Every Halloween Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

While many would agree that 1988's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers had largely succeeded in getting the series back on track, it did pose some problems as to where they could go from there.

Unfortunately, it was decided that 1989's Halloween 5 would largely ignore the interesting progressions of its predecessor and just go back to the formula. I know, I've berated other entries in the series for straying too far from the spirit of the series, but this one by contrast just feels like it's going by the numbers. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I suppose.

Rushed into production to arrive in cinemas exactly a year after Halloween 4, it seems hopes were high that Halloween could become another horror franchise that churned them out annually as the Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street films had been doing throughout the 1980s. Little wonder, then, that the resulting film feels so half-baked, with an unavoidable feeling of been there, done that.

This adherence to formula also necessitated centring things on the killer, and so the creepy conclusion of Halloween 4 - which suggests that the evil of Michael Myers has somehow been passed into his niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) - is completely disregarded.

In the meantime, the few survivors of the previous film wind up getting killed off early, which always feels cheap and lazy.