Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Tagline: “The night no one comes home”
Duration: 98 minutes

Film Quality: 3/5
Gore Content: 3/5
Entertainment Value: 4/5
Originality: 3.5/5

Introduction

This is a hard one to introduce! John Carpenter had originally envisaged an anthology of horror films, a series with each one bearing the ‘Halloween’ name. Clearly not anticipating the incredible success of the first instalment, Carpenter and Hill produced ‘Halloween II’ with the intention of it being the last word on Michael Myers, fully intending to move away from that to create an entirely different ‘Halloween’ movie. To audiences desperate for more mayhem featuring everyone’s favourite TJ Hooker lookalike, Carpenter not only threw the baby out with the bathwater, he blew up the bathroom. Goodbye slasher, hello mysticism and witchcraft…welcome to ‘Halloween III’!

In a nutshell

After witnessing a bizarre series of events, seemingly surrounding a Halloween mask, a Doctor teams up with the daughter of a murdered man to investigate. They’re drawn to a mysterious town where the masks are manufactured, uncovering a strange plot to destroy society on Halloween night…can they stop his megalomaniacal plans in time?

So what’s good about it?

There is no escaping the fact that this is a crap film, but it’s one that I’ve returned to several times and wholly enjoyed. I’m not entirely sure what it is, whether it’s the silly plot played entirely straight, whether it’s the plotholes that rival swiss cheese, the charming special effects…I’ve never put my finger on it. Some films are best left without deep analysis and simply enjoyed for what they are. Who cares if it’s blatantly terrible, if you enjoy then let the flaws wash over you and embrace it what it is…pure hokum!

Yet there is a lot to enjoy. You have to admire Carpenter, Hill and writer Tommy Lee Wallace for taking the hard route and moving away from what would have been a money making third Myers movie and sticking to their guns, for one film at least. The slasher movie was in its prime, they had two huge hits already and even if it had been as bad as part 5, a third Myers movie would have raked it in. Instead they did what nobody expected, left their best player on the bench for the big game. In a move of creativity rarely seen today they took a risk. I don’t know if it really paid off, people are still talking about it today, not always in a positive way but it has its fan base.

John Carpenter’s only real creative input into this film is, for me the standout part and that is the wonderfully electronic score. Again, moving away from the traditional slasher score of strings and piano, he goes all ‘Escape From New York’ on us and gives us a soundtrack not unlike 1984’s ‘The Terminator’. It works as well, the opening scene is full of muted, low frequency sounds and blips as a digitally constructed pumpkin is drawn on our screen. It’s expertly done, but then we’ve come to expect nothing less from a master musician.

For what is clearly a low budget is some pretty good and inventive set piece gore and effect moments. The head ripping scene is both graphic and surprising, the death of the Kupfers in the warehouse and the ‘misfire’ in the hotel room are suitably gruesome and some of the android effects are handled very well, if a little silly with the yellow blood! In fact, this is always seen as less graphic than the first two but I’d argue the opposite. Our actors look like they’re having a great time, an assertion backed up by veteran Dan O’Herlihy as the evil Cochran who said that he only uses his Cork accent when he’s having a good time and there it is, very much present and correct.

But for me the thing that stands out most, and it rarely gets credit for, is what a dark premise it has. It’s often seen as the silly film in the pack, the one that’s not being entirely serious, but we see children killed graphically onscreen. In fact the entire plot is about attacking and killing children who are trying to enjoy themselves at a fun time of year. It’s a pretty nihilistic and apocalyptic idea and could have been an absolute classic…had it not been so damn silly and likeable!!!

Oh, and a great tagline that plays on the original brilliantly!

What about the bad?

Oh there’s plenty, most of it forgivable out of sheer absurdity. How the hell did they manage to nick a chunk of Stonehenge? How did they know it had magical powers? Where do the snakes and insects come from? How did they get an android version of Ellie so quickly? Why does Cochran want to kill children and replace them with androids? If the androids are so strong that they can crush a guy’s head and rip another clean off, how can Challis overcome several of them on hit own with just a tyre iron? It’s all very strange and I can completely understand why some people find it so difficult to accept when it can be pulled apart so easily. It is a huge, jumbled mess of a film to the extent that if you asked ten different people what the ‘bad’ would be, you’d get ten different answers.

