How to Watch theHalloweenMovies in Order (Chronologically and by Release Date)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween,’ 1978.Photo:Mary Evans/COMPASS INTERNATIONAL PICTURES/FALCON INTERNATIONAL PRODUC/Ronald Grant/Everett

Mary Evans/COMPASS INTERNATIONAL PICTURES/FALCON INTERNATIONAL PRODUC/Ronald Grant/Everett

Halloweenchanged horror movies forever and launched a franchise that spanned more than four decades.

John Carpenter’s classic introducedMichael Myers(a.k.a. “The Shape”) andJamie Lee Curtisas formidable final girlLaurie Strodeto audiences in October 1978. The film largely inspired the slasher sub-genre andestablished Curtis as a scream queen.

The original flick spawned 12 additional movies, and the franchise has made more than $1 billion and counting. To this day, the original 1978Halloweenis considered one of the best horror movies in history.

Curtiscredits playing LaurieinHalloweenwith not only making her a star but also setting off a chain of events in her life that led her to marryChristopher Guestand eventually expand her acting horizons into comedy.

“As I write this, I keepconnecting the dots,” Curtis wrote in a PEOPLEessay in 2022. “If I hadn’t been inHalloween, I wouldn’t have met John Landis, the director who put me inTrading Placesand showed the world I can be funny. That got meA Fish Called Wanda. That led toTrue Lies, which led toFreaky Friday. Dot connected, dot connected.”

However, connecting the dots of the actualHalloweenmovie timeline can be a bit tricky. There are three different timelines for Curtis' arc as Laurie in theHalloweenfranchise, plus Rob Zombie’s standalone films and anotherHalloweenfranchise movie that barely connects to the others at all.

Ahead, we break down how to watch theHalloweenmovies in order in each timeline, as well as chronologically in order of release date.

James Jude Courtney as Michael Myers in ‘Halloween Kills,’ 2021.Ryan Green/Universal Pictures/THA/Shutterstock

Ryan Green/Universal Pictures/THA/Shutterstock

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and Nick Castle as Michael Myers in ‘Halloween’.Compass International Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

The OriginalHalloweenTimeline

Halloween(1978)

Nick Castle as Michael Myers in ‘Halloween,’ 1978.Fotos International/Courtesy of Getty

Fotos International/Courtesy of Getty

She recalled that the then-unknown Carpenter and his girlfriend Debra Hill developed the story forHalloweenfrom that prompt.

She was paid $8,000 forHalloween, calling it “a fortune” for the time, especially for her first leading role. The film, produced for just $300,000, raked in $47 million at the box office and would become the most commercially successful independent movie ever at the time.

Halloween II(1981)

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween II,’ 1981.Courtesy Everett Collection

The film begins one minute after the events ofHalloween: Laurie is hospitalized, and Michael Myers stalks her and brutally murders anyone who gets in his way.

Rosenthalsaid in a 2002 interviewthat while he wanted to remain loyal to Carpenter’s original vision forHalloween, he also wanted to put his own stamp onHalloween II.

“You have to try hard to maintain the style of the first movie. I wanted it to feel like a two-parter,” he explained. “You have the responsibility and the restraints of the style that’s been set. It was the same crew. My philosophy was to do more of a thriller than a slasher movie.”

Halloween IIreveals that Laurie is actually Myers' younger sister, who was adopted after their parents' deaths, with the records sealed to protect her. This aspect of the storyline was later dropped.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers(1988)

Released a decade after the firstHalloween, other than being based on the characters Carpenter created,Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myershad no involvement from the franchise’s creator — nor from Curtis, who only appears in a photograph, with Laurie being written out of the film and dying offscreen.

The only returning cast member from the first twoHalloweenfilms was Donald Pleasence as Michael Myers' psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Loomis.

Halloween 4takes place a decade after the events ofHalloween II, with Myers having been comatose for the past 10 years. While being transferred from Haddonfield Memorial Hospital to a sanitarium, Myers hears ambulance personnel mention that he has a niece — Laurie’s daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), who lives with a foster family. Myers brutally and relentlessly pursues Jamie throughout Haddonfield, leaving countless people dead in his wake.

