Few movie franchises have helped to define the horror genre as effectively as the Halloween series. After John Carpenter introduced the world to the terrifying and relentless killer named Michael Myers, his masked face has been an iconic face within the horror genre and movies in general.

The franchise might have more missteps than successes, but it is still going strong with Halloween Kills originally planned for release this fall before it was pushed back until 2021. While fans wait for the next installment, they can look back on the memorable posters from the franchise, ranked based on how scary they are.

11 Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

It seems fitting that one of the most loathed entries into the franchise also has a pretty forgettable poster. Halloween Resurrection looks like it has put in the bare minimum effort for its poster resulting in a series of bad decisions.

First of all, the floating heads look is one of the most heavily criticized and overused poster designs. Using poor photoshop to put the heads on the knife only makes it worse. To cap it all off, the tagline looking like it was written on Michael’s mask is a strange-looking decision.

10 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

The franchise attempted to get back to basics by bringing Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode as Michael returns to Haddonfield 20 years after the first movie. While the movie was considered one of the more entertaining sequels, the poster certainly lacks imagination.

The design of the Halloween H20 poster is very much in line with the 90s style. The floating heads design is used once again and it almost seems like it is trying its best to resemble the Scream poster.

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9 Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Though many consider Halloween III to be an underrated gem, the fact that Michael Myers wasn’t in the movie caused a lot of backlash from fans. As a result, when the series returned for a fourth movie, they made sure everyone knew the star would be returning.

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If the title didn’t give it away, the poster puts Michael Myers front and center. While it is effective in letting us know he’s in the movie, it feels like it takes away some of his threatening mystique to have him basically posing for his own poster.

8 Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Now that Michael was established as being back in the series, it seems like the movies could be a little more subtle about featuring him on the posters. Immediately, the image of him half in the shadows is so much more effective than the poster for Halloween 4.

The aspect that ruins it slightly is featuring young Jamie Lloyd. While the fact that she is wearing Michael’s clown costume from the first movie is a nice touch, she looks like she was just thrown in there as a last-minute thought.

7 Halloween (2007)

Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween has its fans, but many of those who love the franchise found the new mythology to be quite unnecessary. However, Zombie did embrace this new world he created as if evident with the poster.

The towering silhouette of Myers is shown against the backdrop of a collage of characters and images from the movie that help to create the look of his iconic mask. It is a poster that matches the movie well, a lot going on that comes together in a bit of a mess.

6 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

There are many who consider The Curse of Michael Myers to be the worst movie in this franchise, even with an early starring role from Paul Rudd. However, the poster for the movie at least ranks among the franchise’s better offerings.

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It is a simple approach that knows what to deliver for this series. Michael’s face comes out of the shadows in a creepy way. He wields a knife, and there is a victim even reflected in the blade. Nothing too fancy, but it gets the job done.

5 Halloween II (2009)

Regardless of what fans might think of Rob Zombie’s movies as a whole, many feel that his version of Myers is the scariest of them all. He is a massive hulk of a killer who truly seems unstoppable.

The poster for Zombie’s sequel embraces the terrifying nature of the character. It is another straight-forward approach showing Myers with his tattered mask, with a knife raised high and looking to finish off some unseen victim. However, “Family is forever” is not the best tagline.

4 Halloween II (1981)

The earlier movies seemed confident enough to not have to feature Myers’ famous masked face on the posters. Funny enough, these seem to be among the series’ best posters.

This second installment in the series embraces the holiday setting by combining a jack-o’-lantern and a skull. The result is an effectively terrifying visage that might not be Michael Myers but still gets you in the mood for some scares.

3 Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

The original plan for Halloween was for it to be an anthology series with each new movie telling a different horror tale set around Halloween night. The third movie finally decided to fulfill that original plan by ditching Michael Myers and focusing on a story of haunted Halloween masks.

The poster really does a great job of emphasizing the cool Halloween horror with an ominous threat hanging over the young trick-or-treaters. And twisting the original movie’s tagline of “The night he came home” to “The night no one came home” is inspired.

2 Halloween (2018)

Despite the confusing title, David Gordon Green’s Halloween serves as a direct sequel to the original movie. 40 years after Michael Myers terrorized Laurie Strode, he escapes from prison to go after her once again.

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While this poster is just Myers in his mask, the look of it speaks volumes. The face is instantly recognizable, but we can see how much it has aged. It is dirty, cracked, and worn after all these years. Yet it is no less terrifying.

1 Halloween (1978)

Leave it to the original to deliver the franchise’s best poster. Not knowing how successful the movie would become and the icon Michael Myers would grow into, he is nowhere to be seen on the original poster.

Like the Halloween II poster, this one embraces the Halloween holiday with a pumpkin theme. The devilish jack-o’-lantern is scary enough, but add to it the fact that it is wielding a knife and the aforementioned iconic tagline, it becomes even better. Michael Myers may be the face of the franchise, but everyone knows what this poster is for.

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About The Author


Colin McCormick
(2030 Articles Published)

Colin McCormick is a Senior Writer with Screen Rant and has been a proud member of the team since 2019. In addition to his work as Screen Rant, Colin is also a writer of News, Feature and Review pieces at Game Rant. Colin has had a long passion and obsession with movies going back to the first time he saw The Lion King in theaters. Along with movies, Colin stays up-to-date on the latest must-see TV shows. While he loves to find interesting projects in any kind of genre, he has a special movie of crime stories that are infused with a little dark humor much like the work of his favorite author, Elmore Leonard.

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