Halloween series ranked

Well, it’s officially that time of year y’all. It’s Halloween week! As you know this blog is partially dedicated to horror films all year round and I consider myself quite a fan that’s always trying to extend my branches and dabble further in the genre. That being said, I don’t always get the time to talk about some of the classic series and staples of horror unless I find a reason to. Well, there’s no better reason and no better time than now! I already know giving your opinions over the Halloween series is like stepping on a landmine because everyone has vastly different takes on this series and the real ‘Halloween’ movie fans are passionate about it. I’m in no way saying my opinions are gospel or the correct ones, they’re just mine. I’m not even saying I’m the biggest Halloween series fan either, I know there’s plenty of people much more passionate about this series than I am, but I do like them, and I have seen all of them at least a couple times. So, with all that out of the way, let’s get into it!

#13: Halloween: Resurrection

You’ll have a hard time finding any movie in any other series that does as much of a disservice to the franchise as a whole than ‘Halloween: Resurrection’. Not only does it strip away all the Halloween ambience and take all the fear away from Michael Myers, but they kill off the OG final girl of horror, Laurie Strode, in the first 10 minutes of the movie and that is just unforgiveable and irredeemable garbage attempting to pass for shock value. Then, Busta Rhymes of all people goes on to whoop Michael’s ass later in the movie using karate chops and kicks and you’re left thinking “THIS is the Michael that finally killed Laurie?!”. I can get having some dumb fun with this movie if you do because it is just a silly, bad horror film, but I just can’t enjoy it when I take into account how much it negatively affected the franchise that it’s tied to.

#12: Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

I honestly thought I maybe liked this one a little more than I did until I just rewatched it this past time. Not that the Thorn trilogy is really anywhere near a lot of the other films for me personally, but I still liked Jamie’s character quite a bit and was endeared to her throughout those films. Probably partially because it’s a cute, little, Danielle Harris that played her and she became somewhat of a Queen in horror, but nonetheless I rooted for and felt sympathy for her character in 4 and 5. Then they took a REAL dark turn with her in this movie, making her give birth to some incestuous cult baby and then get killed by Michael in brutal fashion shortly after, and honestly, I was not on board with the way they took her story here at all. That’s not what you wanted to see for the young girl Jamie, the survivor of the other films. It’s just nasty work. I somewhat appreciate adding in the extra elements with the cult and trying to take the story a different direction, but it was just too little, too late and ended up making the story feel choppy and confusing if anything.

#11: Halloween Ends

This movie isn’t horrible per say, but I will never be able to fully wipe the taste of disappointment I had from my mouth walking out of the theater after seeing this opening night. This movie was marketed as and was supposed to be the final showdown between Laurie and the Strodes vs Michael Myers. What we got instead was an old and decrepit sewer rat Michael and the story of Corey Cunningham. Again, I can appreciate taking things in a different direction somewhat, but this was the final film of your trilogy, and you decided now would be a good time to take the big swing and pull the attention away from Laurie and Michael? I’m sorry but no, and then to make matters worse none of that stuff we spent so much time on matters anyways because Corey just ends up dead by the end of the movie! There were some gruesome kills in this movie and some visual elements to have fun with for sure, but overall, it was a swing and a miss for me.

#10: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

This is the first one that may ruffle some feathers because I see this movie get a lot of love online on horror pages. I definitely think there’s fun to be had with this one, the Halloween ambience and feel is back, and I like most of our core cast of characters. This is an easier watch than some of the ones below it and even some of the ones above it, it just didn’t do a whole lot for me. Michael’s look and mask just feel strange in this one for one, and it loses a lot of points for me in how the film ended, having Jamie kind of take over the role of Michael and kill her foster mother. That again just felt so random and like it was yanking the rug out from under us just for the shock value of it and I wasn’t on board necessarily with all that. All in all, if someone wanted to watch this one, I wouldn’t really complain, but it’s not going to be the first one I reach for if I want to watch a Halloween film almost ever because I just don’t find a whole lot in it that does it for me.

