A year removed from the release of Halloween II and the apparent death of Michael Myers, the Halloween franchise was at it again with the release of the most misunderstood film in the franchise. A film that throughout the past 36 years has aged like fine wine and has become one of my favorite entries in the franchise. That film is Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
Following the overwhelming success of the first two films in the franchise, John Carpenter and Debra Hill had an idea, a clever one at that. Instead of following up with a sequel that would continue the Myers storyline, Hill and Carpenter thought to turn the Halloween franchise into an anthology series. The idea would be that each year a new film would be released whose only connection to the previous year’s film would be that it would be focused around the Halloween holiday. This concept was relatively new at the time and not unlike what Ryan Murphy does annually with American Horror Story.
While we all love Michael Myers and the franchise is still around to this day despite its shortcomings in the quality, this idea could not only have kept the franchise fresh but could have created a spin-off franchise in its own right. But it didn’t happen and all that’s left of their idea is Halloween III: Season of the Witch. The film’s premise combines the themes of witchcraft and the growing computer age. It centers around a plot by the owner (Conal Cochran) of a Halloween mask company whose intent is to kill all of America’s children on Halloween night through a series of Halloween commercials and three popular masks: a skull, a witch, and a pumpkin.
One of the biggest takeaways from Halloween III is director Tommy Lee Wallace’s choice to move away from the teen male and female heartthrobs from the 80’s that was sure to draw more of an audience and move forward with grizzled acting vet Tom Atkins. Now I know what everyone is thinking, “Dave, what about Donald Pleasance?” While I agree, Sam Loomis is one of the finest horror characters in the genre’s history he was never the focal point of the franchise. Halloween III puts the focus on Atkins’s Dan Challis and it pays off. The choice of Atkins works on so many levels because, throughout the film, you see a flawed man who’s made plenty of mistakes but works to fix them and save the kids.
Now to start with the flaws. Halloween III attempts to go for it a bit much at times and it just doesn’t always stick the landing. How did Cochran get a piece of Stonehenge to the Silver Shamrock factory? Who knows! Ellie turns out be evil and a robot? What? Another flaw was the marketing. Without the internet and social media, audiences had no way of knowing that Michael Myers was not in the film. They never made it known and just by the name alone, the masses assumed he’d be in it. That alone put the film dead on arrival as fans were disappointed at first viewing that Michael was nowhere to be found and that the film went in a different direction than its original two.
As far as strengths go, one important aspect of Halloween III is its intensity and pulling no punches attitude throughout the film. Some of the most intense graphic scenes can be viewed in Season of the Witch. The scene where the little boy is killed by the pumpkin mask is still one of the most grotesque in the franchise. Another moment that comes to mind is when Marge is toying around with the Silver Shamrock button and blasts her mouth wide open.
Outside of the film’s originality, I found the scoring exciting. Alan Howarth is back again and composes one of the finest scores in the series. Similar to Halloween, it leaves its own impression on the moviegoer and pushes the film’s climactic moments along all while adding to the eerie atmosphere.
The finale is one of my favorites in the franchise. While Dan (Atkins) has defeated Cochran and his men, the Silver Shamrock commercial is still playing. He succeeds in getting two of them pulled but there’s still a third he can’t get stopped from playing. Dan pleads with the person on the other end of the line to “Stop it!”… and we cut to black. The ambiguity of the ending is similar to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and it works in every way.
It has taken 36 years for Halloween III to gain the cult status it rightfully deserves. Next time, that Silver Shamrock commercial plays, always remember kids, take those masks off.
Reel Talk gives Halloween III: Season of the Witch 3 Reels
