Halloween Timeline Explained

October 5, 2022 ComicBookWire

The Halloween movies (Watching Order) have an incredibly complex timeline. The films released in the franchise are constantly rebooting the series and attempting to cancel out the events of previous films. This leads to the existence of a few different Halloween timelines, many of which still end up containing internal problems.

However, there is an internal logic within all of these reboots and remakes. Exploring the timeline of the whole franchise reveals this and clears up a lot of the confusion. Read on to find out for yourself!

Note: This explanation contains minor spoilers.

Halloween

It all starts with the original Halloween movie. This film introduced viewers to Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, two of the franchise’s central characters, while also introducing the horror themes that go on to dominate subsequent films.

From here, the franchise splits. A series of sequels to Halloween were released and continued the story. These were mostly removed from continuity by another series of sequels. Then, these were removed from continuity by another series of sequels. Besides all of this, a reboot of the original film exists as a separate series.

The chart here explains the branching pathways of this franchise. Each film series is represented by a different color and is arranged in order. The next few sections of this article will provide more details about the separate series and explain why they are arranged in this way.

Chart explaining the Halloween Timeline — The different branches of the Halloween Timeline

Original Halloween Series

The first series of Halloween films starts with Halloween. This is one of the most important movies in the series and has an influence on every movie going forward. Halloween II picks up right where Halloween left off. Then, 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.

The only wrinkle here is Halloween III: Season of the Witch. This film was the third film released in the series but has almost no connection to any of the other films. The only way it connects is by showing a commercial for the original Halloween movie at one point. This implies that, in Halloween III‘s separate continuity, the other Halloween films are entirely fictional.

This weird wrinkle in the series is explained by decisions that took place behind the scenes. With Halloween III the studio wanted to shift the franchise to an anthology series, where each film would focus on an entirely unrelated story. However, Halloween III was poorly received and many viewers were confused about why the third film in the series had nothing to do with the story of the first two films. So, when Halloween 4 went into production, the studio decided to return to the original narrative.

H20

The Halloween franchise got its first significant reboot with the release of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. This was originally intended to be the seventh film in the series. However, it was retooled around the 20th anniversary of the original film, with the intention of bringing the series back to the basics.

Because of this, Halloween H20 ignores the events of every film except for the first two. The film doesn’t outright say that the other movies didn’t take place. However, the events of those films have no bearing on this one. Instead, it take place twenty years after the events of Halloween II and generally continues the storyline from that film.

Halloween: Resurrection is the only other entity in this series. This film immediately follows up on the events of Halloween H20.

However, a generally poor reaction to this sequel likely prevented other sequels from being made. Instead, the franchise headed in a different direction, with a remake.

Halloween Remake

The next series in the Halloween franchise remakes the franchise from the beginning. Halloween (2007) is a remake of Halloween (1978). While this film shifts the focus in a few ways, it mostly replicates the events of the original film.

The next film in the remake series is Halloween II (2009). While Halloween (2007) is a remake of Halloween (1978), Halloween II (2009) is not a remake of Halloween II (1981). Instead, it is a direct sequel to the remake film that tells a story more directly related to the story in the remake.

Unfortunately, like the previous series, the second film in the remake series fared poorly. Though another addition to this series was planned, it was scrapped and the franchise moved toward another reboot.

H40 Trilogy

The final series (at least for the moment) in the Halloween franchise erases every other film in the series with the exception of the original Halloween. This is a more definitive reboot than the H20 reboot, as this series makes it clear that the events of the other films definitely did not happen.

This new series starts with Halloween (2018). This film takes place 40 years after the events of the original Halloween and mostly centers around the same main characters. Halloween Kills takes place immediately after the events of Halloween and builds on the same narrative. Halloween Ends is set to pick up the story once again and conclude this trilogy.