The spooky season is quickly approaching and that means it’s time to start watching the most iconic slasher franchise in history – Halloween. But watching the Halloween franchise in order is no easy task. In fact, there really is no one proper chronological order… there’s four of them. Yep, four. That’s why we’re here to help you out.
Check out our guide below to find out how to watch the Halloween franchise in all four orders and where each movie is streaming online!
First up, let’s look at the films by their release dates. If you want to watch the Halloween movies based on when they were released, it would look like this.
- Halloween (1978)
- Halloween II (1981)
- Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
- Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
- Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
- Halloween (2007)
- Halloween 2 (2009)
- Halloween (2018)
- Halloween Kills (2021)
- Halloween Ends (2022)
But, in that lineup we have a random anthology movie, we have reboots, we have retcons, and we have a few films that most Halloween fans wish didn’t exist. So, what’s the proper order to watch the Halloween movies in? Here’s all four.
Original Timeline
- Halloween (1978)
- Halloween II (1981)
- Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
- Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
H20 Timeline
- Halloween (1978)
- Halloween II (1981)
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
- Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Blumhouse Timeline
- Halloween (1978)
- Halloween (2018)
- Halloween Kills (2021)
- Halloween Ends (2022)
Rob Zombie Timeline
- Halloween (2007)
- Halloween 2 (2009)
Notice how none of the timelines include Halloween III? That’s because it’s an unrelated anthology film that wasn’t well-received. For a period in the 2010s, it did receive some support from hipsters who enjoyed it simply for its oddball and forgotten status, but as the years have gone on, the film has slipped back into obscurity.
Here’s a closer look at all thirteen Halloween movies to give you a better idea of what they’re about.
Halloween
The original film begins with a young Michael Myers killing his older sister who was babysitting him on Halloween night. Flashforward 15 years and now a grown Michael Myers escapes a mental institution and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to prey upon teenage babysitters once again – with his prime target being Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).
Halloween II
Picking up where the first film left off, Halloween II follows Laurie to the hospital to recover from her injuries after battling Michael. Unfortunately, Michael also finds his way to the hospital and starts killing everyone in sight. The movie also dropped a bombshell revelation: Laurie is actually Michael’s younger sister.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
For some reason, a group of studio execs thought it would be great to turn Halloween into an anthology series and completely ditch Michael Myers. What they came up with was an evil corporation that makes masks that kill people. Watch it if you want, but it has no continuity with the other films.
Halloween 4
After the disastrous release of Halloween III, audiences finally got to see Michael Myers again. In the fourth film, it’s revealed that Laurie has died but had a daughter, the young Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). Naturally, Michael now has his eyes set on her. The movie also has a shocking finale that I won’t spoil.
Halloween 5
In the 5th film, Michael continues stalking Jamie, once again killing everyone around her. The film was panned by critics and seen as a completely repetitive copy of the fourth film. However, it too has a shocking finale…one that introduced the most polarizing plot point in the Halloween franchise: The Cult of Thorn.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Leaning fully into the new cult plot, The Curse of Michael Myers made Michael the puppet of a nefarious cult. Honestly, this is just not a good movie. Unless you’re a diehard fan determined to watch every film in the franchise, feel free to skip this one.
Halloween H20
After Scream reinvigorated the slasher genre in 1996, Halloween returned a few years later with H20 – this time bringing the franchise into the modern age of horror with a new, popular young cast and the return of legacy character Laurie Strode. She’s now teaching at a remote California prep school…and as you can assume, Michael finds her and all hell breaks loose.
Halloween: Resurrection
Another truly awful entry in the franchise is Resurrection. At the start of the film, they kill off Laurie Strode (again), and then it focuses on a reality show filming inside Michael’s “haunted house”. It was a sleazy, lazy, and boring sequel and killed off the franchise for almost a decade.
Halloween (2007)
With Resurrection killing off all interest in the franchise (and literally killing off Laurie Strode), Rob Zombie was free to completely reboot the series in 2007. In Zombie’s trademark style, the new film was raw, gory, edgy, and brutal. The movie was a surprise hit, grossing over $80 million and proving that Michael Myers could still attract audiences to theaters.
Halloween 2
After the success of the first film, Zombie ruined everything with his 2009 sequel, which was dull, all over the place, and involved ghosts and visions and a whole lot of other random nonsense. Once again, a massive failure killed off the Halloween franchise for almost a decade.
Halloween (2018)
Jamie Lee Curtis returned for 2018’s Halloween as Laurie Strode and horror fans rejoiced at the original Scream Queen’s proper homecoming. Strode is now a grandmother and riddled with trauma from her past experience. But it turns out that it’s all for the best because Michael finds her once again…and her years of waiting have trained her well for this moment. The 2018 film retconned everything after the original movie, meaning that Michael and Laurie are no longer siblings.
Halloween Kills
America’s politics heavily influenced Halloween Kills when it was released in 2021. The film shows the town of Haddonfield turn on each other instead of going against Michael…which allows him to embark on an epic bloodbath in the finale, giving the Halloween franchise its highest body count ever.
Halloween Ends
Halloween Ends also has a larger message and the film sees the town unfairly accuse a young man of murder. They ostracize him, mock him, and ruin his life. His bitterness and anger leads him down the path of darkness until he meets Michael Myers, idolizing him and joining him on his murder spree. It’s a weird conclusion to the franchise but is certainly unique and different.
Where can I watch the Halloween movies online?
Check out our guide below to find out where every Halloween movie is streaming online!
