Halloween movies in order: Complete Michael Myers timeline

(pocket-lint) – Halloween is the perfect time to see one of the scariest guys to ever wear a jumpsuit: Michael Myers. His reign of terror began decades ago and now spans a dozen Halloween movies. but not all follow an orderly order.

also: best halloween movies: the best horror and thriller movies to stream

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The franchise has been rebooted a couple of times, in 1998 and 2018, plus there’s a rob zombie remake of the original movie. That makes it hard to cobble together a chronological guide, but it’s not impossible, given that most movies have him stalking poor Laurie Strode. Therefore, we put together an order that follows the king of slasher movies from his earliest days at 45 Lampkin Lane to today.

all halloween movies in chronological order

We’ve included a spoiler-free version of this guide at the bottom, along with a theatrical release date and reboot orders.

Note: There may be spoilers below.

halloween (1978)

The first Halloween movie begins on Halloween night, of course, in 1963. We see six-year-old Michael Myers murder his older sister with a kitchen knife at 45 Lampkin Lane. Fifteen years pass and Myers escapes from an institution where he has been confined, and his psychiatrist, Samuel Loomis (Donald Plesance), is forced to hunt him down. Myers returns to his old hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois to prey on some unsuspecting babysitters led by Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode. John Carpenter directed this movie and wrote it with Debra Hill.

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halloween ii (1981)

Continuing right at the end of the original movie, we see Laurie being transported to a hospital after supposedly defeating Michael Myers. she but she gets up and walks away from a series of stab and gunshot wounds that would otherwise kill most people. although dr. Loomis initially thinks that Michael has been indiscriminately targeting the babysitters, he soon learns that the killer is after Laurie for a specific reason.

rick rosenthal directed this film, but john carpenter returned to write and produce it with debra hill.

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halloween 4: the return of michael myers (1988)

yes, we skipped halloween iii. more on that later. Halloween IV, directed by Dwight Little, is set 10 years after the events of the first two films, with Michael Myers waking up from a coma and going out to find and kill Laurie’s daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). For those wondering, Laurie “died” in an off-screen car accident prior to the events of Halloween 4.

also, john carpenter did not write or produce this film. he did halloween iii but he doesn’t return to the franchise until halloween 2018.

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halloween 5: michael myers revenge (1989)

at the end of halloween 4, michael myers was shot multiple times and thrown into a mine shaft. this fifth film sees his body washed in a stream, where a man living alone in the woods finds it. He spends a year caring for Michael’s comatose body before he wakes up on Halloween night. Michael immediately kills the man and goes looking for Jamie (Danielle Harris), who is in therapy from her last encounter with him.

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halloween: the curse of michael myers (1995)

Set six years later, the curse of michael myers begins with jamie, now played by jc brandy, as a prisoner of a cult that freed michael at the end of halloween 5. she was forced to have a child and dies during an attempt escape. She however, manages to hide the baby from her, which is later found by Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd), the child that Laurie Strode babysat in the first Halloween movie.

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halloween h20: 20 years later (1998)

h20 opens with michael myers trashing the house of his recently deceased former psychiatrist. He finds out that Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) faked her death and has been living as headmistress of a private boarding school attended by her own son John (Josh Hartnett).

michael myers naturally arrives just in time for a halloween family reunion.

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halloween: resurrection (2002)

This installment sees two things we never thought we’d see: Michael Myers finally manages to kill Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and gets to fight karate with busta rhymes. The film opens with Laurie institutionalized after the events of H20 three years prior, and Michael comes to visit her. after that, he heads to his old abandoned house to find reality show contestants who want to spend a night with him.

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halloween (2018)

The highest-grossing film in the franchise is also the most recent. It’s another reboot, but it serves as a direct sequel to the original Halloween, meaning it treats all the other movies as if they didn’t happen. since it was so successful, he has two more sequels in the works.

jamie lee curtis once again returns as laurie walked. She is still traumatized from Halloween night 40 years earlier, when Michael Myers came home. she is living a lonely life in a heavily fortified house. she keeps in touch with her granddaughter, allyson (andi matichak), but she rarely sees her daughter, who was taken from her when she was a child. Fortunately, Myers escapes from an insane asylum for family therapy.

david gordon green directed this halloween movie. green is also directing two sequels to this film: halloween kills (opening October 15, 2021) and halloween ends (coming October 2022).

