Every Halloween Movie Ranked Worst To Best After Halloween Kills

After forty years of sequels, reboots, reboot-sequels and prequels, the Halloween franchise seems to have finally come to a grand conclusion (for now) with the much-anticipated Halloween Ends.

The third and final chapter in David Gordon Green's risky Halloween trilogy, which retconned the entire franchise and acts as a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original, Halloween Ends had a lot riding on its shoulders, especially given the lukewarm reception of its predecessor. But did it deliver?

Throughout its run, the Halloween franchise has see-sawed dramatically between brilliance and embarrassment, creating an even mix of compelling protagonists and mundane side characters, and conjuring both laughable plotlines and genuinely affecting ones.

It's easy to watch the films for their kills alone -- the body count, of course, being insanely high -- but there's more to the saga of Michael Myers than its gore and violence. If there isn't a strong story or meaning behind it, the whole thing falls apart.

With that in mind, from the films that understood the gravity and symbolism of Michael Myers' bloodlust to the various sequels that took things far too afield, here are all 13 Halloween movies ranked worst to best.

Resurrection had a lot going for it, including a welcome return for Halloween II director Rick Rosenthal, and an ever-brilliant Jamie Lee Curtis willing to have another fight with her seemingly indestructible brother.

Unfortunately, the whole thing falls apart almost instantly, with Laurie Strode being swiftly dispatched to make way for a new host of disposable characters who offer nothing new to the story they've walked in on, surely by mistake.

What follows is a dull, formulaic slasher with dull performances, dated twists, and a scene in which Busta Rhymes fights Michael Myers. There's nothing worth sticking around for, which is a shame given the potential of its first act. (Laurie's PTSD would set the stage for Green's far-off reboot, but here it's tossed aside.)

Put it this way: When a film is so unequivocally bad that the franchise has to erase it from the timeline, it's probably for the best we stay away.