Halloween III: Season of the Witch Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1982

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a horror gem that tried to take director John Carpenter's famed series into a new direction. Ironically instead of becoming a huge commercial success it became yet another Michael Myers victim. The reason? Halloween III was a completely new story within the series, and with no Michael Myers to be found many of the old fans cried foul.

Quite a few horror fans are fickle creatures, for often you'll hear certain fans loudly protest that horror films rarely bring anything new to the table, yet when a brave director attempts to offer a novel twist to the genre the same fan condemns the movie for heading in a new direction. Such was the case for many with Halloween III.

Director John Carpenter did not want his popular series pigeon-holed as mindless slasher faire, so when Michael Myers was killed at the end of Halloween II Carpenter set out to create an entirely new story for the third entry. The original plan was to offer a distinctly unique horror story each Halloween. Unfortunately fans of the series objected strongly to the new storyline and demanded the return of Michael Myers.

Disgusted by fans' reactions and lack of appreciation for originality, Carpenter said to heck with it and washed his hands of the series. Halloween IV brought in a new producer and the return of Michael Myers, but the quality of the series took a significant downturn from that point on. The old adage, "be careful what you wish for" certainly applied, for had Carpenter's decision to bring new stories to the table every year been appreciated, the Halloween series might have prospered. Instead the best unstoppable killer in horror history slowly evolved into a sick joke. The final nail was driven in the casket when pop-culture invaded the horror genre, and writers allowed a rapper with no acting skill to box with Myers mano a mano, as if Michael was little more than a fly.

At any rate, this is a movie review for Halloween III, so with the history of the film covered let's move into the meat of the review.

The story begins as an old toy maker is desperately trying to evade some mysterious suited men. Eventually he finds his way to safety and is admitted to a local hospital, but the fated patient's safety is fleeting, for one of the suited men finds him there and brutally kills him. Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) notices the killer as he flees the hospital, so he gives chase. Before he can catch him, the killer enters a car, pours gasoline all over himself and strikes a match. Boom! No more killer, and no insight into why the old fellow was killed.

Now it's up to Dr. Challis and the daughter of the murdered toy maker, Stacy Nelkin (Ellie Grimbridge), to figure out why her father was killed. Their investigation leads to the Silver Shamrock Company, which is owned by Irish millionaire Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy). Challis and Nelkin head to Santa Mira, a rural farming town that serves as the headquarters for the factory, and soon discover more about the dark truth behind the murder than either ever wanted to know.

I will try to refrain from divulging much of the plot or the surprises in store, but in a nutshell the Silver Shamrock Company manufactures Halloween masks. But they aren't ordinary masks, for if a child wearing the mask observes a commercial scheduled to run on Halloween evening, ancient magic within the mask will cause the child to perish in a gruesome manner. Apparently old Cochran has a thing against children and how his precious holiday of Halloween has been bastardized.

Sure, the story's technological magic is far-fetched, but it lays out an interesting premise and creates a frantic race for time. If Cochran's devious plan isn't stopped and the commercial is allowed to run, millions of people will die. Adding to the fun is the location and atmosphere. Cochran owns the town the factory is located in, so cameras are located on every street corner to spy on all that visit or reside there. In fact Santa Mira feels like something pulled out of Orwell's 1984, which casts an ominous blanket over the movie's occurrences.

Overall the acting in Halloween III is fair, but not remarkable, with the exception of Dan O'Herlihy who brings the menacing Cochran to life. O'Herlihy steals the show every time he's on the screen. Tom Atkins' performance is solid, while Ellie Grimbridge is rather flat. Luckily her role in the movie is minimal, so it doesn't detract from the film.

Although Halloween III does possess a substantial quantity of fans, I believe the film would have been far better received had it not possessed the label of "Halloween." Unfortunately due to the immense success of the first two Halloween movies, too many fans just weren't able to separate Halloween from Michael Myers and thus the film was judged unfairly.

If you can consider Halloween III: Season of the Witch a movie unto itself rather than a part of the Michael Myers saga, I think you'll find it to be a unique and fun horror film.

Movie rating: 7 stars

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