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halloween bushes (2021)

The latest installment in the Michael Myers saga looks set to be one of the bloodiest entries yet, according to trailers for the new film. Picks up where Halloween 2018 left off, with Michael trapped in the basement of Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) burning house. The film also sees the return of Judy Greer and Andu Matichak as Laurie Strode’s daughter and granddaughter, Karen and Alyson Nelson, respectively.

The film was released on October 15, 201 through theaters and the Peacock streaming service.

halloween (2007)

We are closing our watch guide with the two rob zombie remakes. The first film, also confusingly simply called Halloween, follows the same course of events as the original film, but is set decades later and focuses on different aspects, such as the lead up to the first Michael Myers murders when he was child in 1990 we also see his years of therapy with dr loomis (malcolm mcdowell).

The story still ends in the same place, with Michael escaping and returning to Haddonfield to find Laurie Strode (Explorer Taylor-Compton).

we’re putting this movie towards the end because it’s a separate timeline. It’s still good to watch as it fleshes out Michael’s background, but that’s not something everyone wanted, including John Carpenter himself. It doesn’t help that by the end of Rob Zombie’s second Halloween movie, Myers’ background and motivations are clouded by many of the same traits as his slasher movie brothers, Jason Vorhees.

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halloween ii (2009)

Set one year after the first Halloween starring Rob Zombie, Laurie Strode (Explorer Taylor-Compton) is still dealing with the trauma of the previous Halloween. Michael Myers, meanwhile, has been living on the run as a hitchhiker, until he starts having visions of his mother calling him to come home and find Laurie. halloween ii tries to develop the connection between michael and laurie.

This zombie movie is a reinvention of the Halloween franchise, but it’s not a great movie. however, it manages to be darker than the original films.

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halloween iii: season of the witch (1982)

The final movie in our guide is technically the third movie released in the Halloween franchise.

Released in 1982, Season of the Witch is a failed attempt at creating a Halloween anthology series. That means he has nothing connecting him to anything else in the Halloween universe. there isn’t even a michael myers. instead, halloween iii revolves around a devious plot by a company that makes halloween masks and plans to murder every child wearing one of their masks using stonehenge-powered computer chips.

james carpenter, the original director of halloween, produced this film with debra hill.

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Spoiler-Free Version: The Complete Michael Myers Timeline at a Glance

all halloween movies in chronological order

Okay, here’s the short version of the previous guide, just without spoilers:

• halloween (1978)
• halloween ii (1981)
• halloween 4: the return of michael myers (1988)
• halloween 5: michael myers revenge (1989)
• halloween 6: the curse of michael myers (1995)
• halloween h20: twenty years later (1998)
• halloween : resurrection (2002)
• halloween (2018)
• halloween kills (2021)
• halloween (2007)
• halloween 2 (2009) ) )
• halloween iii: season of the witch (1985)

theatrical release order

here are all the halloween movies in the order they were released in theaters:

• halloween (1978)
• halloween ii (1981)
• halloween iii: season of the witch (1985)
• halloween 4: the the return of michael myers (1988)
• halloween 5: the revenge of michael myers (1989)
• halloween 6: the curse of michael myers (1995)
• halloween h20: twenty years later (1998)
• halloween: resurrection (2002)
• halloween (2007)
• halloween 2 (2009)
• halloween (2018)
• halloween kills (2021)

order of john carpenter

john carpenter wrote and directed the first halloween movie and was involved in the first two sequels in the franchise before working on the two most recent halloween movies. here are the movies of him:

• halloween (1978)
• halloween ii (1981)
• halloween iii: season of the witch (1985)
• halloween (2018 )
• halloween bushes (2021)

original order for halloween movies

here are all the original halloween movies before the franchise started rebooting:

• halloween (1978)
• halloween ii (1981)
• halloween iii: season of the witch (1985)
• halloween 4: the the return of michael myers (1988)
• halloween 5: the revenge of michael myers (1989)
• halloween 6: the curse of michael myers (1995)

h20 halloween reboot order

the franchise was restarted with h20, which did not count from halloween iii to vi. here is this reboot order:

• halloween (1978)
• halloween ii (1981)
• halloween h20: twenty years later (1998)
• halloween: resurrection (2002 ) )

second halloween reboot order

The franchise was rebooted again in 2018, where it only includes the original Halloween. here are the two movies in that order:

• halloween (1978)
• halloween (2018)
• halloween kills (2021)

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