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Halloween Retrospective: Every Halloween Film Ranked

  • Writer: Heather German
    Heather German
  • Dec 11, 2021
  • 15 min read

Halloween Retrospective | #13 | Every Halloween Film Ranked


Like the Nightmare Retrospective last year, the Halloween Retrospective will end with a large ranking of all of the films in the series. This one was a longer, more grueling experience – Halloween is a seminal classic and the best slasher film I’ve ever seen, but if I’m being entirely honest, it has far less franchise potential than other slasher titans. There’s just not a whole lot to milk here; Michael Myers is just a guy in a mask. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from squeezing every single last drop that they can. The Halloween franchise in its current form really shouldn’t exist, and there are some parts of it that were a total slog.

When looking at the franchise as a whole, it’s certainly less than the sum of its parts, with constant reboots and meandering sequels that lead nowhere good or interesting, and no established mythology that’s managed to stick around. That being said, there are some good films in this series – in fact, I’d wager I liked more of them than I disliked. Most sequels fail when they’re either trying to expand the overall mythology of the franchise, or to ape John Carpenter’s original, but when a director or writer is given the chance to make it their own and create their own story without being too beholden to the established rules of the franchise, more often than not they succeed.

I don’t know if I’d ever marathon all of these films again, but I don’t regret doing so once, and I plan on doing more of these franchise retrospectives in the future. There’s something about following an entire body of work, be it something as fascinating and multilayered as a director’s filmography or as bloated and plastic as a franchise long past its expiration point. Even the latter has plenty to learn from, and often more quality than you’d think. Even at their worst, even when they really shouldn’t exist, franchises like these can still be interesting to view and experience.


With that in mind, let’s get on with the ranking.


Note: For the most part, I am using theatrical cuts, though with a couple of noted exceptions that I’m including for the sake of judging the best version of each film. Also, spoilers ahead.


12. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Director: Dominique Othenin-Gerard


There are quite a few bad Halloween films, but for my money none of them are as utterly abysmal as this 1989 effort. While Halloween 4 hinted at some potential interesting ideas for following sequels, Halloween 5 takes everything handed to it and squanders it. This is one of the most pointless slasher films ever made, with the primary goal of bridging the plot between Halloween 4 and the planned Halloween 6 and sidelining anything that would potentially further the story at all. We have an intriguing set up exploring the mystical connection between Halloween 4 final girl Jamie Lloyd and Michael Myers, but that ends up being merely a catalyst to have Sam Loomis scream incoherently at a child for an hour and a half. Loomis’s mental spiral could have been compelling if it were written better, but instead it just comes off as irritating. Meanwhile, Micheal Myers hunts down characters we’ve never seen before and kills them off in extremely plodding and generally uninteresting ways. Nothing is learned, little is conveyed, and the status quo is blandly maintained for an hour and a half – and it didn’t even have the good grace to be even the slightest bit entertaining.

Everything about this film either bores me or makes me mad, from the bland, ugly cinematography, the ridiculous, uninspired storytelling, and the way in which interesting characters from the previous film are butchered either metaphorically or literally. Mostly, it’s in the way it tries so desperately to toe the line of what the Halloween franchise had become while simultaneously failing to leave an ounce of an impression on its own. I can’t even get mad at it anymore; it’s a nothing film that should have never existed, and for that it’s the worst of all the Halloween films.


Best Kill: Michael Myers scratches Tina’s terrible boyfriend’s car with a garden hook, then stabs him in the forehead with it..



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

Director: Joe Chapelle


Note: This review was based on the Producer’s Cut.


Had I actually watched the theatrical cut of this, it would probably be at the absolute bottom. As it stands, I watched the Producer’s Cut, and based on that I find The Curse of Michael Myers marginally better than Halloween 5 for two reasons. For one thing, there’s an actual sense of ambition here; a drive to introduce new ideas and concepts into the series and evolve the franchise past its pure slasher routes. For another, this is the debut role for none other than Paul Rudd, who does so much to elevate this dreck whenever he’s on screen. Unfortunately, that’s where my praise stops. The film may be ambitious, but almost everything it brings to the table is silly at best and mind-numbingly awful at worst. Jamie, a character who’d become beloved by Halloween fans, is killed off early on and replaced by a final girl so boring that I genuinely cannot remember her name. I often forget she’s technically the main character and not Paul Rudd’s portrayal of an adult Tommy Doyle (the young boy from the original film). This one is the first Halloween film that really tries to explain Michael Myers, and it’s by far the silliest, reducing him to a mere attack dog for a cult dedicated to continuing an ancient black magic ritual. I’m not against new elements being added to the Halloween formula, but this just completely destroys any mystique or horror to the character.


