Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Conglomerate Carnage.

A different animal to the Halloween films that preceded and followed it, Season of the Witch is slowly but surely gaining an appreciation as a standalone horror film. Gone is Michael Myers indestructible killing machine, in his place is the nefarious Conal Cochran (Dan OHerlihy), the owner of the Silver Shamrock corporation that specialises in Halloween masks. Cochran has a sinister plan this year - and its deadly - Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin) are caught in the middle of the vile plot and may just be the only salvation to Americana.

With Nigel Kneale involved in the writing process Season of the Witch is delightfully fiendish. Theres definite barbs being stung here about t...

I distinctly remember being in Grade 8 when the film came out, and for four major reasons: 1) The excellent TV commercial, with John Carpenter's spooky music and the spider crawling out of the mouth of the mask; 2) The decent book adaptation written for young adults, that I read at the time, and thoroughly enjoyed; 3) Karen Carpenter died of a heart attack from anorexia nervosa; and 4) Major songs on the radio around that time were 'Centerfold' by The J. Geils Band and 'Bette Davis Eyes' by Kim Carnes. Though I had not yet seen the previous two films and wasn't old enough (the R-rating, and my parents were somewhat strict about that kind of thing), I really wanted to see it, but over the years, I never really got around to it, until recentl...

A Halloween movie with no Michael Meyers? Given most of the sequels were dreck, the third outing is an entertaining watch as a Halloween-themed thriller.

Wait, what? Halloween? I guess Carpenter had the grandiose idea of expanding the franchise to one movie released around Halloween that was kind of about Halloween...the holiday not the movies.

Mike did die in Halloween II. It was a good idea, one year, one horror movie, all under the same anthology franchise.

Except the audience, after two stellar slasher films wanted Mike, so best laid plans of mice and men and all that.

What we got instead of Mike was a movie that would have been a halfway decent stand alone end of the 70s horror film, one that was atmospheric, moody, and though it was too flawed to be big, it would have been a fair enough start to the franchise...it would have made a bit of money for the seasonal scare fair.

...

The biggest problem with this film, full of problems, is the title.

After seeing this film, I felt the need to read things about it to understand why it is so strange and different from the previous two. The conclusion I reached is the simplest: if there had been another title and no relation to the Halloween franchise, I would have had better luck. If we forget the title and put aside our initial expectations, if we try to evaluate it for what it is, it doesn't seem so bad, although it is far from being a film that I would like to see twice.

If you tell me that it is absolutely horrible because it has no relation to its two predecessors, I would have to agree. After two successful films, it was predictable that the public would c...