#13. Halloween Resurrection
As weird as it is, this was actually the first Halloween movie I ever saw and honestly, I thought killing off Laurie Strode in the opening 15 minutes was pretty badass. It showed that absolutely no one was safe and that Michael was bigger than just his weird sibling rivalry. But looking back at it, the movie's an absolute train wreck in every other aspect and feels as dated as anything you could possibly drudge up from the early 2000's (including S Club 7). Everything from it's broadband internet technology to it's trashy reality show construct has aged this worse than any other film in the series.
#12. Halloween 2 (2009)
Rob Zombie definitely took some chances with his Halloween sequel but unfortunately none of them really pay off. Rob's a much more gifted director than a screenwriter but none of that can make up for Laurie's inexplicable transition into a trashy nu-hippie that just doesn't gel with the girl we met in the previous film. And speaking of the previous film, how are we supposed to believe Malcolm McDowell or Danielle Harris survived this brutal punch-stabbing incarnation of Michael? An incredibly dull and ultimately unnecessary sequel.
#11. Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers
The sixth film in the series does a decent job of expanding on the mythology of Michael Myers but the execution is far from ideal. With a premise that finally branches out a bit from the standard structure of Michael Myers attempting to kill some member of his family on Halloween night, you'd think the film would focus a little more on the mystery of the cult. But at the eleventh hour, it reverts back to the same slasher sequel cliches you've seen a hundred times before. At least we got to see Donald Pleasance as Loomis one last time...
#10. Halloween Ends
David Gordon Green's final entry in his Halloween trilogy delivers a quiet little character driven story with Michael, Laurie and even her granddaughter Allyson faded into the background as newcomer Corey Cunningham weirdly takes center stage for the first 90 minutes of the film. Which is a shame because the evolution of Laurie and Allyson is actually quite interesting but Corey is a pretty dreadful character. Think Friday the 13th Part V Tommy Jarvis. A predictably quiet beta male with a cartoonishly evil mother, he's then finally pushed over the edge by a group of bullies - quite literally, as he's not so subtly pushed off of a bridge - and then stumbles upon a reclusive Michael Myers who he then proceeds to ask to take him under his tutelage as a murderous apprentice. Which does carry over the theme from Halloween Kills but this time fear is directly transmitted into a singular vessel for evil instead of an angry mob. And I don't even blame Rohan Campbell, who plays Corey, for how bland his character is. It's the awful fucking script and abysmal dialogue that features gems like "rip off your shirt, show grief your tits and say let's fucking go". When it's all said and done, you could probably just tack the last twenty minutes of this film onto Halloween Kills as an epilogue and be all the better just pretending the rest of this movie never even happened.
#9. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
After the series rebounded with The Return of Michael Myers, the fifth installment wastes no time whatsoever to ruin the renewed credibility of the series. Completely neutering the twist ending of Part 4 by introducing a cop out telekinetic link between Jamie and Michael - the potential for the series to grow is butchered by a pointless rehash of Michael aimlessly killing unsuspecting teens in the worst looking mask of the series. Revenge of Michael Myers also gives us a weirdly mean-spirited Dr.Loomis which serves as his worst outing in the series as well. Really the only redeeming quality here is the incredible performance from Danielle Harris, who once again continues to sell the terror of being stalked by Myers better than the filmmakers can.
#8. Halloween H20
Essentially serving as the first re-quel in the series, H20 brings Jamie Lee Curtis back to the franchise and gives the original Halloween a proper 20th anniversary celebration that continues Laurie Strode's story pretty well. Too bad most of the other characters are just boring teen stereotypes waiting to be killed off so we can get to the final Laurie v.s. Michael reunion that the whole movie is built around. And that final confrontation does mostly make up for its' mindless exposition but just barely.
#7. Halloween (2018)
Much like H20 before it, (this basically serving as "Halloween H40") David Gordon Green's re-quel does a great job of bringing back everything you loved about the original but unfortunately doesn't do a whole lot else. Similar to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it's a new story built from the same toybox the original used. Granted, there's a dash of "Me Too" undercurrent tossed in the familiar recipe but ultimately the film is centered around another inevitable Laurie v.s. Michael showdown. The rest of the cast is fairly disposable and with the family tie between Laurie and Michael retconned out of this timeline, it's hard to see this as much more than fan service. But hey, it could have been a lot worse I suppose. And any excuse to get John Carpenter to produce new music works for me.
