Halloween Movies Tier List: All 13 Ranked
Michael Myers has been stalking Haddonfield for over 45 years now, across three different timelines that don't all agree with each other. Some of these movies are stone-cold classics. Some are fun trash. One of them barely even has Michael in it (season of the what now?).
Here's how all 13 films in the franchise stack up, based on where fans and critics land after decades of arguing about this on forums and in comment sections, plus our own take when the consensus splits. Disagree? That's half the fun of this franchise. Rank it yourself and see where the knife falls.
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SS Tier: The classics that define the franchise
Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter's original is still the blueprint for slasher movies, and almost nothing since has matched that slow, dread-soaked walk through Haddonfield. The synth score alone does more work than most entire horror movies manage. Forty-plus years later Michael Myers behind Laurie Strode in that doorway is still one of the best shots in horror.
Halloween (2018)
David Gordon Green wisely erased every sequel and went straight back to Laurie Strode, now a traumatized survivor who's spent 40 years prepping for this exact night. Jamie Lee Curtis gives the role actual weight here, and the kitchen knife fight is one of the best setpieces the franchise has ever done. It made ignoring bad sequels look easy and reminded everyone why the original mattered.
AA Tier: Genuinely great sequels
Halloween II (1981)
Picks up literally minutes after the first film and moves the action to a hospital, which turns out to be a great setting for Michael to pick off nurses and orderlies one by one. It's meaner and bloodier than the original, and the reveal about Laurie's connection to Michael has been debated by fans ever since. Not as elegant as Carpenter's film, but a worthy, nasty sequel.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
After the franchise detoured away from Myers entirely with Part III, this one brought him back and fans were relieved. Danielle Harris as young Jamie Lloyd gives the film actual emotional stakes, and the ending is bleaker than most slashers would dare go. A genuine fan favorite among the sequels.
BB Tier: Flawed but worth your time
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
No Michael Myers at all, just killer Silver Shamrock masks and a plot about a company trying to kill American children via television broadcast. It baffled and angered audiences expecting more Myers in 1982, but it's aged into a genuinely weird cult favorite. Judge it as its own strange little movie, not as a Halloween sequel, and it works a lot better.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
A mess behind the scenes with reshoots and studio interference, but it's a weirdly fascinating mess that drags the Thorn cult mythology into the spotlight. Paul Rudd's film debut as adult Tommy Doyle is a strange sight if you only know him from comedies. Divisive among fans, some find the mythology additions interesting, others think it ruined the simplicity of the original premise.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie, now living under a different name and still haunted by that Halloween night two decades earlier. It ditches most of the convoluted sequel lore and plays like a soft reboot, which was probably the right call at the time. Not scary enough to rank higher, but a solid, well-made entry that treats Laurie with some respect.
CC Tier: Fine if you're already invested
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Takes the emotional groundwork Part 4 laid down with young Jamie and mostly squanders it on a thinner, more formulaic slasher plot. There's a mysterious man in black teased here that the franchise never meaningfully paid off. Watchable for completionists, forgettable for everyone else.
Halloween Kills
A whole movie about a Haddonfield mob chasing Michael Myers that mostly just has people shouting "evil dies tonight" while Michael kills them anyway. There are a few brutal standout kills, but it feels like a bridge movie with no real destination of its own. Fans are split hard on this one, some love the mob-violence angle, others think it's the weakest of the new trilogy.
DD Tier: Only for completionists
Halloween: Resurrection
Kills off Laurie Strode in the opening minutes in a way that retroactively cheapens H20's whole arc, then pivots to a reality-TV-in-a-haunted-house plot that has not aged well at all. Busta Rhymes fighting Michael Myers with martial arts is the kind of scene that tells you everything about where this entry's head was at. Widely considered one of the low points by fans and critics alike.
Halloween II (2009)
Rob Zombie leans even further into grime and misery here than his first film, with a dream-logic subplot involving a white horse and Michael's dead mother that divides people more than almost anything else in the franchise. It's ambitious in a way few sequels bother to be, but the relentless unpleasantness makes it a tough, exhausting watch rather than a fun one.
Halloween Ends
Spends most of its runtime on a new character, Corey, instead of the Laurie/Michael showdown everyone actually bought a ticket for. It wants to be a meditation on how evil spreads through a community, which is an interesting swing, but it lands as the most polarizing entry in the entire franchise. Some critics respected the ambition, most fans just felt cheated out of the ending they'd waited four years for.
FF Tier: Skip it
Halloween (2007)
Rob Zombie's remake spends its whole first half on Michael's backstory and childhood trauma, which strips away exactly the blank-slate menace that made the original character so unsettling. Explaining Michael Myers was never the move, and the grimy, nihilistic tone replaces Carpenter's dread with straightforward ugliness. The least loved take on the material by a wide margin.
How we ranked them
We weighed what actually holds up on rewatch: scares, atmosphere, how well it uses Michael Myers, and whether it respects what made the 1978 original work. Slasher sequels get some slack for camp value and body count creativity, but lazy retreads and films that actively damage the mythology get knocked down. We leaned on the general fan and critic consensus from decades of discussion, breaking ties with our own judgment where the fanbase is genuinely divided.
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Rank these yourselfFAQ
What is the best Halloween movie?
The 1978 original is the consensus pick, with the 2018 reboot widely seen as the best film the franchise has produced since.
What order should I watch the Halloween movies in?
There are three separate timelines: the original series (1978 to Resurrection), the Rob Zombie remakes (2007, 2009), and the David Gordon Green trilogy (2018, Kills, Ends), which ignores every sequel after the 1978 film.
Is Halloween III connected to Michael Myers?
No. Halloween III: Season of the Witch has no Michael Myers at all and tells a standalone story about killer Halloween masks.
Why do fans dislike Halloween: Resurrection?
It kills off Laurie Strode in its opening minutes and shifts to a reality-TV horror plot, undercutting the emotional arc H20 had built for her.
Is the Rob Zombie Halloween remake good?
It's one of the most divisive entries in the franchise. Some appreciate its grittier, more character-driven approach, but many fans feel it misunderstands what made the original Michael Myers scary.
Did Halloween Ends satisfy fans?
Not really. It spends much of its runtime on a new character instead of the Laurie-Michael confrontation, and it remains one of the most argued-over entries in the series.
More rankings
Image credits
- Halloween (1978)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween (2018)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween II (1981)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael MyersCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween III: Season of the WitchCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween: The Curse of Michael MyersCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween H20: 20 Years LaterCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael MyersCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween KillsCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween: ResurrectionCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween II (2009)Cover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween EndsCover: Wikipedia · Source
- Halloween (2007)Cover: Wikipedia · Source