Halloween III - Season of the Witch (Tommy Lee Wallace, 1982)
"They're fun! They're frightening! And they glooooow in the dark!"
Not in any way a sequel to John Carpenter's classic 1978 Halloween, Season of the witch was more of an attempt to extend the Halloween franchise. The producers wanted to make a Halloween-themed film every year post-Halloween 2, but the sloppy marketing of the film, and the confusion about the title (Michael Myers is nowhere near this film, and Halloween III implies that it's a sequel to the first two films) meant this film flopped, and ended up being lost for a very long time. Indeed, I'd never even seen it until this rather splendid Scream Factory Blu-ray release back in 2012!
Carpenter does, however, produce this film, but handed writing/directing duties to his good buddy Tommy Lee Wallace. The story is all over the place, but it kinda suits the general madness/clumsiness of the movie.
The story? Well, here goes! A chap arrives in a Hospital gibbering "they're going to kill us all", then he gets brutally murdered by a smartly-dressed chap with incredible strength. The Doctor in charge (Tom Atkins) is miffed by the incident, and joins forces with the dead man's sexy-hot daughter (Stacey Nelkin) to find out what the real cause of death actually was. All clues point to the sleepy, spooky, secluded town of Santa Mira, which is the headquarters of Silver Shamrock novelties, a company making big bucks from stylish Halloween masks. Y' know, for kids!
The whole Santa Mira location has a very Village of the Damned vibe to it. And some of the residents have chirpy Irish (or rather 'Ioar-irrish') accents (plucked straight from a lucky charms commercial). WHAT is the secret of Silver Shamrock novelties? WHO are the sinister, smartly-dressed killers? WHY does Stacey Nelkin give it up so easily?
The cast is okayyyy, the effects are dated now, but the general flow of the movie is good... It's the dark elements of horror that truly save the day! Oh, and Alan Howarth & John Carpenter's soundtrack is immense! It must be said that Halloween III is, at times, very odd indeed, which is why I like it. It's crap, but good crap. Not one to watch every Hallowe'en, but a very nice addition to the Hallowe'en horror hodgepodge.
