole Cult of Thorn plotline already displayed, isn't a good idea since it turns Michael into a pretty boring unstoppable force in the process. David Gordon Green has some intriguing ideas, but they are just a bit too messy to rank any higher on our list. Still, we have a soft spot for it, as you can tell from our Halloween Kills review.
6. Halloween 2
Year: 1981
Director: Rick Rosenthal
Halloween 2 has a lot of flaws (and I mean a lot). Not only can you see the built sets exposed cameras every now and again, but it also has some terrible plot beats. However, despite how much of a mess it is, it still holds a ton of goofy charm and has some stellar action and kills that make it stand above a lot of the sequels in the franchise. The film takes place immediately after the events of the first film, where we saw that Michael's body had disappeared. Well, surprise, he isn't dead, and Laurie, who has now been rushed off to the hospital, is still being stalked.
It's very odd to see the poster girl for Final Girls be turned into a mostly unconscious damsel in distress who has to deal with a masked killer and a creepy nurse, and the movie's twist ending, revealing that Laurie and Michael are actually siblings, still makes me rage today. Halloween 2 doesn't understand what made Michael so scary - they tried to add reasons behind his actions, when he is far more terrifying by being unpredictable. But at least the '80s film is fast-paced, has plenty of fire and explosions, and unlike other outings in the series, never drags either.
5. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch
Year: 1982
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Often considered the black sheep of the Halloween sequels, as a result of being a Myers-free story set outside of the original universe's narrative, the fact is that Halloween 3 is one of the best Halloween movies for exactly that reason. Realising that there was no goddamn way that the Halloween series was going to stop after two films, John Carpenter tried to steer it in a more worthwhile direction, attempting to reshape it into an anthology which would showcase the talents of new horror writers and directors over a variety of different stories.
So, in Halloween 3, we get the tale of a sinister Halloween mask manufacturer, besuited men-in-black, and a mystery that might just lead to a conspiracy. Massively refreshing after the drawn-out do-over of Halloween 2, with a delightfully horrid approach to stepped-up gore, and a whole new, Carpenter-collaborated score (and a moody banger at that), Halloween 3 might steer wide of what many were expecting, but it's exactly what we needed. Shame then, that audiences rejected it, and forced us back along The Bad Path. The people crave Michael Myers, even at the price of inventive horror.
4. Halloween (2007)
Year: 2007
Director: Rob Zombie
Easy as it is to knee-jerk against the very idea of a Halloween remake (and I did exactly that upon the Rob Zombie film’s announcement), the fact is that with hindsight, it's a hell of a good one. Deliberately more gratuitous? Yes, of course it is. But whatever changes it makes, Halloween 2007 is a well-made film with focused intent. Texturally different but brimming with the same spirit as the original, Zombie's Halloween took flak for humanizing Michael too much during its depiction of his troubled youth.
The truth is much more ambiguous, a careful dance of wrong-footing between nature, nurture, and 'Oh maybe he's actually just a monster', that understands that uncertainty as to his nature is exactly what makes Myers work. And oh God, does he work here. 2007’s Michael is a distilled, cranked-up version of all the eerie, controlled, empty efficiency that makes Myers so terrifying. Brave enough to make changes, yet still an utterly legitimate interpretation of the source material, Zombie's film might have its own distinct plan, but it still feels like Halloween.
3. Halloween: H20
Year: 1998
Director: Steve Miner
Ok, so personally, the reveal from the '80s Halloween 2 about Laurie and Michael being related is one of the worst cinematic decisions in my eyes. So on paper, Halloween: H20 (which is a direct sequel to that film) shouldn't be so high up on the list. However, Halloween: H20 took risks and was brave enough to do what no other sequel really dared to before Halloween Ends: kill Michael Myers….well, until they decided to retcon his beheading in Halloween: Resurrection at least.
The movie follows Laurie, who faked her own death years ago to escape the boogeyman. However, Michael finds her once again, and their cat-and-mouse slasher game starts up once more. The formula doesn't hit as hard as the original movie, and it's nowhere near as scary; however, H20's ending of Laurie slaying the nightmare that's been stalking her is very satisfying, and you have to give the flick props for keeping Michael a man instead of a supernatural being - the stakes are much higher that way, just how we like them.
2. Halloween (2018)
Year: 2018
Director: David Gordon Green
I was not ready for Halloween 2018. I was not ready at all. Halloween 2018 is a ferociously potent film. Wiping the slate clean and telling a grounded, mature, no-punches-pulled follow-up story of intelligence and immense emotional maturity, it's the kind of film that makes you wonder whether we perhaps needed 40 years and a great deal of insight into how to mess things up before Halloween could really have a meaningful part two.
Recapping the last four decades of Laurie's life, Halloween 2018’s study of the fallout on herself and three generations of her family (unable as they are to relate to her, as a result of their own freedom from horror) results in an intimate and very personal character piece. It's basically a recap of the original's dynamic, giving us the cat-and-mouse game in a house between Laurie and Michael once again. It's not as scary as the original, but it's the closest a sequel has been to capturing the thrill of their first standoff. Also, seeing Laurie as a badass never gets old. You can check out our Halloween (2018) review for more information on this masterpiece!
1. Halloween
Year: 1978
Director: John Carpenter
The inception point of the modern slasher movie, and one of the most important films of all time. And without question, one of the greatest horror movies ever made. This is John Carpenter, one of the most multi-disciplinary horror directors in history, at the absolute top of his game. The number of carefully crafted levels Halloween works on is ridiculous. The tone is the thing that will stay with you the most. Gritty, dirty, grimy, and stark, Halloween's all-pervading sense of menace is nonetheless submerged in that particular thick, black, velvety-oppressive atmosphere that only Carpenter has ever delivered.
Revelling in quiet, almost subliminal scares, Halloween uses a unique language. It's a film defined by understated, in-plain-sight terrors (unnerving in a way that no amount of jump scares could match) and an unsettling use of light and dark, where the scariest place you can be is often the isolated, safe spot amid the ocean of shadows. And of course, there's the soundtrack, and Jamie Lee Curtis' central performance too. But who can forget the horrible ambiguity of Michael Myers, a man so evil that he seems more like an unstoppable creature instead. And a lot more. There's far too much to talk about here, and Halloween nails all of it. It might actually be perfect.
For more scares, check out our list of all the upcoming horror movies still to come our way.