Screenwriter Dennis Etchison originally wrote the script forHalloween 4with Carpenter and Hill, and it was quite different, with aFootloose-style ban on Halloween in Haddonfield. However, asBloody Disgusting reportedin 2017, creative differences led Carpenter and Hill to exit and sell their rights to theHalloweenfranchise, and the studio went with a script from Alan McElroy instead. McElroy pennedHalloween 4in just 10 days, completing it just before a writers' strike,per a 2018 Daily Dead interview.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers(1989)

Donald L. Shanks as Michael Myers in ‘Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers,’ 1989.Magnum/Kobal/Shutterstock

Magnum/Kobal/Shutterstock

The fifth installment,Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, premiered on Oct. 13, 1989. Set one year after the events ofHalloween 4, Pleasence and Harris reprised their roles as Dr. Loomis and Jamie, respectively, with Michael Myers continuing to pursue his niece.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers(1995)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myerspicks up on the cult elements first sown inHalloween 5. J.C. Brandy plays an adult version of Laurie’s daughter, Jamie, now living in what was Michael Myers' childhood home with relatives of her and Laurie’s adoptive family.

What follows is a convoluted (but campily entertaining) combination of the occult, genetic engineering and, of course, a lot of slayings.

In December 2019,Quentin Tarantinorevealed to Consequence of Soundthat he was actually in the running to write and directHalloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, though the job eventually went to screenwriter Daniel Farrands and director Joe Chappelle.

TheH20Timeline

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and Chris Durand as Michael Myers in ‘Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,’ 1998.Nicola Goode/Dimension/Kobal/Shutterstock

Nicola Goode/Dimension/Kobal/Shutterstock

Halloween IIis canon in theH20timeline, chronicling Myers stalking Laurie through Haddonfield Memorial Hospital (and likely overcrowding its morgue). The rest of the original timeline,Halloween 4,Halloween 5andHalloween: The Curse of Michael Myersare not canon in theH20timeline.

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later(1998)

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,’ 1998.Dimension Films/Kobal/Shutterstock

Dimension Films/Kobal/Shutterstock

Curtis returned forHalloween H20: 20 Years Laterin 1998, reprising her role as Laurie. InH20, it’s revealed that Laurie faked her own death and has been hiding from Myers and working at a boarding school in California under the alias Keri Tate. As a result of her trauma, she is overprotective of her son, John (Josh Hartnett), and prohibits him from going on a trip with his friends and girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams). That inadvertently puts John and Molly in the path of Michael, who travels from Haddonfield to California to try to kill Laurie once he finds out she’s alive.

As SyFy reported, at New York Comic Con in 2022, Curtis said she wanted her character’s arc to end withHalloween H20, where she appears to kill Myers in the end … but we all know you can’t keep The Shape down for long.

Halloween: Resurrection(2002)

Tyra Banks as Nora Winston and Busta Rhymes as Freddie Harris in ‘Halloween: Resurrection,’ 2002.Kimberley French/Miramax/Dimension/Kobal/Shutterstock

Kimberley French/Miramax/Dimension/Kobal/Shutterstock

BecauseHalloween H20was such a success, another sequel in the timeline came four years later withHalloween: Resurrection. In the sequel, Curtis’ Laurie is in a mental institution after killing who she thought was Myers at the end ofH20but turned out to be the wrong man.

At New York Comic Con in 2022, Curtis recalled telling the writers forResurrection, “You have to kill me in the first 10 minutes of the movie because I’ve now killed an innocent man, and I can’t live with that.” They listened, and the rest of the film was largely comical camp — especially a memorable scene with rapperBusta Rhymesholding his own against The Shape.

The Rob Zombie Timeline

Halloween(2007)

Tyler Mane as Michael Myers and Kristina Klebe as Lynda Van Der Klok in ‘Halloween,’ 2007.Dimension/Spectacle/Kobal/Shutterstock

Dimension/Spectacle/Kobal/Shutterstock

Rob Zombie’sHalloweenis not canon with any of the previousHalloweenmovies.

“Call it a remake, an update, a [reimagining] or whatever, but one thing that for sure is this is a whole new start… a new [beginning] with no connection to the other series,” Zombie wrote on his blog in 2006,per Film Threat. He added, “I talked to John Carpenter about this the other day, and he said, ‘Go for it, Rob. Make it your own.’ "

Zombie did just that, rebooting the franchise with an origin story for the masked murderer. The movie begins with a 10-year-old Michael Myers already showing the brutality for which The Shape was known, then flashes forward 15 years to an adult Myers (Tyler Mane) pursuing his younger sister, Laurie (Scout Taylor-Compton).

Halloweenwas significantly more graphic than many of its predecessors, and Zombie said the gruesome violence was a deliberate choice and that it wasn’t supposed to be easy viewing.

