From Michael Myers to Rob Zombie: Into the Halloweenverse

The 1978 film Halloween became an unexpected hit that made director John Carpenter’s career and kickstarted the slasher sub-genre that would pretty much define horror movies well into the 1980s. It also, even more unexpectedly, launched a film series that would span four decades and encompass, with this week’s release of Halloween Kills, 12 films. (A 13th, Halloween Ends, is due next year.)

In the process, the Halloween franchise has created a continuity so knotty it’s sometimes hard to figure out how one film connects to another, or if they connect at all. It’s a series with three films called simply Halloween (and two called Halloween II) that’s united by little more than the presence of a masked killer named Michael Myers — except for the one movie that doesn’t feature Michael at all.

The original Halloween’s basic premise doesn’t stretch much further than the title Carpenter and co-writer Debra Hill gave the first draft of their screenplay: The Babysitter Murders. Yet that simple idea has spawned a sometimes baffling horror multiverse that’s home to several parallel realities. Call it the Halloweenverse. Here’s a guide to understanding where each film falls within it.

It’s worth noting right away that you can watch the original Halloween and stop there. There’s a reason it’s proven so enduring and influential: it’s great. Carpenter applies a Hitchcockian technical mastery to the story of a jumpsuit-clad mental hospital escapee who returns to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night, 15 years after murdering his sister. Everything works, from Carpenter and cinematographer Dean Cundey’s fluid, spooky camera work to Jamie Lee Curtis’s performance as Laurie Strode, the last babysitter standing, to Carpenter’s stripped down synth score. Halloween didn’t invent the slasher film but it cemented most of its conventions.

1. Michael Myers Let It Burn Halloween T-shirt

Michael Myers Let It Burn Halloween T-shirt