Halloween Kills will continue the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode after the events of David Gordon Green’s Halloween, and here’s which movies from the franchise you need to watch to be up to date. John Carpenter is one of the most respected filmmakers in the horror genre, and it all began in 1978 with Halloween. The movie wasn’t well-received during its initial release, with critics calling it “empty”, but time has been good to it, and Halloween is now regarded as one of the best movies of the decade and one of the most influential horror movies ever, and it made way for a franchise that is still alive.

Halloween tells the story of Michael Myers, who on Halloween night 1963, murdered his older sister when he was just six years old. Michael was then sent to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, where he stayed for over a decade and never said a word. Fifteen years later, on October 30, 1978, Michael escaped and returned to his hometown Haddonfield, Illinois, and began to stalk Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends. Laurie became the only survivor of Michael’s killing spree on Halloween night and continued to be his main target in most movies. Now, the Halloween franchise has gone through a couple of retcons, and the current timeline made some big changes to the stories of Michael and Laurie.

Related: Halloween 1978: All 3 Retcons To The Original Movie Explained

In 2018, Halloween went through a reboot with a new movie directed by David Gordon Green and written by him, Danny McBride, and Jeff Fradley. Halloween reunited viewers with Laurie Strode and saw a new escape and murder spree from Michael, and this was only the beginning of a new trilogy. Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends will complete the reboot trilogy, and with Halloween Kills releasing on October 15, 2021, it’s a good moment to make a recap and revisit the most important movies in the franchise to understand this new story.

Which Halloween Movies Are Canon?

Halloween All Michael Myers Masks

The Halloween franchise is formed by 13 movies (including Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends), but they don’t follow the same continuity. The Halloween universe has a total of four timelines: the original Laurie/Jamie timeline, the H20 timeline, Rob Zombie’s remakes, and the reboot timeline, with Halloween III: Season of the Witch existing in a different world separate from the one with Michael Myers. The original timeline covers from the original movie to Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and had a change of protagonist when Laurie was killed in a car accident between Halloween II and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Her daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), took her place and became Michael’s new target, and in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Jamie’s baby boy became the target after Jamie’s death.

The second timeline covers Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and Halloween Resurrection. In it, Laurie faked her death and had been living under a new identity in California. Jamie Lloyd wasn’t included in this timeline, and instead, Laurie had a son named John (Josh Hartnett), who came across Michael Myers when he found out where Laurie was. Halloween: Resurrection saw the death of Laurie Strode at the hands of Michael Myers, after which he targeted a new group of people who took over his house for a reality show. The franchise then got the remake treatment with Rob Zombie’s take on Halloween and Halloween II, which followed the same premises of the original ones but with major changes to the backstories of Michael and Laurie (and with bigger doses of violence and blood). Last but not least, the reboot franchise began in 2018 with Halloween, which serves as a direct sequel to Carpenter’s original movie and completely ignores all movies that came after it, thus getting rid of the storylines of Michael and Laurie being siblings, Jamie Lloyd, John, the Cult of Thorn, and many other characters and events that ended up hurting the franchise.

Halloween (1978)

Michael Myers leans over a railing from Halloween

With all that in mind, the first movie to watch before Halloween Kills is the original one. As mentioned above, Michael Myers killed his sister on Halloween night 1963 and spent over a decade at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium, where Dr. Samuel Loomis (Donald Pleasence) was assigned as his psychiatrist, becoming fascinated and later obsessed over Michael’s “condition” and the evil that lives in him. When Michael escaped from Smith’s Grove and returned to Haddonfield, he went after Laurie and her friends for no apparent reason, and eventually killed her friends Lynda Van Der Klok (P.J. Soles) and Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes), the daughter of Sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers). Laurie then did everything she could to keep the kids she was babysitting, Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) and Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards), safe, and thanks to them, Loomis found her and saved her from “the boogeyman”. Loomis shot Michael six times, knocking him off the balcony, but when he looked down, Michael was gone.

Related: Halloween Theory: The Real Reason Michael Myers Kills People

Halloween II (1980)

Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween II (1981).

Although Halloween II is not part of the canon of the current timeline, it’s worth revisiting it as Halloween Kills has some references to it. Halloween II picks up right after Halloween, with Laurie being taken to the hospital and Loomis continuing his pursuit of Michael Myers. Of course, the iconic slasher found his way to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and continued his quest to kill Laurie. Halloween II is the movie that introduced the plot twist of Laurie being Michael’s younger sister who was put up for adoption after the death of their parents, thus giving Michael a reason (although a twisted one) to go after her. Halloween Kills references Halloween II by following the Strode women – Laurie, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) – to the hospital after their violent encounter with Michael. Contrary to Halloween II, however, it seems like Halloween Kills won’t see Laurie spending too much time in a hospital bed, which was one of the most criticized details about the original sequel.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Michael Myers Halloween 6 Movie

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers isn't part of the reboot timeline but it might be worth revisiting it before Halloween Kills as it also has some references to it. Halloween 6 is part of the Laurie/Jamie timeline, and it took the franchise on a different route with the introduction of the Cult of Thorn, through which the writers tried to justify Michael’s actions. Set six years after the events of Halloween 5, Halloween 6 saw Jamie giving birth to a boy while captive. Jamie escaped and was killed by Michael, but she managed to leave her baby somewhere safe, and he was later found by a grown-up Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd). Tommy became obsessed with Michael Myers and finding the truth about his motives, and he believed he had been inflicted with Thorn, an ancient druid curse which drove him to kill, and as part of it, he had to sacrifice his next of kin on the night of Samhain, meaning Jamie’s son would be the final sacrifice. The Cult of Thorn turned out to be the reason behind Michael’s evil and actions, and while this isn’t present anymore in the franchise, Halloween Kills seems to be flirting with the idea of it by continuing the “pure evil” description of Michael Myers. In addition to that, Halloween Kills will see the return of Tommy Doyle, now played by Anthony Michael Hall, and his story will surely be very different from the one he had in Halloween 6.

Halloween (2018)

Michael hiding in a closet in Halloween 2018

The other movie part of the current timeline is David Gordon Green's Halloween, the one that kicked off the reboot trilogy. As mentioned above, Halloween ignores all sequels to the original movie, so Michael and Laurie are not siblings and she has a different family. Halloween explained that Michael was eventually caught in 1978 and sent back to Smith’s Grove, where he spent the next 40 years. However, during a transfer to a maximum-security prison, Michael escaped and returned to Haddonfield, where Laurie had been living in fear and preparing for his return. Laurie had alienated herself from her daughter, Karen, and her granddaughter, Allyson, but when Michael started killing more and more people, including some close to Allyson, the Strode women joined forces to protect each other and the town. At the end of Halloween, the Strodes trapped Michael in the safe room at Laurie’s house and set it on fire, but not even that was enough to kill him. Halloween Kills will see Haddonfield’s residents forming a mob to hunt Michael Myers, lead by Laurie, Karen, Allyson, Tommy, and Lindsey, who is once more played by Kyle Richards.

Next: Halloween: All Of Michael Myers' Targets (& Why He Wanted To Kill Them)

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