“I never wanted there to be any moment in the movie when something would happen and the audience would cheer, like sometimes that happens in certain types of horror movies,” heexplained to Cinema.com. “I was never a fan of that. I wasn’t looking for ‘inventive’ kills, and I even hate that word because if you have these characters screaming or crying in pain, I don’t think anyone should be jumping out of their seat cheering. It should be horrible, and you should feel sick watching it because that’s what it is: sick.”

PerVariety,Halloweengrossed $30.6 million at the box office over Labor Day weekend in 2007, setting a record that it kept until Marvel’sShang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ringsdebuted in 2021.

Halloween II(2009)

Tyler Mane as Michael Myers in ‘Halloween II,’ 2009.Universal Images Group North America LLC/Alamy

Universal Images Group North America LLC/Alamy

Zombie followed withHalloween II, which he later said he preferred to his originalHalloween, in part because he could make it entirely his own.

“I am still proud of bothHalloweenmovies,” hetoldSFXmagazine in 2018. “I prefer the second one, which might surprise people, but the problem is that when you do a remake you can never get a true judgment on what it is you have done.”

Despite preferringHalloween II, Zombieadmitted on theHowie Mandel Does Stuffpodcastin June 2023 that he only made it to get out of his contract with The Weinstein Company, which was originally slated for three movies. Zombie claimed that while he was makingHalloweenandHalloween II,Bob Weinsteinwas constantly fighting with him andHarvey Weinsteinover the creative direction and commercial appeal of his films, leading him to truncate his three-picture deal to two.

The Last Laurie Strode Timeline

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween Kills,’ 2021.Universal Pictures

The original 1978Halloweenmovieis the only one in the franchise considered canon for theLaurie Strode timeline trilogythat includesHalloween(2018),Halloween KillsandHalloween Ends.

Because the originalHalloweenis the only canon film ahead of 2018’sHalloween, Laurie and Myers arenotbrother and sister in this timeline, as that revelation came inHalloween II. According to Curtis, that was a very deliberate decision on behalf of writer and directorDavid Gordon Green.

“There is nothing more terrifying in the world than a random act of violence; that is the root of terrorism,” Curtisexplained to Den of Geekin July 2018. “Not that you see it coming, that something occurs in a horrible way, without you ever thinking it could happen to you, that’s what made this movie so profoundly terrifying: is it was random.”

Halloween(2018)

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween,’ 2018.Ryan Green/Universal Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

“[Director David Gordon Green] sent me a script and said [Laurie] spent 40 years hiding behind barbed wire, emotionally and physically,” Curtis said at New York Comic Con in 2022, per SyFy. “At the expense of her daughter and granddaughter, she knows Michael Myers is coming back. It was this incredible film about Laurie and her trauma.”

The film also has a message of women’s empowerment, which is what really drove Curtis to reprise the role that made her a star.

“It was this beautiful movie about a woman taking control of her life,” she said. “And it coincided with the women around the world standing up and taking control of their lives and saying ‘Me Too, Me Too, Time Is Up and Me Too.’ "

Halloween Kills(2021)

Judy Greer as Karen Nelson, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and Andi Matichak as Allyson Nelson in ‘Halloween Kills,’ 2021.Universal Pictures

“It really is my first love, and I am enjoying it so much,” Richards told PEOPLE in 2021 about her return to acting. “I felt so comfortable the entire time and working with David Gordon Green. He’s such an incredible director and generous and open-minded and [has] no ego. So he really made it easy for me, and I loved it. I’m happy to keep doing it.”

Halloween Ends(2022)

James Jude Courtney as Michael Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in ‘Halloween Ends,’ 2022.Ryan Green/Universal Pictures

The Anthology Timeline

Halloween III: Season of the Witch(1982)

Halloween III: Season of the Witchis a standalone film that doesn’t connect to any others in theHalloweenfranchise.

As Screen Rant reportedin 2019, Carpenter and Hill originally planned theHalloweenfranchise films to be an anthology of standalone movies that took place on Halloween night, and the creators felt Michael Myers' arc ended inHalloween II.

Halloween IIIfollows sinister goings-on at the fictional Silver Shamrock mask factory. The cast consisted mostly of character actors including Stacey Nelkin and Tom Atkins, but there were some returning franchise stars as well: Nancy Kyes, who played Laurie’s friend Linda inHalloween(1978) andHalloween II, and Dick Warlock, who played Michael inHalloween II, both make appearances inHalloween III: Season of the Witch. Curtis also has an uncredited voice role as a curfew announcer,perYahoo UK.

source: people.com