To quote Laurie Strode: “Evil doesn’t die. It changes shape.” Since 1978, the Halloween movies have changed shape with retcons, resurrections, reboots, and “requels,” like the 1998 movie that was a sequel to the 1978 movie and its 1981 sequel (but not the other franchise sequels), or the 2018 movie that was both a reboot and a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 horror classic (but not the other franchise sequels, including the 1998 movie). Confused? With multiple Michael Myers and Laurie Strodes spanning 13 movies, the scariest thing about Halloween may be making sense of the different timelines.
But as the saying goes: “It’s Halloween. Everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” Below, we take a stab at how to watch the Halloween movies in timeline order and release order, including where you can stream every Halloween movie from 1978’s Halloween to 2022’s Halloween Ends.
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How to watch the Halloween movies in order by release date:
- 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 II (2009)
- Halloween (2018)
- Halloween Kills (2021)
- Halloween Ends (2022)
How to watch the Halloween movies in timeline order
The Original Timeline: The Night He Came Home
Movies: Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981)
On Halloween night 1978, masked killer Michael Myers (Nick Castle) escapes Smith’s Grove Sanitarium and comes home to Haddonfield, Illinois, 15 years after murdering his sister on Halloween 1963. The Shape stalks babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) as he’s pursued by his former psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). After Loomis shoots the Shape six times and confirms that was the boogeyman, as a matter of fact, Michael disappears, and Laurie recovers from the Babysitter Murders at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. Set on the same night as Halloween 1978, Halloween II reveals that Laurie and Michael are siblings, and the slasher saga ends with Laurie as the sole survivor of a fiery explosion that kills Loomis and Michael.
John Carpenter, who directed the original movie and co-wrote Halloween and Halloween II with Debra Hill, intended the sequel to be the final Halloween movie with Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. You can silo off Halloween and Halloween II as a two-parter that ends with Michael’s death on Halloween night 1978.
The Silver Shamrock Timeline: Season of the Witch
Movies: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
While Halloween III: Season of the Witch takes place at Halloween time and ends on Halloween night 1983, it’s the only Halloween movie not set within any Michael Myers timeline. (The Shape appears only on television as an advertisement for John Carpenter’s Halloween, establishing a universe where Michael Myers is a movie monster.) Season of the Witch is a one-off, and was intended to be the first in a Halloween anthology series that writer-director Tommy Lee Wallace likened to Night Gallery or The Twilight Zone. The film follows Dan Challis (Tom Atkins), who becomes entangled in a plot by Celtic cultist Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy) to broadcast a commercial that will kill Silver Shamrock mask wearers during a Horrorthon on Halloween night.
The Thorn Trilogy Timeline: Legacy of Evil |>
Movies: Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers / Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers: The Producer’s Cut (1995)
Halloween 4 is the first in the Thorn Trilogy, which considers Halloween and Halloween II canon but retcons Loomis and Michael’s deaths at Haddonfield Memorial on Halloween night 1978 (the explosion left Michael comatose for a decade and Loomis badly burned). On Halloween night 1988, Michael (George P. Wilbur) returns to Haddonfield to kill his eight-year-old niece, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), after Laurie’s death in a car crash.
Michael makes another attempt on Jamie’s life one year later in Halloween 5, which is the first film to introduce the mysterious Man in Black (Don Shanks) and a supernatural link between Jamie and Michael. In Halloween 6, set six years later on Halloween 1995, the Man in Black’s Cult of Thorn targets seven-year-old Danny Strode (Devin Gardner). The cult inflicted Michael with the Mark of Thorn symbol (|>) that compels the cursed to kill their families, with a grown-up Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd) explaining that ancient druids would choose a child from each tribe to offer the blood sacrifices of its next of kin on the night of Samhain. Depending on the version you watch, the Thorn Trilogy either ends with Loomis suffering an unknown fate off screen (in the theatrical cut) or with the Man in Black passing the Thorn Curse onto Loomis (the Producer’s Cut).