I might be more forgiving of this film if it were hilariously bad or at least fun and silly, or if most of the ideas introduced to here had been built up in the previous film, but really it’s just overstuffed and boring. It’s mostly a frustrating, unengaging experience that is less than the sum of its parts – which are already pretty bad to begin with.


Best Kill: Michael Myers pins John Strode to a circuit breaker and electrocutes him. In the theatrical cut, his head explodes. This doesn’t happen in the producer’s cut but it’s still probably the best kill.





10. Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Director: Rick Rosenthal


There’s a strong argument to be made for Resurrection being the absolute worst of the bunch. Nearly everything about it seems deliberately crafted as a personal fuck you to Halloween fans. The story is paper thin, the characters among the worst in the entire franchise, and nearly every single line of dialogue is extremely and uniquely cringeworthy in the way that only early 2000’s slasher movies can. It’s a cynical, mean-spirited and apathetic entry into the series that represents the absolute worst of early 2000’s horror films, and to top it all off, it starts off by killing off Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode in one of the most insulting ways possible that completely undermines her excellent character arc in H20.


But this movie is also kind of hilarious? Everything about it was so misguided and bad that I ended up having a ton of fun with it. It was entirely in all the wrong ways, of course, but I still have to give it points for that. The scene with Busta Rhymes kung-fu kicking Michael Myers out the window still makes me laugh just thinking about it. I can’t in good conscious put this any higher, and wouldn’t want to anyway, but I can’t help but enjoy it more than the previous two.


Best Kill: Charlie, the cameraman, is stabbed in the throat by one of his own tripods. It doesn’t really make sense, but there’s not many memorable kills in this one.





9. Halloween (2018)

Director: David Gordon Green


I’ve tried to like 2018’s Halloween and I just can’t. I like the ideas on display, I like the themes it’s exploring, I like the way it tries to bring Michael Myers back to his roots by cutting out the messy mythology and returning him to an incomprehensible force of nature that everyone else – especially those like Laurie, whom he’s traumatized – projects their obsessions onto. I especially love the final 30 minutes which, when taken on their own, could easily be in the top three on this list, as the Strode women of three different generations work together to finally trap and kill (but not really – he comes back in the next film of course) Michael Myers. That bit on its own very nearly propelled this up to the eighth spot on this ranking, and I may still come around to this in time.


I just can’t get into it, though. I acknowledge that my initial review was a little unfair to it, and I get what it’s going for with all of the different character tangents it goes on, but the only part of it that feels consistently important or interesting is the Strode family drama, and everything else just feels like pointless distraction, and there’s far too much of it. This film tries so hard to be like John Carpenter’s original while also being a postmodern deconstruction, but the film it’s trying to emulate is so simple and pulpy that it doesn’t mesh, and the slasher formula has already been deconstructed time and time again. Almost everything this brings to the table has been done better elsewhere. David Gordon Green and Danny McBride try so hard to have their cake and eat it too, and it just doesn’t really work for me. I feel like it should, but it just doesn’t.


Best Kill: Despite my negativity there’s quite a few good ones, but the best would have to be an unbroken two and half minute shot of Michael Myers weaving in and out of suburban homes scoring two completely unsuspecting bystander kills.





8. Halloween (2007)

Director: Rob Zombie


While certainly not one of the franchise’s best, Rob Zombie’s 2007 Halloween remake is one of the most interesting to talk about, as it’s a remake that truly tries to re-contextualize its source material rather than just copy it. What Rob Zombie seems to be doing here, particularly in the first half, is to retell the origin story of Michael Myers and the Halloween legacy directly through the lens of the themes the franchise had picked up as it went along; that of family, trauma and the lingering afterimage of violence. It doesn’t quite succeed, but it gives it a genuinely admirable shot, and the first half of the film is genuinely a fascinating attempt to explain the origins of evil and violence via Michael Myers’ dysfunctional childhood.


Unfortunately, the second half is a pretty straightforward scene for scene remake of the original film, and with Rob Zombie’s incredibly distinct, polarizing and downright excessive style it really ends up proving how much the original film was dependent on the restrained 1970’s style it was created in. Outside of that context, it doesn’t really work without a significant overhaul, and Zombie just doesn’t do enough, despite bringing a genuinely great cast including Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton and perhaps the best Michael Myers actor of all, Tyler Mane. Overall,Rob Zombie’s Halloween swings for the hills, but ultimately proves to be a misfire.


Best Kill: A young Michael Myers duct tapes his stepfather Ronnie to a chair and slits his throat with cold, calculated apathy, signalling that he has finally crossed the line and become the killer we all know.


