Halloween Movie Time: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

The tension, atmosphere, the foreboding terror. Young Jaime Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance tangling with the Shape a.k.a. Michael Myers...will not be reviewed today. Hey gang welcome back as we tackle the Halloween spoken in whispers, loved by many and loathed by Michael fans.

This is Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

Nancy Drew and the Brawny Man are on the case!!!

Okay let's not run away already. Criminy. Now many of you are wondering of all the Halloween flicks, why does Jake decide to do the third film? Well one, it doesn't involve Michael performing acts of superhuman strength levels and regeneration. Two, this film is still being debated to this very day and three, it has been on the request back burner for a while.

Writer and director Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Fright Night 2, Aloha Summer, It and The Comrades of Summer) had the audacity, the temerity to give us a Halloween WITHOUT MICHAEL MYERS??!! As many surmised, Michael and Loomis blew up in the hospital in Halloween II and that was...well pretty much all she wrote. The initial plan was John Carpenter would write a new Halloween movie each year telling a different tale of Gothic horror during the Halloween season thus bringing an anthology of horror and macabre to the American and overseas viewers.

Is barfing insects up a sign of illness?

Unfortunately due to the low attendance and ticket sales at the box office, the idea was completely shelved because the audiences of the time just wanted more Michael in the same fashion of their Friday the 13^th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. An immortal killer that cannot be stopped but only made dormant for a time and until he rises again. Yup, that sure sounds like something people have NEVER seen.

Stupid 80s audience!!! So rather than some potential terror we are left with the first and only installment in that new direction. Is it a complete waste of your time? Does it have some bizarre and astonishing effects? Let's take a look.

So our story begins with a disturbed old man and of course the best stories always do. Shop keeper Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry of The Last Starfighter, Re-Animator, Mad About You, Empty Nest, Nick Knight and Guns of Paradise) is being pursued on a lonely road by two men in black? Making his way to the gas station, the attendant offers to take him to the hospital noticing Harry clutching a Silver Shamrock mask screaming, "They're going to kill us!!" FYI we are actually shooting and existing in Northern California not faux Haddonfield Illinois. SHOCKING!!!

Dr. Challis (Tom Atkins of Baretta, The Fog, Escape from New York, Lethal Weapon, A Stranger Waits, Maniac Cop, Striking Distance, Oz and Shannon's Rainbow) is clearly our hard ass protagonist. I mean look at him. Rugged, focused and an don't mess with me attitude.

Cripes it's Buddy.  Act natural, honey and he'll go away.

Seeing demented Harry rambling, the doc springs into action. And by springs into action, I mean check his charts, blood levels and medical history. Another man in black attends to Harry in the form of killing him, nips out to the parking lot, dousing himself in a high octane fuel and lights up. Subtle. What? Air bubble in his I.V.not good enough?

Next morning Harry's daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin of Going Ape!, Yellowbeard, Bullets over Broadway, Ride with the Wind, Distant Cousins and 12 Floors Up) comes to ID dead pappy, get mildly weepy and confab with Challis that Harry's death clearly had something to do with what is going on in Santa Mira.

Apparently the doc had no other patients so it is off to channel Dick Van Dyke's Diagnosis Murder without a doofy detective for a son. Yeah I know it's off topic but did that kid every do his damn job as a homicide detective without daddy's help?

So Detective McCrae is hot on the trail finding that Harry stayed at the local motel and almost the whole town are working for The Old Man of Robocop?? OCP runs Santa Mira!!!  There will be ED-209s running amok in the streets!!   Okay okay, fine! It's Conal Cochran (Da O' Herlihy of Good Against Evil, MacArthur, The Bionic Woman, Deadly Game, The Last Starfighter, Robocop, Robocop II, VR.5 and The Rat Pack) whose mask factory has saved the whole town's economy...with three masks. A witch, jack-o-lantern and a skull. Variety!!!  Two of the shop owners I just wanted to slap though. Buddy and Betty Guttman who cruelly named their son, Little Buddy. Oh sure Buddy Jr or Buddy the Second is most likely his name but Little Buddy is too close to My Buddy. Probably lock him in the basement when he has an original thought of his own.

This whole time watching this I am thinking, leave the town to the ominous and obvious dark forces. That could just be I am not an action hero with mighty pecs, zingy one liners and infinite ammo. Challis won't be swayed from skulking about as the townsfolk seem blissfully unaware of the disturbingly calm and cold security force dressed in black suits and ties.

Old Man tells Challis his masks will wipe out children on a global level and he will save this planet by replacing them...with androids apparently. Yeah I'm not sure if he thought this through well enough. Could be he is eco-friendly and wants to create a race of beings with solar cells, won't encroach more on wild life and use up natural resources??

With the dark arts, robotic servitors and a kooky curse underway, Challis must save the world in time for the sake of the children?

Okay a few of the obvious points I will no doubt have to make or fans will ream me. The Silver Shamrock theme is completely based on London Bridges children song because it was public domain. Stonehenge druid stones where transported to the mask factory but never explained. One of those, "Eh, the audience will get it or they won't," scenarios and personally that makes it fun.

With effects ranging from animatronic prosthetic, gore gags and creepy crawlers I found this film to be fun, bizarre and really out there. Many in Carpenter's mindset would agree Michael's story was finished at 2 and it was ample time to move on. While others just want a mute stalker slashing teenyboppers, elder men and women with a cold and methodical fashion. You already have that with Jason Vorhees!!!

With a budget estimated at 2.5 million dollars this film still brought in $14.4 million at the box office. Okay it wasn't a huge success but clearly folks didn't crap all over as much as the hype wanted you to believe.

They are sticklers for signing the guest book.