For those unsure of where to start with this long running series. The answer is simple, at the beginning! John Carpenter’s original Halloween remains a slasher masterpiece, with its use of Steadicam and his spare synth score enhance the movie. Curtis is terrific as the final girl and Donald Pleasance is fun as Dr Loomis.
I also think Halloween 2, released three years later, is a really underrated follow-up. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises the role of Laurie Strode with Carpenter still on writing duties and the hospital setting works very well. Halloween 3 is unconnected to all the other films and can best be considered a curio.
By the time Halloween 4 came round in 1988, Curtis had left the franchise, though Danielle Harris was a decent replacement. Halloween 5 followed the next year. Both are watchable but forgettable. There was a six year gap until Halloween 6:The Curse of Michael Myers. Despite giving Paul Rudd his movie debut and Pleasance still soldiering on in the role it is for completists only.
Although Curtis’ character was killed-off, off-screen, in Halloween 4, she returned as Laurie in 1998 in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, a sequel to Halloween 2 and it proved to be at least as good as that entry, with a young Michelle Williams in a starring role.
Four years later, Laurie was killed off for the second time in Halloween: Resurrection, another highpoint in the series.
The less said about the Rod Zombie helmed 2007 remake Halloween or its sequel Halloween II, the better. Both are hideously unwatchable.
That takes us all the way to David Gordon Greene’s Halloween(2018) effort. Curtis came back again to terrific effect, and the huge box office success meant that two further sequels were greenlit.