The H20 Timeline: The Laurie Strode Trilogy
Movies: Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)
Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later takes place 20 years after the events of Halloween night 1978 in Halloween and Halloween II. In the back-to-basics threequel, Michael has been presumed dead for the past two decades (retconning the Thorn Trilogy), and Loomis is said to have died “a few years ago” from natural causes (Pleasence passed away in 1995). Laurie faked her death and became “Keri Tate,” the headmistress of a private school in northern California; but rather than Jamie, Laurie had a 17-year-old son, John (Josh Hartnett). (An early draft of the Halloween 7 script acknowledged Jamie’s death, but the Thorn continuity was ultimately rendered non-canon.) After tracking down and killing nurse Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), Michael Myers (Chris Durand) follows his sister to Hillcrest Academy, and Laurie decapitates Michael with an axe after a final showdown.
The H202 Timeline: The Last Halloween
Movies: Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Halloween: Resurrection is a direct sequel to Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, but the franchise killer is widely considered to be the worst Halloween movie. Besides undoing H20‘s triumphant ending with a contractually-mandated retcon that revealed that Laurie didn’t kill Michael after all, Resurrection begins with Michael killing Laurie before returning to his old house in Haddonfield to stalk college students who are filming an internet reality show hosted by Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes). Halloween: Resurrection, with its retcons and unresolved cliffhanger ending, doesn’t have to be canon if you don’t want it to be: the H20 trilogy of Halloween, Halloween II, and H20: 20 Years Later is more befitting of the OG Laurie Strode saga.
The Remake Timeline: The Rob Zombie-Verse
Movies: Halloween (2007), Halloween II (2009)
The Rob Zombie-directed Halloween remake re-imagined Laurie Strode (Scout Taylor-Compton), Dr. Loomis (Malcolm McDowell), and Michael Myers (Daeg Faerch and Tyler Mane) for modern audiences. As blunt as they are bloody, the Zombie-verse movies opt out of the mystique of Michael Myers for a pseudo-psychological examination of the boy behind the mask. With a combined length of three-and-a-half-hours, Zombie’s Halloween and Halloween II has the least baggage of all the timelines.
The Reboot Timeline: 40 Years Later
Movies: Halloween (1978), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), Halloween Ends (2022)
Director David Gordon Green’s Halloween sequels trilogy ignores everything past John Carpenter’s 1978 original. 2018’s Halloween takes place 40 years later, and a still-alive Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) never faked her death, never had Jamie or John, and she never died at the end of Michael’s knife at Grace Andersen Sanitarium. After his killing spree on Halloween night 1978, Michael spends the next four decades institutionalized in Smith’s Grove; but when Michael escapes captivity during a prison transfer, he terrorizes Haddonfield on Halloween night 2018. Over the course of the trilogy, Michael is Laurie’s boogeyman, attacking her family — her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak) — until Laurie’s final showdown with Michael in 2022’s Ends, which is Curtis’ final Halloween movie and the end of the original Halloween timeline.
Where to Watch the Halloween Movies Online
Where can I watch Halloween 1978?
The original Halloween is currently available to stream via Shudder on AMC+, Plex, Indiefix, Cultpix, and FuboTV.
Where can I watch Halloween II?
Halloween II (1981) is streaming via Shudder on AMC+ and Peacock (until October 31).
Where can I watch Halloween III: Season of the Witch?
Halloween 3: Season of the Witch is streaming on Shudder on AMC+ and Peacock (until October 31).
Where can I watch Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers?
Halloween 4 is streaming on Shudder on AMC+.
Where can I watch Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers?
Halloween 5 is streaming on Shudder on AMC+.
Where can I watch Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers?
Halloween 6 is currently streaming on AMC+ (until October 31) and on Paramount+.
Where can I watch Halloween H20: 20 Years Later?
Halloween H20 is streaming on Paramount+ (until Oct. 31) and AMC+.
Where can I watch Rob Zombie’s Halloween?
Halloween (2007) is currently streaming on Peacock, FuboTV (until Oct. 31), and Shudder (until Oct. 31).
Where can I watch Rob Zombie’s Halloween II?
Halloween II (2009) is currently streaming on Peacock, FuboTV (until Oct. 31), and Shudder (until Oct. 31).
Where can I watch Halloween 2018?
Halloween (2018) is currently available to stream on Netflix, FX Now, Peacock (until Oct. 31), and FuboTV (until Oct. 31).
Where can I watch Halloween Kills?
Halloween Kills (2021) is streaming on NBC, USA Network, and Peacock.
Where can I watch Halloween Ends?
Halloween Ends (2022) is streaming on STARZ.