#9: Halloween III: The Season of the Witch

I actually don’t think this is a bad film at all, it is definitely a fun, sort of schlocky 80’s Halloween movie. It’s just always going to be the odd man out because while it’s very much a Halloween movie, it’s not a Michael Myers Halloween movie and that’s always going to leave this one feeling out of place and like the black sheep. Again, this one may be an easier and more laid-back watch than even some I have ranked above it, I just don’t necessarily go for this one that often. I like the story, it’s honestly dark as hell, with a mask manufacturer planning a mass murder of children on Halloween night using an ancient ritual. Super creepy story and honestly may be a cult classic, if it didn’t have that damn Halloween name attached to it. Tom Atkins is as cheesy and head scratchingly suave as ever here, oozing machismo out of his mustache. This one is pretty good; I just don’t really watch it much and honestly had a hard time figuring out where to put it.

#8: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

I actually feel like I enjoy this one a bit more than a lot of people do. I almost debated throwing it a little higher up on the list because it is one of the easier and more relaxing ‘Halloween’ watches for me personally, but it’s not that great of a film in this franchise even still. Michael’s mask and overall look is still weird in this one and Jamie being mute was a bit of an odd choice, but the film does live up to the title. Michael gets his revenge from 4 and takes out a lot of the previous film’s characters and adds to the body count. This movie’s over the top and cliched 80s characters are cheesy and silly, but that makes this a more fun and casual watch in the series for me if anything. I thought it was neat to see Michael utilizing different weapons from the norm in this one as well. The scythe and pitchfork were both cool and different, and he even used a car at one point to try and run down Jamie. Not the best of the bunch obviously, but different in ways, and my personal favorite of the Thorn trilogy.

#7: Halloween Kills

This was a direct continuation of Halloween 2018, much like 2 was to the original, only this one wasn’t as good. The townsfolk gathered to form a militia bringing back characters from the original films, which was kind of cool really, but it ended up being mostly hopeless anyways because they spent half the movie chasing down the wrong guy (a guy that looked nothing like Michael Myers I might add), and then most ended up being slayed by him when the time came for the actual showdown anyways. I actually have fun watching this movie when I do and don’t think it’s even that bad personally, but I can easily pick it apart from a logic standpoint on multiple fronts as well and have gripes about plenty of things I wish were done better. The kills in this one were brutal and plentiful though and the final showdown in the street between him and the townspeople was a pretty cool scene too. The flashback sequences to the original night in 1978 of things we hadn’t seen before was also a really neat touch to this one.

#6: Halloween II (2009)

Ah yes, moving into some of the more divisive films in the series now, the 2nd in Rob Zombie’s duology. This film doesn’t come without its problems and blunders, mainly with Rob Zombie going too far into the Rob Zombie-izms with the White Horse nonsense and seeing visions of his dead mother and all that jazz, but this one was damn gritty as well. I feel like this is one of the most brutal, if not the most brutal Halloween movie in the entire series and a lot of that has to do with how human and real they made Michael feel. I know that was also really divisive for a lot of people, but I kind of enjoyed how he spent some of the movie without his mask and just his hood up and how you could hear him making grunts and noises as he attacked and killed people. It added an extra level of viciousness and tension to the character being able to slightly see and hear him, although I wouldn’t want that most the time because what makes Michael Michael is him being a silent masked killer, it was just fresh to see that different take. Not my favorite and the portrayal of Laurie is pretty damn unbearable in this one, but I do think it has a lot of merit as maybe the most raw and brutal watch of the series.

#5: Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Moving into some of my favorites in the series now. There’s a lot here that I really enjoy in this one. I think they did Laurie’s character right here, she still has lots of unpacked trauma and things she needs to work through that hold her back, but she was able to move on with her life in a lot of other facets as well. She holds down an important job at a private school and has a son and seems to be pretty well off financially, so they don’t feel like they’re doing our final girl wrong necessarily, like this series has done plenty other times. I also just like the vibe and feel of this movie, set in the late 90s (which is one of my favorite eras in general for teen horror) and it has that feel all around it like a ‘Scream’ or an ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ had. I also think this is the movie with the best final showdown between Laurie and Michael to ever come from this series and that this timeline should’ve just been left and ended there, but then they tried to ruin it all with Resurrection, that’s why I just say that movie isn’t canon. Not to say this one is perfect, Michael’s look is very off and strange feeling yet again (I don’t know why they can’t ever figure this dude’s look out) but aside from that it’s a very fun and easy watch for me.