7. Halloween Kills (2021)

Director: David Gordon Green


You could level the same sorts of criticism at Halloween Kills that I did at both Halloween 5 and Halloween (2018). It’s a bloated middle chapter that never really changes the status quo, and keeps all of the same pieces in play in time for the finale. It keeps Laurie Strode stuck in a hospital while new characters we don’t know or care too much about run around spouting bad dialogue and making terrible decisions in order to ultimately be butchered by Michael Myers. It’s themes are even more confused yet hamfisted than the 2018 film, and its postmodern leanings possibly even more insufferable.


But there’s an energy to Halloween Kills that its predecessor lacks. It’s a vicious carnival of madness, as Michael Myers cuts his way through bodies left and right on one side and the town of Haddonfield loses its grip and turns on itself in the other. The sheer fiery, incoherent rage of it burns to a fever pitch that very little in the franchise is able to match. It’s an incredibly flawed film, but I feel it’s bound to become one of my personal horror guilty pleasures for how much of a sheer blast it is to just experience.


Best Kill: There’s so many in this one, but the one that is the most memorable to me is when Michael kicks a car door so hard it slams into Vanessa’s hand, jerking it back towards her face right as she’s pulling the trigger, shooting herself in the head.





6. Halloween II (1981)

Director: Rick Rosenthal

Like the last couple of entries, Halloween II is definitely a flawed film, and it’s more messy than I think Halloween fans like to admit. Rick Rosenthal does a great job of retaining the style of the original, but studio interference added a ton of gory kills and removed a lot of the realism and simplicity of the original. The result is something just a bit too unfocused and inconsistent for me to consider it one of the best.


That being said, unlike the previous entries, this one is more than the sum of its parts. When Halloween II gets going, it gets going. Michael stalking Laurie through the hospital and the final confrontation are series highlights, and so much of the franchise themes and mythology take root here – Michael being Laurie Strode’s brother, the town of Haddonfield delving into chaos through fear of the murderer stalking their streets, and the feeling that Michael Myers is near immortal from all of the hits he takes and shrugs off. For better or for worse, Halloween II defined the series going forward, and while it’s a little uneven, it has plenty of genuine thrills in it as well.


Best Kill: In a giallo-esque shot, Jimmy discovers Nurse Virgina lying dead on a table, her blood drained onto the floor via IV. He turns to warn Laurie but slips on the blood and hits the floor, getting knocked out.



5. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Director: Dwight H. Little


It can be easy to lump Halloween 4 in with its terrible sibling Halloween 5, but the truth is that this is a much, much better film. Despite all of its silly bells and whistles, Halloween 4 is irresistibly fun. From the thick autumn atmosphere seeping from its very bones to the shockingly compelling protagonists of Jamie Lloyd and her adoptive sister Rachel Carruthers to the tense set-pieces and interesting plot developments that its immediate successors lacked, Halloween 4 is a deceptively basic package loaded with some genuinely tantalizing goodies.


Halloween 4 lets itself get weird and metaphorical in a way that other entries in the franchise at this time didn’t, turning the story of Michael Myers into a violent, atmospheric tone poem about the transition from the summer of youthful innocence to the cold reality of adulthood. Even beyond that, all the basic pieces of a Michael Myers story are here. He’s a one man force of nature tearing through Haddonfield stalking one particular victim. This time, the town really seems to have been affected by previous Myers rampages; as soon as they hear he’s back, they’re ready for him, locking down the town and securing his target in a safe house, but wandering gangs of vigilantes disrupt their plan and add a fun extra layer that would anticipate the more recent Halloween Kills. It all leads up to one of the best endings in the franchise. Overall, this is a really fun and overlooked entry that has grown on me since I first watched it, and it may continue to do so yet.


Best Kill: Michael Myers impales Kelly with a shotgun and pins her to the wall.



4. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

Director: Steve Miner


Ignoring every Halloween film since the original two, this late-90’s, Scream-inspired outing sees Laurie Strode now living under an assumed name and trying to keep herself together despite suffering from severe PTSD from her encounters with Michael. Halloween 2018 might have a more interesting portrayal of Laurie Strode’s trauma, but as far as Jamie Lee Curtis-helmed franchise reboots go, Halloween H20 is simply a much leaner, more effective package. It’s a fun, intense film that never overstays its welcome and keeps you on the edge of your seat until its bloody conclusion.


This one is held together by its likeable characters, its energetic and creative direction from Steve Miner, its air-tight pacing and its essential lead performance by Jamie Lee Curtis. Not a second is wasted here as we see the emotional toll her trauma has taken on both her and her family, but also her attempts to move on and live a better life with her son and new lover. All throughout, Michael Myers lurks in the shadows, waiting to strike, and when he does, it’s vicious and brutal. All in all, a highly memorable entry in the series.


