There have been several stars who had early roles in Halloween films, but none more important than Freakier Friday‘s Jamie Lee Curtis. Even nearly 50 years later she’s still talking about the property, still praising it, and even continuously rejoins it whenever it’s back for its newest Laurie Strode-focused reboot. It’s perhaps the most integral group of films of her career. But her run-ins with Michael Myers aren’t the only horror films she’s been a part of over the years. Throughout the first few years of her cinematic career, she was the “Scream Queen.” She still is the gold standard when it comes to that phrase. And it makes sense because, while she’s starred in major films of every genre known to humankind, she keeps making her way back to spooky territory. She’s always great in them, but the collection is something of a mixed bag, and we’re going to rank them here.
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There were a few exclusions, though. Specifically, Roadgames, which is more of a thriller than a horror film, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, as Curtis only had a single line vocal cameo, and Haunted Mansion, which is more of a comedy than anything actively attempting to frighten the audience.
11) Halloween: Resurrection
Coming off of one of the best ’90s horror franchise movies, Halloween: Resurrection couldn’t have been a bigger disappointment. It’s not so much that Halloween H20: 20 Years Later is a perfect film as much as it is that Resurrection is a very strong contender for the absolute worst the franchise has to offer.
It’s astonishing Rick Rosenthal directed this cheap-looking, jumbled mess considering he also helmed what may very well be the best sequel of the franchise: Halloween II. Much of the cast is bland or irritating, the pacing is all over the place, and it’s never once scary. Worse yet, it ruins the excellent ending of Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later. For one, that was the best way to send Myers out, with the swing of an axe held by Laurie Strode. Resurrection opens by revealing she beheaded a paramedic, puts her in a mental health hospital for no apparent reason (she seemed fine at the end of H20) then has Myers swiftly kill her. It’s a good thing David Gordon Green’s trilogy ended up happening, because this would have been a tragically weak final appearance for Curtis in the Halloween franchise.
Stream Halloween: Resurrection on Paramount+.
10) Halloween Ends
It was admirable of David Gordon Green to try to do something entirely new with Halloween Ends, but it simply doesn’t work. Watching the void that is Michael Myers kill people doesn’t really register as disturbing because he doesn’t feel human. Having a young man accidentally kill a kid while babysitting then have him ostracized by the fellow residents of his town and then become a serial killer? That is way too close to real life in a society currently plagued by school shootings.
It’s all such a letdown after the more straightforward first two entries of Green’s trilogy. While they weren’t perfect at least they weren’t actively unpleasant. But, at the end of the day, it’s a better send-off for Curtis than Resurrection.
Stream Halloween Ends on Peacock.
9) Virus
Virus is one goofy, over-produced movie. Based on the Dark Horse Comics property of the same name, it’s a movie in search of an identity, ending up as a lesser version of Deep Rising or Event Horizon.
It’s fun in spots (when you can actually see what’s going on) and Curtis tries her best, but it’s easy to see why this one bombed. Most of the cast seems aware they’re in a dud, especially the late Donald Sutherland, who turns in the most exaggerated “I’m just trying to have some fun with this thing” performance of his career.
8) Terror Train
We’re now out of the rougher territory when it comes to Curtis’ horror filmography. Even still, of her early pre-Trading Places genre breakout horror films, Terror Train is the worst.
It’s certainly not bad, though. It’s atmospheric, the cramped single locale of a speeding train is effective, and the cast is stacked (Die Hard‘s Hart Bochner, magician David Copperfield, and the late Vanity among them).
Stream Terror Train on fuboTV.
7) Halloween (2018)
Halloween (2018) ranking this low might make a few folks click away. And fair enough, but there’s a twist (if it can even be called that) in the third act that really hurts it.
However, while the whole Dr. Ranbir Sartain motive is entirely illogical and comes too much out of left field, the rest of David Gordon Green’s box office smash of a reboot is worthy of praise. Andi Matichak and Judy Greer are wonderful, there are a few great callbacks to Carpenter’s film, the opening is terrifically unsettling, and it does a great job of capturing that Fall visual aura that is so integral to this franchise. It’s highly debatable whether this version of a post-1978 Laurie Strode is better than the one seen in H20, but it’s still great to have Curtis back.
