Confused by the Halloween Timeline? Here’s the Correct Watch Order For All Movies

Halloween is basically here, which means it is officially time to watch people make extremely bad decisions in houses with no working lights. The only catch: trying to make sense of the Halloween franchise can feel like homework. Multiple movies share the same title, different sequels ignore other sequels, and entire timelines pretend the others never happened. Here is the cleanest way to watch it all without giving yourself a headache.

If you just want release order (with scores)

• Halloween (1978) - IMDb 7.7/10, Rotten Tomatoes 97%
• Halloween II (1981) - IMDb 6.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes 34%
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - IMDb 5.2/10, Rotten Tomatoes 49%
• Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - IMDb 5.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes 39%
• Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - IMDb 4.9/10, Rotten Tomatoes 11%
• Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) - IMDb 4.7/10, Rotten Tomatoes 8%
• Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - IMDb 5.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes 54%
• Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - IMDb 3.9/10, Rotten Tomatoes 10%
• Halloween (2007) - IMDb 6.1/10, Rotten Tomatoes 28%
• Halloween II (2009) - IMDb 4.8/10, Rotten Tomatoes 25%
• Halloween (2018) - IMDb 6.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes 79%
• Halloween Kills (2021) - IMDb 5.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes 38%
• Halloween Ends (2022) - IMDb 5/10, Rotten Tomatoes 40%

Why the continuity is a maze

Short version: the franchise branches. Certain films erase others, then later entries reboot the reboot. And yes, three different movies are titled 'Halloween', which is very helpful when you are trying to stream the right one at 11:58 PM.

1) The original continuity (1978 to 1995)

It all starts with John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), which put 19-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis on the map, paired babysitters with a blank-faced boogeyman, and basically invented the modern slasher. It was a hit with critics and audiences, which immediately led to Halloween II (1981) — set literally one minute after the first — with Laurie in the hospital while Michael keeps carving his way through Haddonfield to get to her.

For this timeline, skip Halloween III (we will get to that oddball later) and jump a decade past the original to Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988). Here, a shadowy cult is implied to be steering Michael toward wiping out Laurie Strode's bloodline. Since Laurie is out of the picture, his new target is her daughter, Jamie.

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) continues with Jamie on the run, now sharing a spooky, borderline psychic link with Michael, while that same cult keeps nudging him to kill family.

It wraps with Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), which brings in Jamie's baby, Steven, and a grown-up Tommy Doyle played by Paul Rudd. The movie leans hard into occult lore and even dabbles in talk of genetic experiments, all while ramping up the body count. That closes the book on this first, and messiest, branch.

2) The H20 branch (1978, 1981, then 1998 and 2002)

This path revives Laurie Strode after the original run wrote her off between films. It keeps the 1978 original and Halloween II, tosses III, 4, 5, and Curse, and fast-forwards to Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998). In H20, Laurie secretly faked her death and has been living under a new name with her son. Michael figures it out and comes looking — as he does.

Then comes Halloween: Resurrection (2002), where the twist is that the man Laurie killed at the end of H20 was not Michael. She ends up in a mental institution, and the storyline effectively ends here.

3) The Rob Zombie do-over (2007 to 2009)

Think of this as a soft reboot with a much harsher edge. Halloween (2007) reframes the saga as an origin story, spending real time on Michael Myers' childhood before jumping ahead 15 years to adult Michael hunting Laurie. It is significantly more graphic than the earlier films.

Halloween II (2009) follows Laurie coping with the aftermath of the Haddonfield murders, while Michael becomes fixated on reuniting with her on Halloween night. The sequel did moderately well, and Rob Zombie tapped out of the franchise after this, leaving this continuity at two films.

4) The Blumhouse/Strode trilogy (2018 to 2022)

This one ignores every sequel and picks up 40 years after the 1978 original. Halloween (2018) brings back Jamie Lee Curtis as a battle-hardened, deeply traumatized Laurie who decides to fight instead of just survive — that trauma-first angle is what tempted Curtis back to the role.

Halloween Kills (2021) basically starts where 2018 ends. Laurie, her daughter, and her granddaughter help rally a furious Haddonfield mob to hunt Michael.

Halloween Ends (2022) shifts to the fallout. Laurie is left to live with the damage Michael caused, and a lot of the town turns on her while she tries to piece together a path forward.

If the timing feels familiar, that is by design: like the '78 and '81 pair, 2018 and Kills play out back-to-back. Ends arrives afterward.

5) The anthology experiment (1982)

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) is the franchise's one-off curiosity. Before Michael became the brand, the idea was to make each Halloween movie a different horror story set around the holiday. You will spot a few familiar faces and nods to the first two films, but the plot is standalone and not connected to Michael Myers at all. Reviews have been mixed over the years, and the franchise quickly went back to the mask and the knife.

Bottom line: you can either do release order and enjoy the chaos, or pick a timeline that matches your mood — classic slasher build, late-90s reset, gnarly Rob Zombie redo, or the recent Blumhouse trilogy. Which Halloween run is your go-to? Drop your pick in the comments.