Halloween embodies the entire fall schedule, and is the exciting start to the end-of-year holiday season. While the word Halloween refers to the last day of October, the title Halloween reminds movie lovers of one of the most famous horror movies in history; it conjures images of the iconic Michael Myers, the masked demon who started the slasher film genre.
While sequels rarely if ever work, they seem an almost certainty at the release of each and every horror movie. True to form, “Halloween 2” followed up the original in 1981.
Writer John Carpenter wanted to create an anthology of Halloween based films that captured the essence of the season without overusing the infamous character of Michael Myers.
Carpenter’s first and only foray into this scheme was the 1982 piece “Halloween III: Season of the Witch.” A film absent Michael Myers (save for a shameless plug during a scene where the television is playing the original movie), “Halloween III” was a box office flop, specifically since fans of the Halloween series had come to expect the mayhem of Michael Myers.
The movie has since come to gather something of a cult following; but my immediate reaction upon viewing the movie was to question why use the Halloween moniker at all. Had it been released as a standalone movie (just called “Season of the Witch”) it may have fared better commercially.
There’s just something so eerie and unsettling about early ’80s cinematography. True to form, “III” begins in a thoroughly creepy fashion; a dot matrix computer image of a Jack O’ Lantern is displayed, and we cut to the ominous pursuit of a man in the middle of the night.
“Halloween III” is short on deaths, but has disturbing images not often seen in the franchise. Photo: Universal Pictures
After an attack, the man, who is clutching a pumpkin Halloween mask, dies with a warning as his final words. It’s a week before Halloween night.
The story follows an unlikely protagonist in the form of Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) – a middle-aged divorcee with a generous beer belly and a verbally abusive ex wife. The loving and devout father couldn’t be further from the iconic heartthrob doctors portrayed by George Clooney or Patrick Dempsey.
Dr. Challis is present at the hospital when the man from the opening chase arrives. Teaming with the deceased’s daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin) they embark on a mission to solve the deadly mystery.
The pitfalls for “III” are the plot intricacies, which leave a slow plodding and uninteresting middle act in which Dr. Challis and Ellie travel to a small town in California and encounter Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy) the owner of the Silver Shamrock Halloween mask manufacturer and his truly sinister and evil plot.
While the movie is ripe with typical horror cheesiness from yesteryear; a nurse with a blood curdling scream when she discovers a dead patient, and flat out terrible music and sound effects that completely ruin a handful of scares, as horror movies go its not the worst.
Tom Atkins in “Halloween III.” Photo: Universal Pictures
While the plot is a bit verbose and frankly unnecessary, director Tommy Lee Wallace successfully includes enough scary scenes to have a successful picture. The film includes scary images and a seemingly constant night time setting. What makes the film truly memorable is the Silver Shamrock commercial which runs a handful of times throughout the story. Depicting the haunting Jack O’ Lantern from the beginning, the commercial features a really creepy jingle with a choir of children singing the chorus “Happy happy Halloween…Halloween…Halloween…”
Its a song that won’t leave your mind after hearing it. The tune is enough to stand out as a great addition to the horror hall of fame.
A word of warning. There isn’t an unreasonable number of deaths for the type of movie “III” is; however, each one gets more graphic and gory than the one before. One shocking scene depicts the brutal death of a young child. While countless hordes of college students can and will be slaughtered at will during a horror movie, children and animals are generally off limits. I was more than shocked when I watched the scene— and I don’t really have a care or inclining for children.
Sans Michael Myers, “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” is a decent horror movie. If you watch it without the expectation of the legendary Myers, you can appreciate it as a solid scary effort.