#6. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
After sitting the third film out (except for that oddly placed TV commercial playing on a bar TV), Michael's return to the Halloween franchise is a pretty triumphant one. But not entirely due to Michael. Mostly it's young Danielle Harris who steals the show here filling in for Jamie Lee Curtis as the new scream queen of the series. Having Michael's target shift to a petrified young girl makes the horror all the more palpable. You can't help but feel for her as she's sobbing, hiding away from the masked psychopath and the tension feels so intense that you can't help but wonder how much the young actress even needed to act...
#5. Halloween (2007)
I actually loved a lot of what Rob Zombie did with his remake. That is until the actual remake starts. Then it kind of just turns into a shot for shot exercise in futility. But everything with young Michael, chillingly portrayed by Daeg Faerch, and his upbringing was incredibly well done and adds an interesting perspective to Myers' first kill that fateful Halloween night. It was a remarkable start that slowly devolves into a frustratingly lifeless rehash of the original once we lose Sheri Moon Zombie; whom I usually can't stand but her role as Myers' mother is heart-breakingly excellent here. Once we lose her, we really lose the heart of the film. Overall it's a pretty underrated entry though.
#4. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The black sheep of the franchise, Season of the Witch, does not deserve the vitriol it so regularly receives. Yes, Michael Myers is not in this film. GET OVER IT. Much like Friday the 13th, the Halloween series was intended to be an anthology of horror stories, not a continuation of the Michael Myers character (or Jason, in Friday's case). Season of the Witch is an incredibly fun sci-fi horror experiment that's much more memorable than the majority of the Michael-lead follow ups. I mean who couldn't love Tom Atkins fighting to expose a Celtic cult attempting to murder millions of children with cursed Halloween masks filling up with snakes and maggots on Halloween night? If this film went by any other name than Halloween III, it'd be a cult classic by now.
#3. Halloween Kills
While David Gordon Green's 2018 re-quel garnered a lot of praise for bringing back franchise favorites like Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle and John Carpenter - it didn't really do much to further the story of Michael Myers as a whole. And even though a lot of the surface level aspects of this follow up may be flawed (like nearly everything involving Big John and Little John) the message of this film resonates far beyond any other Halloween since the original. Which distinguishes this film in a way rarely seen in horror sequels. The story is so much larger than just Laurie or Michael, it's about the lasting trauma and inner evil that can not be attached to or extinguished by any one person. It's simultaneously the most brutally violent entry in the series and most psychologically challenging. And even though it all seems to be leading another Laurie / Michael confrontation in Halloween Ends, Halloween Kills' ambitious narrative leads the series into an exciting and bold new direction.
#2. Halloween II
Picking up literally where the original left off with an increased budget and major studio backing, the jump in quality for the film's photography and production value makes this a much more timeless film than the original (as blasphemous as that may sound). Granted, it's a little slow at times with Laurie confined to a hospital bed, but seeing Michael continue through the streets of Haddonfield on Halloween night makes for a great continuation of the night he came home. And some of the steady-cam stalker sequences from Michael's point of view are my absolute favorite in the series. Just incredible cinematography from Dean Cundey. Plus, Halloween II also has my favorite performance from Donald Pleasance as Dr.Loomis before he morphs into an over the top vigilante in 4 & 5.
#1. Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter's classic may not have invented the slasher but it gave it a face with one of the genre's most iconic boogeymen and the most legendary horror soundtrack of all time. The triple threat writer/director/composer, more known for his action pictures at the time of Halloween's release, revolutionized the industry and gave way to a decade's worth of suburbanized masked terror that brought horror to the girl next door in small town rural America rather than being tucked away in a far off gothic castle or menacing a massive metropolitan area. Halloween showed us that horror is everywhere - around every corner, in every shadow, always lurking just behind you. You can't kill the boogeyman.