Tommy Lee Wallace’s “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” (1983) begins with a zoom-like sound, an electronic crackle or a shrill scream chord that will be repeated later.
That’s Alan Howarth/John Carpenter’s score, a sinister, creepy, and wonderful composition that serves as a clever opening of a pumpkin made into a lantern, albeit with early computer graphics. 1980s.
As the trailer ends, the flickering lantern creates an intense strobe effect, an unsettling image that offers some foreshadowing: we’ll eventually know this is the last image the victims will ever see. The main character of the film will be found on “The Night No One Comes Home” (as the movie poster suggests).
We get an opening sequence that should be the first indication to an eager audience that this is not what they expected.
We see a man being chased by the first of many men in a menacing vest, these men wordlessly stalk and kill their prey. It’s brutal and eerie in a way that’s unlike Carpenter’s 1978 original but reflects the grisly clarity of the 1981 sequel, “Halloween II.”
The dying words from an initial victim were, “they’re coming.”
The opening is followed by “One Year Later”. We meet Dr. Challis (Tom Atkins), a family man and doctor who investigates a strange murder that happened in his hospital. A fit, silent monster murdered a patient in a hospital, then went to his car, covered it with gasoline, and set itself on fire.
This is not the first or last case where the violence is more gruesome than necessary.
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Joining Dr. Challis in her wild investigation is Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), who is searching for her missing father.
Then we went to Santa Mira (actually Eureka, California), a small working-class town with high-altitude surveillance cameras. As a “work of the period”, since this movie hit theaters 40 years ago, it has taken us to second-hand clothing stores, provided us with pay phones and empty hospitals. , low technology.
This is one of the most atmospheric movies in the entire “Halloween” series. This Norman Rockwellian township with its doors locked and shut down at night (after loudspeakers announce a curfew) is spooky.
#Watching Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
“The time is coming, children. The clock is ticking”. pic.twitter.com/INMRRvN0Gl
– Gary (@Garybaldi_77) October 6, 2022
At one point, Dr. Challis checks the logbook of a motel while Ellie distracts the owner – a touch straight from “Psycho” (1960). Not long after, we received the horrifying and infuriating death of a motel patron by laser. Old-school plot themes are constantly contrasted by raw gore pieces.
The film’s central villain, Zephram Cochrane (an imposing and quietly fearsome Daniel O’Herlihy) rides in his limo. We don’t see him at first, but we’re looking through his POV as the car leaves the scene, much like Michael Myers’ early stalking scenes in “Halloween” (1978).
Once O’Herlihy officially became the central character, the actor brought a commanding energy that was different and much more powerful than his co-stars.
The scene with “Buddy Cuthbert” and his involved family feels befitting of John Hughes’ “National Lampoon Vacation.”
It was announced with admiration that Cochrane “invented Sticky Toilet Paper” (!) and that he was “the richest man in the country and had a way of selling cheap masks.” Thus, Cochrane achieved the American Dream and, when we finally know what he’s up to, realizes he’s like a satanic James Bond villain.
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For all the hilarious aspects of the script, sadism takes a heavy toll: The murder of a lab assistant and visiting family in the Silver Shamrock factory really makes sense.
It’s no surprise that Dr. Challis finds out that Cochrane is making robots, but the reveal is fascinating – the hero finds a full-sized, cartoon knitted, checkered woman -boots are revealed to date from “1785, made in Munich”.
“Halloween III: Season of the Witch” is wild and exists in a terrifying world where anything can happen, even the most unimaginable. It moves well, has the premise of going as far as it can, and doesn’t allow for a pat or a safe finish.
Dean Cundy’s cinematography is a big asset here. There’s a great montage of kids around the world of Trick or Treating, as well as beautiful outdoor shots of Santa Mira. Like all of Cundey’s work for Carpenter, this is a particularly good horror film.
Tommy Lee Wallace’s “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” famously caused fan outrage and was a killer in the franchise upon its initial release. Really, this didn’t happen after “Halloween II”. In fact, Nancy Loomis’ cameo as Dr. Challis’ wife and the trailer for the original “Halloween” was played in a bar – this is a world where the first film was a sci-fi. thought!
This used to appear very high on the annual list of the worst sequels ever made. Over time, appreciation not only for its distinction from other “Halloween” films but also for the misunderstood horror/science combination that enhanced the film’s once-famous reputation.
Now, this is a movie that has garnered not only respect but even genuine admiration from the fans, who have shifted their positions on it. Like the similarly scrapped then re-reviewed movie “Alien 3” (1992), I watched this a lot, didn’t like it the first time but grew to appreciate it more with each viewing.
Of all the movies in the series, this is the one that really hit the “Halloween” series.
Although Wallace was the screenwriter/director of the film, original creators John Carpenter and Debra Hill produced. You’ll also hear orchestral similarities to Carpenter’s ghostly, hypnotic electronic score for “Christine” (1983).
Halloween masks created by Don Post based on the notion that the Cochrane mass markets, with Pumpkin, Witch, and Ghost options, are the essence of Halloween; It’s a touch that shows Cochrane knows this will be the last Halloween for America, as the masks are stripped and infused with the season in a traditional and sinister style.
Atkins was the lead in the 1970s and Nelkin was prominent but it was the late O’Herlihy who walked away with the film. The rushed and unconvincing “romance” between two ’70s-style protagonists drifted into this ’80s thriller.
The villains are all silent men in suits and creepy, zombie-like minions. The “Silver Shamrock” jingle was played 12 times (the trailer was created by Sam Nicholson and is as well produced and engaging as anything from the time).
The finale offers a series of surreal revelations, then circles back to the open machine’s gas station and ends with Atkins doing his best with Kevin McCarthy in “Invasion of the Body Poachers.”
The final act of “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” is one of its best, because you won’t be able to get through it. While fans of the series may have balked at the absence of Michael Myers in 1983, there’s no way they could have guessed how this movie would end.
The horror of the finished intro and, above all, a once-defeated franchise entry has become a petty favorite for those who want more of The Shape for Halloween.