#4: Halloween (2007)

Rob Zombie’s passion project. This movie was a somewhat divisive entry in the series as well as most people either really enjoyed and took to it, or they hated it. I’m one of the people that got a lot out of this movie. I think one of the biggest complaints is from the ‘Halloween’ fandom purists who don’t like that Michael was given a backstory and shown a more human side in the first half of the film and I get and understand that if you’re one of those people. Again though, this is one of those franchises that took a lot of swings and went a whole bunch of different directions throughout its run as a franchise, so I don’t hold any of the films back for trying new things or doing stuff out of the ordinary necessarily, some are just more well done than others. I personally feel like showing how horrible he had it as a kid and adding in some of that humanized sympathy made the second half all the grittier and gnarlier to see what a cold-blooded killing machine he becomes. It’s like the tragedy of Michael Myers unfolding and it never lets up or gets better, but it’s a well-done horror movie that added something entirely fresh and new to an already established character and franchise.

#3: Halloween (2018)

See, I’m not here to just throw shade on the most recent DGG trilogy. I do think each movie that came out was progressively quite a bit worse than the last one, but what he did in the 2018 reboot was honestly quite special. This film is to this day one of my favorite theater experiences of my life and this was my favorite horror movie of 2018. I still think this is how you do a reboot; Michael’s overall look is great in this movie as well and he comes in swinging just as heavy if not even heavier than ever before. Characters are brought back from the original series while a whole new set of fresh faces/fresh meat are introduced, and the Halloween holiday feels prevalent all throughout this movie as well and that’s a nice plus. I will say Laurie’s behavior is a bit ridiculous considering this film only takes the original first movie into account and it’s been 40 years since that. She’s a little bit crazy and over the top to STILL be like this, but she’s represented like a complete badass when it’s showtime, nonetheless. Maybe it’s a little controversial to have it so high, but this one is a lot of fun for me and is tied to great memories.

#2: Halloween II (1981)

The classic horror sequel. I honestly feel like there may not be a better sequel in the horror genre than this one, I am not even saying that it is my personal favorite or anything either because there’s some series that the sequel or later entries are my favorites of the entire franchise, but this is just a sequel done almost perfectly right. It carries directly over from the first film, within the same night even, so all the weight of everything hasn’t even settled yet and everything from the first movie is still strongly taken into account. They just add details to the story here, like Laurie being related to Michael. They also add lots to the body count and to the weight of what Michael Myers is and what lengths he will go to to get to Laurie Strode. Donald Pleasance really has his standout performance as Dr. Loomis in this one as well and adds a lot to the story and the overall lore of Michael Myers. The final showdown and ending sequence with Loomis, Laurie, and Michael is probably the best of the entire series as well, it’s either this or H20, but this one is just so classic. The image of Michael slowly walking out ablaze before collapsing, chef’s kiss.

#1: Halloween (1978)

So, almost obviously, the original is still going to round out the list in first place. Probably the least controversial placement on this entire list. This movie is honestly just THE quintessential slasher flick that birthed so, so much for the horror genre in the coming decade (the 1980s) and is still such a big influence even today. I’m not saying it has to be your favorite slasher movie or anything like that obviously, but as a horror fan it’s very hard not to give all the love and appreciation to this film because honestly without it, who knows where the genre as a whole would be today and what movies would’ve never even been made. You can’t say that for hardly any other movie out there, that’s how big of an influence it is. Just the pure Halloween ambience and creepy, stalking vibes that John Carpenter and Debra Hill were able to create on such a nothing budget is in itself commendable, but they couldn’t have ever imagined what Michael Myers would become or what he would do for their careers, I’m sure. Same can be said for Jamie Lee Curtis, before this film she was an unknown, and after this she never looked back and has been appearing in films in Hollywood for 40+ years now. This little nothing of a budget movie ended up completely changing the lives and careers of everyone who was a part of it for the rest of time and enough can ever be said about that. This film is the reason we’re even here today and I’m making this list or you’re reading it, so for that it’s coming in at #1.

That’s all for this though folks! I hope you enjoyed it or argued and yelled at my opinions through your screen while reading it. Regardless thank you for reading and I’d love to see and hear all your personal Halloween rankings as well so hit me up and let me hear them! Be safe and good to each other out there and Happy Halloween!