Every Halloween Movie Ranked

Critics Consensus: Scary, suspenseful, and viscerally thrilling, Halloween set the standard for modern horror films.

Synopsis: On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years.... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes, P.J. Soles

Directed By: John Carpenter

Critics Consensus: Halloween largely wipes the slate clean after decades of disappointing sequels, ignoring increasingly elaborate mythology in favor of basic - yet still effective - ingredients.

Synopsis: It's been 40 years since Laurie Strode survived a vicious attack from crazed killer Michael Myers on Halloween night. Locked up in an institution, Myers... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton

Directed By: David Gordon Green

Critics Consensus: Halloween: H2O is the best of the many sequels, yet still pales in comparison to the original Halloween.

Synopsis: Two decades after surviving a massacre on October 31, 1978, former baby sitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) finds herself hunted by persistent knife-wielder Michael... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams

Directed By: Steve Miner

Critics Consensus: Its laudable deviation from series formula not withstanding, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch offers paltry thrills and dubious plotting.

Synopsis: Hospital emergency room Dr. Daniel "Dan" Challis (Tom Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin), the daughter of a murder victim, uncover a terrible plot by... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Ralph Strait

Directed By: Tommy Lee Wallace

Critics Consensus: Halloween 4: The Return Of Michaels Myers may bring the series' masked killer back into the fold, but fails to offer the visceral scares and inventiveness of the original.

Synopsis: The apparently comatose Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) is being transferred from one hospital to another, but he wakes up when the ambulance crew talk... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, George P. Wilbur

Directed By: Dwight H. Little

Critics Consensus: Halloween Ends -- for now, anyway -- with a frequently befuddling installment that's stabbed, slashed, and beaten by a series of frustrating missed opportunities.

Synopsis: This is Laurie Strode's last stand. After 45 years, the most acclaimed, revered horror franchise in film history reaches its epic, terrifying conclusion as Laurie... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Will Patton

Directed By: David Gordon Green

Critics Consensus: Halloween Kills should satisfy fans in search of brute slasher thrills, but in terms of advancing the franchise, it's a bit less than the sum of its bloody parts.

Synopsis: Minutes after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Anthony Michael Hall, Andi Matichak

Directed By: David Gordon Green

Critics Consensus: Halloween II picks up where its predecessor left off - and quickly wanders into a dead end that the franchise would spend decades struggling to find its way out of.

Synopsis: After failing to kill stubborn survivor Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and taking a bullet or six from former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Charles Cyphers, Jeffrey Kramer

Directed By: Rick Rosenthal

Critics Consensus: Rob Zombie doesn't bring many new ideas to the table in Halloween, making it another bloody disappointment for fans of the franchise.

Synopsis: Nearly two decades after being committed to a mental institution for killing his stepfather and older sister, Michael Myers breaks out, intent on returning to... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Danny Trejo

Directed By: Rob Zombie

Critics Consensus: Zombie shows flashes of vision in the follow-up to his Halloween reboot, but they're smothered by mountains of gore and hackneyed, brutal violence.

Synopsis: A year after narrowly escaping death at the hands of Michael Myers (Tyler Mane), Laurie Strode is at the breaking point, pushed to the edge... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Sheri Moon Zombie, Brad Dourif

Directed By: Rob Zombie

Critics Consensus: Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers finds the series embracing crude slasher conventions with pedestrian scares, disposable characters, and aimless plotting.

Synopsis: After lying in a coma for a year, Michael Myers (Donald L. Shanks) awakens and stalks his way back to his small hometown in Illinois,... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Wendy Foxworth, Ellie Cornell

Directed By: Dominique Othenin-Girard

Critics Consensus: The only thing this tired slasher flick may resurrect is nostalgia for when the genre was still fresh and scary.

Synopsis: He's back for more... When a group of teens win a contest to spend a night in Michael Myers' childhood home to be broadcast live... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Brad Loree, Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kajlich

Directed By: Rick Rosenthal

Critics Consensus: Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers trades the simple, brutal effectiveness of the original for convoluted mysticism, with disastrously dull results.

Synopsis: This installment marks the return of the seemingly indestructible masked murderer Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur), who is targeting Tommy Doyle (Paul Stephen Rudd), a... View Full Synopsis

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Mitch Ryan, Marianne Hagan, Paul Rudd

Directed By: Joe Chappelle