Halloween III: Season of the Witch

“Halloween 3: Season of the Witch,” released in 1982, is one of the perfect examples of expectations being beaten. Jeffrey M. Anderson stated in his review, “By that, I mean that audiences were disappointed by what they didn't see rather than what they did see; and in their disappointment, they failed to register what it was they actually saw.” This happens quite often in movies, especially in sequels and remakes. Basically, filmmakers had the idea that in this movie they didn’t want to create new Michael Myers stories, and decided to start a new series of Halloween-themed movies that told different, new stories, each year. That idea was discarded after this movie because irritated fans saw that Michael Myers wasn’t in here.

It wasn’t the fact that this movie was filled with hilariously bizarre ideas, some really dark, horrific stuff, and some completely insane stuff. Tom Atkins plays Dr. Daniel Challis, a divorced dad who spends more time at work flirting with nurses and drinking beer than he does with his kids (Joshua John Miller and Michelle Walker). A strange man, played by Al Berry, checks himself into the hospital holding a rubber Halloween mask. Before long a strange man in a suit, played by Dick Warlock, kills him and then goes kills himself in his car. The dead man’s daughter, Ellie, played by Stacey Nelkin, arrives and decides to look into the creater of the mask. Her father ran a store that sold the masks. For some reason, Dr. Challis goes with her.

They arrive at the factory, located in a small town and the boss is Conal Cochran, played by Dan O’Herlihy. They sleep in the hotel room and then take a tour of the factory. Clearly Cochran has some secrets. What’s really happening is that he has stolen so much of Stonehenge, and is using parts of it inside a computer chip attached to each mask. Then he airs a dangerous television commercial with a catchy jingle. When the children wear the masks and watch the commercial on Halloween night, their faces will melt and (weirdly enough) roaches and bugs will come crawling out from under their masks. The man in the suit earlier apparently was really a robot and Cochran has made an army of them.

What’s odd is that the movie looks like John Carpenter made this. Director Tommy Lee Wallace had been a production designer and editor on the original “Halloween,” and Carpenter was around on this installment as a producer, an uncredited co-writer, and as a co-composer for the scary, synth soundtrack (co-composed by Alan Howarth). Anderson noted, “Wallace uses the widescreen similarly to Carpenter, the wide composition creating a sense of false security, with threats hiding just outside of frame.”

The real deal to this movie is its strange depiction, combining all those dark, different scares, and building up to a really dark ending as Dr. Challis tries to get every TV channel to stop airing the commercial before it’s too late. Anderson said it best, “The movie isn't exactly scary, or even gory, but it's rather unsettling, and it's rooted in that old standby that evil corporations are out to get you, at any cost.” However, after thirty years of bashing, “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch” is starting to gain the status of a cult film from slasher fans.

I agree with James Rolfe when he stated that this film isn’t as bad as everyone said it was. I understand that people were mad because Michael Myers wasn’t in it, but I actually would have accepted the idea of the filmmakers going off on an anthology and telling separate stories about people returning Halloween to its sacrificial origins. Imagine all the horrible stuff that can happen on Halloween night? Why did fans want more of Michael Myers, especially when the final act of “Halloween 2” felt like it ended it off perfectly right there? Maybe because they loved slasher villains so much that they wanted more of that. Well, jokes on them because the series really started to go off in a bad direction from here.

If you want to know what I mean, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out. In the mean time, definitely watch “Halloween 3” and give it a chance because this film has been, like the second one, wrongfully hated and shouldn’t be. Instead, try and accept it for at least trying something new, like I did. When you watch the film, you won't stop singing the jingle Happy, Happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock.

For those who are probably wondering what I mean by bringing back Michael Myers in the next sequels, stay tuned tomorrow to find out what I mean in "Halloween Month."