Halloween III (1982)

Impressions: Halloween III: Season of the Witch is, without a doubt, the black sheep of the Halloween franchise. In a series that includes H20 and Resurrection, that's a pretty impressive amount of hate. For a couple years, I even counted myself among those that simply 'didn't count' this film, when speaking of Halloween. The funny thing is that it really seems to fit in a lot better than some realize, if you follow the continuity up through Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.

Plot summary: The movie begins with a man being assaulted. He is taken to the hospital, only to be followed by his assailants and murdered by a very familiar killer (yes, the same man that portrayed Michael Myers in the original films). Dr. Challis attempts to apprehend the man, but is unable to reach him before he goes out to his car and sets himself on fire, causing the car to explode. Dr. Challis teams up with the man's attractive daughter, Ellie, as they search for clues as to what happened to her father. Their snooping leads them to Conal Cochran, who is the owner of the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory. They lie about their identity, claiming that they are there to pick up an order of Halloween masks, while staying in the local motel. The small company town is quite creepy, as it is under constant surveillance and the human residents (it turns out that Cochran has created a legion of androids to work for him) are very oppressed.

Once Ellie is kidnapped and Challis is captured in his effort to rescue her, it is revealed that the Halloween masks contain a piece of a sacrificial stone, that was stolen from Stonehenge, that causes whoever is wearing it to dissolve, spewing forth insects and snakes. This is triggered by the Silver Shamrock commercial that is set to air on Halloween night. Cochran intends to revive the morbid aspects of the Celtic festival of Samhain, which he connects to witchcraft. Challis is able to escape his bonds and to kill Cochran and his minions, though not before Ellie is turned into one of them. He finally gets to a phone and begins calling the various television stations, in order to get the commercial pulled from the air. He succeeds with the first two, but is too late to prevent it from airing on the third station. The film ends with him screaming, "Stop it!"

Conclusion: No, Michael Myers is not present (though Dick Warlock is here, and maintains the ame aura about him, in a sense). However, this film is criminally underrated and dismissed as worthless. Thanks in part to the continued collaboration with Alan Howarth, regarding the score, Halloween III: Season of the Witch still maintains the same dark feeling as on Halloween II. The story is quite interesting as well, which finds its way into Halloween lore in later years. Once you are able to get past the fact that this does not continue the saga of Michael Myers, it is a quite enjoyable film. And, of course, there is one important factor that should be remembered: this is one of the few times when good does not prevail over evil. Dr. Challis was unable to get the Silver Shamrock commercial pulled from the third channel and, though it wasn't shown on screen, it is strongly implied that Cochran's plans succeeded (posthumously) and millions of children died. Usually, the villain is always defeated and, even when this isn't the case, children are rarely harmed. In this case, evil was victorious.