In 1978, John Carpenter rolled film on a low-budget horror movie featuring a silent, knife-wielding maniac in a spray-painted Captain Kirk mask and changed the entire genre forever. Halloween, released later that year, became one of the most successful and influential slasher films of all time and birthed a franchise that is about to release its 13th overall film – David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends, which will premiere in theaters and on Peacock on Friday, Oct. 14.
Once a series runs long enough, we at Collider feel happily obliged to publish a “How to Watch” guide that will hold newbies’ hands as they attempt to navigate the franchise for the first time. This is usually a simple affair, listing the films in release order, as well as putting together a chronological road map that takes into account any prequels or side stories to offer up an alternate viewing order. Oh, if only the Halloween series were so simple. Unfortunately, the saga of serial killer and unstoppable force of evil Michael Myers is a knotted affair of partial reboots, crisscrossing timelines, and confusing film titles. In effect, a story that is often so simple – masked psycho just wants to kill some babysitters and maybe a family member or two on his favorite holiday – ends up practically requiring a PhD to suss out which movies fit into which timeline and what ones you need to watch to understand the most recent films. Well, don’t worry – we still got you. So, press play on Carpenter’s iconic, synth-heavy Halloween soundtrack and settle in for the ultimate Halloween “How to Watch” guide. It might get a bit bumpy, but it’ll all make sense in the end. Probably.
Halloween Movies in Order of Release
For starters, you could just forget about continuity, brush off all the plot holes that will begin to pile up, and watch the Halloween movies like old-school fans did – in the order they came out. That looks like this:
Halloween – Oct. 25, 1978
Halloween II – Oct. 30, 1981
Halloween III: Season of the Witch – Oct. 22, 1982
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers – Oct. 21, 1988
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers – Oct. 13, 1989
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers – Sept. 29, 1995
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later – Aug. 5, 1998
Halloween: Resurrection – July 12, 2002
Halloween – Aug. 31, 2007
Halloween II – Aug. 28, 2009
Halloween – Oct. 19, 2018
Halloween Kills – Oct. 15, 2021
Halloween Ends -- Oct. 14, 2022
That’s right – this franchise has three movies titled Halloween and two movies titled Halloween II. So, if you’re watching in this order, make sure you grab the right ones from the right years. Now, if you’d rather watch these films in a way that they actually make sense, you’ll have to split the films up into several different timelines, each with their own continuity.
Halloween Movies in Chronological Order
THE ORIGINAL CARPENTER/AKKAD CONTINUITY
Though Carpenter only directed the original Halloween, he continued to be involved creatively up through film three, when his attempt to turn Halloween into an anthology series with Season of the Witch was met with apathy by fans who just wanted to see Michael butchering poor innocents. (More on that in just a minute.) Michael returned to the series in Halloween 4 under the guiding hand of producer Moustapha Akkad, who continued churning out sequels that fit into the established canon. In this timeline, Michael is obsessed with murdering his own family members, which include Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode (revealed in Halloween II to be Michael’s sister) and his niece, Jamie Lloyd. Donald Pleasence remains a steady presence throughout this continuity, playing psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, who is determined to end Michael’s reign of terror.
1. Halloween (1978)
2. Halloween II (1981)
3. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
4. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
5. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
THE WEIRD (BUT WONDERFUL) STAND-ALONE ANTHOLOGY FILM
Thinking they had done everything there was to do with Michael Myers after the first two films, Carpenter and screenwriter/producer Debra Hill (who was both John’s professional and personal partner for a time) devised a new kind of Halloween that would tell a completely original story and lead to a new series of Halloween anthology films. Thus, we got director Tommy Lee Wallace's delightfully loony Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which finds an alcoholic, womanizing doctor played by Tom Atkins unravelling a plot by a coven of Irish witches to mass-murder children by selling them fancy Halloween masks that will explode when a certain commercial plays on television. It’s completely nuts. And it’s a shame we didn’t get more Halloween movies like it. But the audience spoke with their wallets (earning $14.4 million at the US box office, the worst performing of the series so far), and it was back to Michael Myers for part four. (By the way, Season of the Witch is clearly set in its own pocket universe, as a commercial for the original Halloween plays on a TV during the film.)
1. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
THE LAURIE STRODE CONTINUITY RESET -- TAKE ONE
After the original storyline fizzled out with The Curse of Michael Myers, Curtis agreed to return to the series for the awkwardly titled Halloween H20: 20 Years Later – which would retcon enough story elements from the previous two films to demand its own new timeline. In this continuity, Laurie remains Michael’s sister as she battles her brother and attempts to put a stop to his murder sprees once and for all. (Spoilers: It doesn’t go great for her, and Busta Rhymes of all people eventually gets involved.)
1. Halloween (1978)
2. Halloween II (1981)
3. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
4. Halloween: Resurrection
THE ROB ZOMBIE CONTINUITY
After Halloween: Resurrection seemingly killed off any version of the original timeline for good, a full reboot felt like the next logical step, and that’s exactly what happened when director Rob Zombie stepped in to put his own hillbilly-horror stamp on the franchise. Halloween ’07 is a somewhat straight-forward remake of Halloween ’78, with Scout Taylor-Compton playing Laurie Strode and Malcolm McDowell stepping into Pleasence’s shoes as Loomis. Two years later, Zombie made a sequel that includes some nods to the original Halloween II (like some early scenes set at a hospital) but is largely its own movie.
1. Halloween (2007)
2. Halloween II (2009)
THE LAURIE STRODE CONTINUITY RESET -- TAKE TWO
When Zombie’s films failed to reignite the horror community’s passion for the series, Curtis again decided to come back to the franchise, maybe in an attempt to fix what went wrong with her second go-round. She found some ideal collaborators in Blumhouse founder Jason Blum (who was able to get the franchise under his shingle) and writer/director Green, who is known for his work in indie dramas and comedies but, as it turns out, can make a pretty killer horror movie. Maybe best of all, Curtis and Green talked Carpenter into returning to the fold, as the franchise’s founder came back on board as an executive producer and (perhaps more importantly) composer for Halloween ’18 and its two sequels.
Green's Halloween movies form a new continuity that branches off from Carpenter's original film. If you’re interested in being caught up for Halloween Ends but want to commit as little time to watching Halloween movies as possible, then these are the installments to watch. One important note: Green’s trilogy only counts the original 1978 Halloween in terms of continuity. That means Laurie is not Michael’s sister, as she is in every other timeline. She’s just a teenaged babysitter who got unlucky over four decades ago and is now trying to vanquish her demons both figuratively and literally.
1. Halloween (1978)
2. Halloween (2018)
3. Halloween Kills (2021)
4. Halloween Ends (2022)