Halloween Watching Order
The Halloween movie franchise is pretty messy. It features multiple different reboots, which has led to a few different timelines and an unclear continuity. Because of this, following along with a Halloween Watching Order helps make watching these movies a little easier.
This watching order is designed to give an outline of the entire Halloween movie franchise. It explains what order to watch the Halloween movies and looks at any connections between them.
Halloween Continuity Explained
The Halloween franchise is split into several different series. Each of these series ignores most or all of what happens in the other series. So, there is not a singular timeline for the entire franchise but, instead, multiple branching timelines. Because of this, this watching order is split into several different sections based on the specific timeline or series being explored.
For more details about exactly how the overall branching timeline for the Halloween franchise, make sure to check out our in-depth article exploring the subject.
Original Halloween Series
The first series of Halloween films is mostly straightforward. It starts with Halloween. Then Halloween II picks up right where Halloween left off. After this, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers takes place 10 years later. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers directly continues the story from that point. Finally, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers takes place a few years after the events of Halloween 5. While there are some gaps in the timeline, these films all proceed with a pretty direct narrative.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is almost completely unrelated. Though it is technically the third Halloween film, it does not follow the same story at all. All that it does is make a brief reference to the fact that the first Halloween film exists.