Best Kill: Laurie Strode decapitating Michael Myers in the end is one of the most satisfying moments in the series, even if it gets retconned in Resurrection.





3. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace


The fact that this film is so maligned by many Halloween fans is unfortunate, because it’s a window into a world with a far more interesting Halloween franchise in it. When the decision was made to turn John Carpenter’s original into a series, the original idea for it was as an anthology, where every entry features a different storytelling team playing with their own ideas about a scary thing that happens on Halloween night. This didn’t come to pass, because Halloween III: Season of the Witch did poorly both financially and critically.


It’s a damn shame. Halloween III isn’t perfect, but it is one of the most interesting and creative entries into the series to date. Completely disregarding the Michael Myers story, Season of the Witch follows a duo trying to uncover the connection between a dead man and a mysterious line of popular Halloween masks. What follows is a bonkers mystery plot that is as pulpy and entertaining as it is stuffed full of ideas about corporations, consumerism and the disposability of human life in the face of capital. We could have had a franchise full of bold, creative ideas like these, but instead we have countless movies about the same guy with a knife every few years. Still, I’m glad we at least have this one.

Best Kill: Buddy’s mask causes his head to transform into insects, snakes and other vermin and kills him, the swarm of vermin also killing his parents.



2. Halloween II (2009)

Director: Rob Zombie


Note: This ranking is based on the Director’s Cut of the film.


Rob Zombie’s Halloween II is perhaps one of the most underappreciated horror films ever made. Everything that I appreciated about his original is here in full force, and mostof what I disliked is gone. This is probably the least Halloween film in the franchise, but that’s part of what I like about it. This is a Rob Zombie film through and through, and with it he takes the ideas that he explored in his first film and runs with them, creating one of the most unique and memorable takes on the mythos of all of them. Halloween II is a film about family, trauma, and the lingering effects of violence. It’s a brutal, harrowing watch, even by Halloween standards – easily the most difficult to stomach film in the series. Scout Taylor-Compton gives an incredible performance as a deteriorating Laurie Strode, for whom even after two years that fateful Halloween night has never ended. Watching her try so hard to carve out a new identity for herself, one that’s free of all of the pain that she’s been through, but unable to do so because for her Michael Myers has never left, is utterly heartbreaking. I’m being serious when I say I think that this is one of the most realistic and emotionally affecting portrayals of trauma and PTSD that I’ve seen in the horror genre. Meanwhile, Michael Myers slowly stalks his way across a serene, quiet landscape, his surreal mindscapes making him feel like a cosmic threat even as he punctuates his journey with brutal, visceral carnage. His confrontation with Laurie is inevitable and fast approaching, and the closer he gets, the more of herself Laurie loses.


Were this film released in the mid-2010’s or under a different name than Halloween, I think it might have been much better received. Certainly the theatrical cut, which diluted Laurie’s arc significantly, thus removing the heart of the film, didn’t help. It’s certainly not perfect, but even its weird eccentricities – Sheri Moon Zombie dream sequences, weird insistences on hamfisted white horse metaphors, etc – are things that I’ve come to personally enjoy about it. This is a film that is unfairly maligned and was well ahead of its time, and I’m glad to see that it’s starting to get a critical re-evaluation on some parts of the internet.


Best Kill: Though the details happen off screen, Annie’s death in this is possibly the most heartbreaking in the entire franchise.




1. Halloween (1978)

Director: John Carpenter

It may be cliché to say, but there really isn’t a better Halloween film than the original. The first Halloween works so well because it’s such a simple concept executed to absolute perfection. There’s no preconceived notion of what a Halloween film should and shouldn’t be, no pre-established themes or mythology to work from or explicitly ignore. It’s a fresh film that uses every moment of its runtime to establish a chilly autumn atmosphere with a dark sense of foreboding getting stronger and stronger until the kills ramp up. Michael Myers is a blank slate, and as such he is unknowable and terrifying. He stalks his prey meticulously for no apparent reason, and his kills are brutal in his clinical, apathetic approach. The style and score may be a product of their time, but they represent the absolute best of their era, and beyond being a stunning relic of the past, it’s an experience that still holds up today.

There’s not much to say about the original Halloween that hasn’t already been said. It towers above the vast majority of its successors, and I don’t think the numerous bad sequels make it any less powerful. All of them try and explain Michael Myers in one way or another, and with the franchise constantly being rebooted, they ultimately feel like a bunch of failed attempts to come to terms with this unknowable villain, which really just makes him even scarier. It’s an absolute classic that changed the face of horror forever.


Best Kill: Michael stabs Bob and pins him to a wall, before stepping back and tilting his head to admire his kill.

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