Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

 

In an attempt to turn the Halloween franchise into a series of films with different stories that all happen around Halloween, Joe Dante was tapped to direct the third Halloween film but at the last minute he dropped out to go direct his parts in The Twilight Zone.  Tommy Lee Jones, who co-wrote the script for this, was then tapped to direct.  Jones had worked with John Carpenter and the rest of the production crew on the original Halloween both as production designer and editor so he had some knowledge of what was wanted here.  But this was still his first directing gig he would later go on to direct the TV horror miniseries IT in 1990.  So what do we have?  We go from a slasher film to a science gone wrong story.  Will it work?  I like the idea and although this one gets drug over the coals by fans and critics alike it could always be worse.  See Halloween Kills for that. 

So what's this all about?  Well, an old man carrying a Halloween mask is taken to a hospital where he is treated by Dr. Dan Challis (Tom Atkins who has also appeared in The Fog and Night of the Creeps) but the old man is murdered in the middle of the night.  The old mans daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin from Get Crazy and Going Ape) tells Doctor Dan that her father was killed by the company that makes the mask he was carrying.  That company is The Silver Shamrock factory.  The two go to investigate and discover a sinister plot that involves androids takeing the place of people.  Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers only instead of alien duplicates it's robots.  They also want to revive an ancient tradition of sacrificing kids on October 31. To do that they have to be wearing Silver Shamrock masks when a signal is broadcast on TV.  That signal, as we see, turns a boys head into a nest of bugs and snakes and all kinds of mean nasty ugly things.  Dan O'Herilhy (who has appeared in the first two RoboCop films and Fail Safe) portrays Conal Cochran the scientist who is behind the plot.  Can Doctor Dan and Ellie stop them from killing thousands of kids across the country before Halloween is over? 

There's many reasons to feel conflicted about this one because it's a good film but it pissed a lot of people off because there's no Myers, no Laurie Strode, and no Dr. Loomis.  WTF?  I think if you took the Halloween Michael Myers connection out of the mix and just called this Season of the Witch it wouldn't be criticized as much it is.  The film is connected in a nostalgic way at least to the first two films and if you listen closely you can hear the voice of Jamie Lee Curtis making the announcement about the curfew in Santa Mira.  She's also the operators voice heard on the phone a few times.  Even Jones couldn't resist getting in on the act as he is the voice we hear on the Silver Shamrock commercials.  Speaking of that jingle, good luck getting that ear worm out of your head after watching this one.  John Carpenter once again does the music for the film and it's loaded with angsty goodness.  So good some of it he would recycle into Christine which was released a year after Season of the Witch was.  Is it as good as the first two Halloween films?  No and how could it.  It was handicapped from the start just by trying to do what it did.  It didn't work but the film isn't bad.   

I had the Fangoria magazine that featured the film on the cover and loved it.  That's a great picture!  Another couple things I wanted to point out about this one is that they actually pronounced Samhain correctly!  That gets a little extra credit from me as I've heard it said  Sam Hain like it was a persons name countless of times and I cringe every time I hear it.  I also liked the tag line of the film which is a direct reference to the first Halloween film:  The Night He Came Home.  Here the tag line is The Night No One Came Home.  Chilling!  Now here's where I turn into the old man out on his front lawn yelling at all the kids about how they are messing up everything.  In Halloween 3 Walter Jones is watching TV and what do you think is on the TV?  Why, it's a commercial for the movie Halloween putting this movie outside of the Michael Myers/Lori Strode universe.  So why is that a big deal you may ask.  Well, I mention that because it makes me hate Halloween Kills even more.  There's now a paradox in place caused by a nod to Halloween 3.  There are people in the park that Michael has killed and they are all wearing the Silver Shamrock masks.  How?  They don't exist in each others world.  Am I wrong to be angered so much by this or am I just splitting hairs now?  I dunno, either way Halloween Kills sucks!  But this doesn't and I will give this three and a half microchips out of five and between you and me when you split a microchip in half it makes it useless so three out of five I guess?