Long before Freddy Kruger haunted teens’ dreams and even before Jason Voorhees started hacking up coeds by the lake, Michael Myers was the original slasher movie monster and his ghostly image has helped the Halloween franchise survive right into the modern era.
Over 40 years of movies, and counting, the series has had its ups and downs with both general audiences and critics. But what’s the definitive ranking of the movies so far? Every fan has their favorites and critics themselves are often split on the movies. In an attempt to provide some kind of roadmap for a new fan, here are all of the Halloween movies ranked by their scores on aggregate site Metacritic.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers – 10
The movie that almost killed the series for good, The Curse of Michael Myers suffered from franchise fatigue but also from a confusing conclusion brought on by reshoots that altered a large portion of the movie’s main plot.
The original vision of the movie, revolving around ancient runes and a cult that supports Michael, was eventually released as a Producer’s Cut but, despite making much more sense, isn’t regarded as much better than the theatrical version.
Halloween: Resurrection – 19
After finally killing Laurie Strode, which is an act that would ultimately be erased from canon, Michael Myers returns to his old family home to continue his Halloween tradition.
Luckily for him, there’s plenty of new candidates for the slaughter when a reality TV company wires the home with cameras to exploit the past horrors for ratings.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers – 28
Following on from the end of the previous installment in the franchise, Michael Myers recuperates for a year before returning to Haddonfield to once again terrorize the locals in the pursuit of his surviving family.
Halloween 5 would introduce the left-field cult elements that were somewhat resolved in the sixth movie but its drawn-out story was already testing the patience of both fans and critics.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers – 34
The beginning of a new trilogy of Halloween movies following the franchise’s previous attempt to move beyond its famous killer, The Return of Michael Myers takes some creative liberties with the end of the original Halloween II and brings both Dr. Loomis and Michael back from their firey deaths with a few skin burns.
The fourth installment also introduces Michael’s niece, Jamie Lloyd, as the target of his maniacal rampage after killing Laurie Strode (for the first time) off-camera.
Halloween II (2009) – 35
Rob Zombie’s followup to his 2007 remake of the original Halloween actually breaks the mold a little and doesn’t retell the story of the original sequel.
Malcolm McDowell’s take on series mainstay character Dr. Loomis gets examined in a new light as a bit of a glory hunter in the media but it’s mostly much of the same from Zombie and the sequel didn’t do half as well at the box office as its predecessor.
Halloween II (1981) – 40
Proving that there is occasionally a bit of justice when it comes to critical rankings, the original Halloween II just beats out its pseudo-remake.
The original sequel brings back Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis from the first movie in a continuation of the same Halloween night, in which Michael tracks Laurie Strode to the hospital that she’s taken away to and proceeds to resume his usual murderous business.
Halloween (2007) – 47
Rob Zombie’s remake of the original classic focusses on the development of Michael Myers into a psychotic force of evil more than any of the movies before it and it was ultimately much more successful than other remakes of classic slasher titles such as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Much more grungy than previous takes on the franchise, Halloween 2009 certainly doesn’t skimp on the graphic kills and its sequel-spawning success shows that fans had been missing that aspect of the series.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch – 50
50 out of 100 seems like the perfect score for an entry in the franchise that’s still debated to this day as being either one of the best or one of the worst of the series.
The main sticking point on either side is the fact that Season of the Witch is the only Halloween movie to not feature Michael Myers and its original story of a mysterious plot involving killer jack-o’-lantern masks undeniably makes it stand out from the vast majority of slasher movie sequels.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later – 52
As Halloween 4 marked the tenth anniversary of the original movie with Michael returning to his slashing ways, H20 marks the twentieth anniversary by forgetting Jamie Lloyd and everything that happened after the original Halloween II to bring back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode for the first of two franchise retcons.
This time around, Laurie is living a secluded life as the head of a private boarding school before being once again tracked down by her demonic brother.
Halloween (2018) – 67
A total retcon overhaul of the franchise, the 2018 version of Halloween–much like the sixth Terminator movie that would follow the next year–erased every sequel from the confusing timeline and made only the first movie canon.
Halloween 2018 finds Laurie even more paranoid than the version of her from H20 and she’s as ready as ever to take on Michael when he returns for his holiday tradition.
Halloween (1978) – 87
A large swathe of critics agrees that nothing in the franchise has topped the original movie and that’s not very likely to ever change.
John Carpenter’s low-budget masterpiece created not only one of slasher movie history’s most iconic killers and musical themes but arguably birthed the subgenre in its purest form. If you’ve never seen it, you’re missing out.