Stream Halloween (2018) on fuboTV.
6) Prom Night
With a few effective kill scenes, a creepy visual tone, and pacing that is mostly rock-solid, Prom Night is one of the better early ’80s slashers. What allows it to score so highly here, though, is the fact that it takes the whole “Curtis’ character is related to the killer” thing and makes it work in a way that all fans agree is successful.
Prom Night also has a certain air of goofy charm. The music is extremely ’80s, which makes for an odd mix with decapitations, and there’s also the bizarre fact that Leslie Nielsen starred in this bloodbath the same year he transitioned to comedy in Airplane!.
Stream Prom Night on Prime Video.
5) Halloween Kills
A movie with a ton of ambition and a massive kill count, Halloween Kills has one of the more fitting titles in cinema history. From start to finish this is just Michaely Myers doing his thing, including to most of the few living cast members (be they alive in real life or canonically). Not all of its swings connect and the decisions made by Anthony Michael Hall’s Tommy Doyle don’t always have their feet planted in logic-land, but overall this is a movie that delivers what it set out to deliver.
The bad thing about it being such an all-out Michael fest was that there wasn’t really anywhere to go from here except more of the same or something totally out of left field. They ended up going with the totally out of left field direction and we got Halloween Ends.
Stream Halloween Kills on Peacock.
4) Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later is a treat for several reasons. For one, it has a distinctive ’90s vibe that brings out the nostalgia in those who were alive at the time. Two, it does an even better job than David Gordon Green’s trilogy of capturing the visual and tonal aura of Carpenter’s classic.
There are a few factors that hold H20 from being the second or third best of the franchise, however (those would be Halloween II and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, not necessarily respectively). Specifically, its pacing is almost a little too quick and it’s low on kills, even if the ice skate dispatching of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Jimmy was a great way to kick off the film. But for the most part, Friday the 13th Part 2 and Friday the 13th Part III director Steve Miner showed that he still knew how to craft an A-level slasher.
Stream Halloween H20: 20 Years Later on Hoopla.
3) Halloween II
In the wake of Halloween and Friday the 13th‘s success, plenty of ’80s slashers felt the need to up the gore factor. And, to an extent, that applied to Halloween II, as well. But it’s still extremely tame in comparison to, say, David Gordon Green’s trilogy or Rob Zombie’s gratuitous pair of Michael Myers movies.
This and Halloween 4 are the best examples to use when someone says Halloween should have stopped after the first film. There was still gold to mine there, and even if the Strode-Myers twist aggravated some, it’s really not that bad. Halloween II is a claustrophobic chiller with perfectly dim lighting which recaptures the Myers POV stalking that worked so well the first time. Not to mention, outside Carpenter’s score, there’s nothing more Halloween than The Chordettes’ “Mr. Sandman.” A perfectly eerie choice.
2) The Fog
While it doesn’t get as much love as Halloween or The Thing, The Fog is widely and rightly deemed one of Carpenter’s stronger films, even if it’s a tad too short. There is still an argument it shouldn’t rank this high, though.
Specifically, this is the one Curtis horror movie where it really seems like she’s just along for the ride. Her Elizabeth Solley has no agency, no influence on the plot’s momentum. But this isn’t a ranking of Curtis’ roles in horror movies, it’s a ranking of the movies themselves, and when the major flaw of a horror movie is that there should be more of it, that’s the sign of an effective film.
Stream The Fog on Prime Video.
1) Halloween (1978)
One of the 1970s’ very best films, regardless of genre, John Carpenter’s Halloween is a perfect film. In terms of gradually raising the hairs on an audience’s collective neck, this is the blueprint.
So much has been written about Halloween that it feels redundant to do it once more, because whether intentional or not it comes down to parroting. This is because, no matter who watches it, be they a fan of the subgenre or someone who actively despises it, everyone agrees on what makes Halloween such a masterpiece. The music, the cinematography, the performances that make you believe the characters are members of a small town, the vague nature of the antagonist, it all functions like clockwork.
Stream Halloween on AMC+.
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Courtesy of Toei Animation
