HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982)
Halloween... the festival of Samhain! The last great one took place
three thousand years ago, when the hills ran red... with the blood of
animals and children.
It's October 23rd and a man is taken into emergency, Dr. Dan Challis looks over him but that night a mysterious man appears and kills the sick man. When the doctor runs outside to try and catch him, the madman sets himself on fire.
On October 24th, the dead guys' daughter Ellie arrives and speaks to Dan. The two of them agree something isn't right about the way her father died and set out to investigate. They track back the last few days of her father's life which leads them to a small town called Santa Mira. The company Silver Shamrock Novelties has a factory there where they create awesome Halloween masks that all the kids are buying up this year.
A woman staying in the room next to them is suspicious of the masks and finds a microchip in the one she's studying. It kills her and while Dan and Ellie are trying to help, they're pushed away by a strange group of men dressed in lab coats.
The two realize that the Silver Shamrock has something to do with all this and go on a tour of the factory. But what they find in the factory is shocking and may destroy the entire world on Halloween night.
Alright...what did I love about this movie?
- The awesome music by John Carpenter that plays throughout the whole movie.
- Halloween plays twice on the TV in this film...SO META...
- The annoying Silver Shamrock tune is amazing and constantly stuck in my head. Remind me to play that over and over during the last week of Halloween next year.
- There's a fight scene and the fake punch noises are so bad that they are amazing.
What didn't I love?
- Mostly just the logic of this movie....
- How did the car explode? Homeboy lit himself on fire and then the car exploded. I mean...what kind of dramatic nonsense?
- Ellie and Dan start hooking up immediately? Like okay, let's track down your dead dads last days...so romantic?
- When Dan first sees what happens to the kids wearing the masks....how do the giant snakes happen? Like how does a mask create giant snakes?
- SO MANY QUESTIONS
Obviously this film is famous purely for not having Michael Myers in it at all but still being a part of the Halloween franchise. It's easier just to watch this one as a random Halloween plot to kill everyone movie and forget you're watching the third installment of a slasher franchise. In fact it takes another six years for Michael to even return, in the fourth movie - Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.
It's not even really horror - it's more of a sci-fi, folk lore type tale what with all the lasers and robots. It does have a decent amount of gore though. Particularly the scene at the beginning where the Shamrock robot dude thing just shoves his fingers through Ellie's Dad's eyes. Also...you know...violence against children which, if you read this blog, you know I'm always a big supporter of in horror movies.
When it was first released critics and fans alike hated this flick, but overtime we've all learned to appreciate it for what it is. Just your basic 80's horror/sci-fi movie trying to take a stand on large corporations and the mass consumerism of America.
This little nugget was directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and was his first film, previously he had worked on the Halloween series but as a production designer and art director. He then went on to direct the amazing miniseries It, released in 1990.
Really it's just a great little Halloween flick that does what it set out to do and is a fun watch.
7/10
Still at it over here in Kauai! I have one more review to post and then the October horror movie challenge is done and OVER WITH. I have a giant list of blog posts I need to write after that but I'll save those for when I get home. SO MANY THINGS TO TALK ABOUT YA'LL!
Yesterday I got to explore a creepy ass cave that reminded me of The Descent so much I freaked myself out.
Stay Spooky!
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