Watch · Viewing orderNo. 3658 · The 2026 edition
Every Halloween film — and three orders to watch them in.
Thirteen films, five timelines, one immortal Shape. Here is the whole franchise with the internet's honest scores, and three paths through it depending on how much October you have.
No franchise treats continuity like Halloween does — as a suggestion. Sequels erase sequels; two separate films are both called Halloween II; the 2018 film is a direct sequel to 1978 that politely pretends nine other movies never happened. That chaos is half the fun, but it means the right question isn't "what order were they made in" — it's "which Haddonfield do you want to live in this October?"
First, the complete shelf, oldest to newest, with the crowd's scores from our index.
The complete shelf
- Halloween (1978) — The one that invented the slasher's grammar. Still the scariest thing here, on pure craft. On the watchlist
- Halloween II (1981) — Same night, same hospital, the sister reveal. The original's direct continuation.
- Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) — No Michael at all — an android-witchcraft one-off about cursed masks. Once hated, now a cult favorite. Judge it as its own movie.
- Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) — The Shape comes back for his niece Jamie. The strongest of the late-80s run.
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) — More Jamie, more Loomis, diminishing returns — but essential to the Thorn arc.
- Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) — The cult of Thorn explains everything, which explains too much. Notable for a young Paul Rudd.
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) — Laurie Strode, alive after all, faces her brother twenty years on. Ignores 4 through 6 entirely.
- Halloween: Resurrection (2002) — Reality-TV-in-the-Myers-house. The franchise's agreed-upon low point.
- Halloween (2007) — Rob Zombie's remake: a brutal origin story with a documentarian's grime. Divisive on purpose.
- Halloween II (2009) — Zombie's sequel goes full nightmare-logic. The bleakest film wearing the name.
- Halloween (2018) — Forty years later, a sequel to 1978 alone. Laurie as a survivalist grandmother is the draw.
- Halloween Kills (2021) — The town fights back, loudly. The trilogy's messy middle chapter.
- Halloween Ends (2022) — The boldest swing since III — barely about Michael at all, and people are still arguing.
Order one: the single evening
- Halloween (1978) — The blueprint, best watched with the lights already off.
- Halloween (2018) — Skip straight here. Forty years of dread pay off in one film, no homework required.
Order two: the modern trilogy weekend
- Halloween (1978) — Friday. The origin, untouched.
- Halloween (2018) — Saturday. The reunion, forty years sharper.
- Halloween Kills (2021) — Saturday, late. The chaos chapter — best consumed before your critical faculties reboot.
- Halloween Ends (2022) — Sunday. Watch it knowing it's a curveball and it plays far better.
Order three: the completionist's October
- 1978 → II (1981) — The original night, in one continuous piece.
- 4 (1988) → 5 (1989) → Curse (1995) — The Thorn timeline: Jamie's story, cult and all.
- H20 (1998) → Resurrection (2002) — The Laurie-lives branch. Stop after H20 if you want to remember it fondly.
- Halloween (2007) → II (2009) — The Zombie universe — grimmer, meaner, its own thing.
- 2018 → Kills → Ends — The modern trilogy to close the month.
- III: Season of the Witch (1982) — Save it for October 31st itself. No Michael, all Halloween — the only film here actually about the holiday. The Silver Shamrock jingle will outlive us all.
Continuity is a suggestion. The Shape abides.