Oh boy! "Halloween"...One of THE first flicks to pull me really into the horror direction in my early teens....so I had a good while to give the series some thought every now and then.
The first "Halloween" is a cinematic masterpiece in its own right and repeatedly watchable, no doubt, but it's Part II I still rate as my personal fave because it brings so many ingrediants I love about the genre together: The hospital setting, the increased gore and improved score, more adult characters than in any other sllasher series entry worth mentioning, still banned in its uncut form in Germany in the year 2008...
"Season of the Witch" I knew for the longest time only in severely truncated form. The full version clearly was an inprovement and the Carpenter influence is still present...but although I like the movie, I was very pleased with Akkad's idea to put the series back into Michael Myers territory.
"Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" was really the right flick at the right time in 1988 and again a flick I can rewatch endlessly. While the structure is close to the original, careful thinking obviously went into the script, which is way above average, as is the cast.
"Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers"- despite featuring my favourite title sequence with the pumpkin getting slashed into the right shape- is clearly one of the lesser entries. A rushed, unfinished feeling is carried all throughout the movie, the "creative differences" between the director Dominique Othenin-Girard and Akkad didn't help the final product either and there's lots of annoying over-acting by a mostly unlikeable cast, though little Dannielle Harris admireably gives the best performances of the pack. Pleasence at the time voiced his disaproval of the portrait of Loomis in this movie and I couldn't agree with him more. Plus I find the endless stalking of a little girl not really THAT entertaining to watch...
"The Curse of Michael Myers" in its current state is a mess, yet it tries hard to fix what's left been hanging in obscurity after the 5th installment.
The plentiful gore is neat, yet they could have found a more graceful way to finish the ordeal of Jamie Lloyd.
"H20": Here and there a return to the mood of the first two flicks is sensable, but it's way too "Scream"-ish for its own good and I can't say I fully appreciate the direction they chose for the Laurie Strode character.
"Resurrection" is awful, awful, awful...the less said the better, really...
I really liked the remake though and I rather hope for a sequel to that by the directors of "Inside" than a forced continuation to the original series.
To sum it up:
"Halloween": *****
"Halloween II": *****
"Halloween III: Season of the Witch": ***(*)
"Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers": ****
"Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers": **
"Halloween: The Cure of Michael Myers": ***
"Halloween H20" ***(*)
"Halloween: Resurrection": *
"Rob Zombie's Halloween": ****
BTW: "Bay of Blood" is a must watch for slasher fans...even in cut form...