Of course people’s main grumble with this film is the absence of Michael Myers, to the extent that some fans don’t regard it as part of the ‘Halloween’ cannon. It does reference the original movie as a piece of fiction in what is portrayed ‘real life’ within the film. Not many film franchises have had the balls to reduce its hugely successful original to a mere TV trailer!

Any themes?

There’s quite a bit going on in this film. At face value it’s a comment on capitalism, the flood of big business, mass production and its effects on small town America. Cochran’s big business ‘Silver Shamrock’ moves in, he doesn’t hire anyone from Santa Mira, they swiftly lose any source of income, other industries dwindle and die and there’s nothing left but a liqueur store, poverty, unemployment, resentment and a ready-made excuse for failure. “Fuck Cochrane” one of the locals says, knowing that his own future is bleak with no prospects. The opening scene of ‘Halloween 4’ features a similarly desolate farm that has clearly suffered from a dwindling, small town economy that has crashed, this brief prologue has more in common with the end of ‘Halloween 3’ than it does with the rest of ‘Halloween 4’.

Consumerism is also attacked viciously, both in terms of the commercialism of ‘Halloween’ itself, exemplified by that irritating advert which is clearly aimed at kids who would be singing it every morning at the breakfast table demanding a mask until their parents give in! But also given that it is the advert itself which is the mode of attack, burying the signal, or subliminal message, unseen within the carefully co-ordinated make-up of the ad. The commercial is designed to both entice and consume in the most literal sense, in the same way cigarette adverts use attractive women and ‘cool’ lifestyles to get you to buy addiction and lung cancer. To this end it shares some common themes with Carpenter’s own ‘They Live’ (click here for full review), a film that also features plans at world domination based around a signal hidden within adverts.

Release History

It’s had a very odd relationship with the UK market, never cut by the BBFC but for most of its early life released only in pre-cut versions! At least two minutes was missing from its first Warner VHS release, presumably to get a ‘15’ certificate. It was missing most of the (fairly tame) drill murder, the face crushing, the head ripping, the aftermath of the ‘misfire’ and part of the ‘sex’ scene. This applied to early DVD releases as well, although cuts differ slightly. Ironically, at a time when TV censorship was very heavy, BBC1 showed a version in the early 90s which included all of the violence and gore but edited out the profanity. They were very strange times!!! Of course now it’s available totally uncut, although still no blu-ray release in the UK but there is a region B release from Germany that includes the soundtrack.

Cultural Impact

Not much other than pretty much forcing the hand for another Michael Myers movie. I wonder if ‘Halloween 3’ hadn’t been released, or had been better received as part of an anthology series, would Myers have returned, or would it have been left nicely resolved and self-contained as two movies? I suppose we’ll never know but the lasting legacy of this film is that you will never here the song ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’ or answer your kids’ question of ‘how many days is it until Halloween’ without that catchy advert playing inside your head for the rest of the day!

Final thoughts

It’s certainly not a ‘so bad it’s good’ film, it’s just much more entertaining that it has any right to be and that’s largely because there’s so much going on. It never allows itself to be boring but sacrifices any pretentions it may have had as a serious horror film as a result. More likely to be remembered as a result of association with Carpenter’s original than anything else, nevertheless it has an audience and a place at a certain time of year. Altogether now…”Three more days ‘til Halloween…Halloween…Halloween…Three more days ‘til Halloween….Silver Shamrock!” Now try getting it out of your head!!!

Memorable quotes

TV Announcer: “It’s almost time kids, the clock is ticking…be in front of your TV for the horrorthon followed by the big giveaway. Don’t miss it and don’t forget to wear your masks. The clock is ticking…it’s almost time.”

Cochran: “It will be morning soon, Halloween morning. A very busy day for me.”

Challis: “For God’s sake please stop it, there’s no more time, please stop it…stop it now. Turn it off, stop it, stop it, stop it…STOP IT!”

You’ll like this if you enjoyed…

‘Demonic Toys’, ‘The Fog’, ‘Tourist Trap’

Related posts

‘Haloween’ – Click here
‘The Fog’ – Click here