Fortress of Horror 16 - Halloween III: Season of the Witch
All witches, all skeletons, all Jack-O-Lanterns, gather 'round and watch. Watch the magic pumpkin.
Once again, everyone is wrong.
Halloween III doesn't have the best reputation. It currently holds an average rating of 4.6 on IMDb, a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes (25% of the audience liked it), and an aggregate rating of 38 on Metacritic (with a 5.8 user rating). People do not like this movie. The biggest complaint? "Where's Michael Myers?" That's right, folks, this is a Halloween film that doesn't not feature its infamous Shatner-faced killer.
What happened is that after Halloween II (which in my opinion is terrible and is ignorant to much of what made the first film work so well), John Carpenter wanted to do something different. Instead of driving Michael Myers into the ground, he pitched the idea of making the franchise into an anthology series, with a new movie every year with the holiday of Halloween being the thread that connects them. I suppose that before the internet, getting that idea across to the audience was quite difficult. Going into it with that knowledge, I can't see how anyone can call this a bad movie. In fact, I think it's pretty great.
All the kids want a Silver Shamrock mask for Halloween. You really can't blame, these masks look great. After a bizarre incident at a hospital where a man was murdered and his killer sets himself on fire, the man's doctor and his daughter decide to investigate. The clues point them to the Silver Shamrock factory. As is the case with most of these things, the less said the better from that point. I will say that this movie goes dark. Really dark. Much darker than I think Hollywood is willing to go these days.
John Carpenter did not direct this movie, but he did produce it and work on the score. I love just about all of his scores, but this might be his best work. There's nothing a catchy as the original theme from Halloween, but the atmosphere it creates is terrific. The Silver Shamrock jingle that plays throughout is irritating and somewhat infectious, making what it becomes during "The Big Giveaway" scene entirely haunting.
Just like the first Halloween, Season of the Witch tells quite a chilling tale, but what really makes it special is how it manages to tap into the mystery, the allure, and the perceived danger of the holiday. Halloween III has the original beat in that regard. This is a really well-done movie, perfect for the season, and is sure to be one I go back to in years to come.
What really makes it work, in my opinion, is the bleakness of the subject matter. There's no gore, no torture or other cheap shocks yet, as you say, it works toward a far more horrid conclusion than most modern films would sanction.
Even though Carpenter didn't direct Season of the Witch his fingerprints are all over it. The film FEELS like a John Carpenter movie. Oh and the music...God DAMN! The track "Chariots of Pumpkins" (which is a great fucking name) really gets things going. The rest of the music is moody, eerie, synthesizer magic that gives the movie an otherworldly feel.
It pains me to think that we could have gotten yearly releases for the Halloween franchise that dealt directly with the holiday and not Michael Myers. I think the first Halloween is an all time classic, but almost everything else with Michael Myers ranges from average to flat out awful. For a few years the big mainstream horror box office draws of the Halloween season were Saw and Paranormal Activity. I'd love for them to revisit the anthology idea and give horror fans something to get excited about come each and every October. Instead of rebooting the series with Myers again, I'd love for them to circle back to this idea. It will never happen though.
It is one of the best Carpenter soundtracks though.
The Silver Shamrock jingle is just the best...and that flashing pumpkin, when I was a kid I was scared to look at it!
The second film in the series was rubbish. The original film, for all its merits--I think Carpenter borrowed a lot of stuff from Bava, Argento, and some other '70s Italian directors. In my humble opinion, if we're talking North American slasher films, Black Christmas kicks Halloween to the curb.
Halloween III Season Thriller
Yes, boys and girls, it’s that time of year again. It’s that nebulous span between the late-summer bombs and the holiday hits, when the public faces a mediocre selection of movies, such as Halloween III: The Season of the Witch.
In this slasher flick, an evil genius named Cochran (played by Dan O’Herlily), is plotting to destroy the United States, through a bizarre combination of advanced technology and ancient sorcery. As an Irish millionaire who got rich from selling novelties and gag items, he visualizes this scheme as “the best joke of all!”
Cochran utilizes a grotesque version of the Trojan horse ploy by selling Halloween masks, which come complete with microchip implant. At the conclusion of an eight-day countdown to Halloween on a commercial campaign, a subsonic signal is activated. At this signal, the hapless trick-or-treater wearing the mask has his brain transformed into poisonous snakes, spiders, and other creatures. These assorted creepy crawlers then proceed to attack other nearby victims.
True to horror movie tradition, the square-jawed, macho hero, Tom Atkins, and the dewy-eyed heroine, Stacey Nelkins, attempt to foil the villain’s plans. All they have to do is get past the high-tech security system and a veritable army of androids that protect Cochran’s factory/headquarters. After a decapitation, an eye-gouging and a few other gory scenes, including the surprising fate of the heroine, the movie ends in a chilling cliffhanger.
Although in many respects a typical slasher movie, Halloween III: The Season of the Witch contains a few differences. For a movie about Halloween, the appearance of the androids was unexpected, although they were immediately recognizable as such to anyone who saw Blade Runner last summer. To break the tension, there were a few capricious touches, such as the cameo appearance of the original Halloween on a television set. Even Cochran displayed a wry sense of humor, by applauding the hero’s efforts, just before meeting his own demise.
Besides the title, the only real connection between Halloween III: The Season of the Witch and its predecessors is the director, John Carpenter. Like too many other slasher movies he has done, Carpenter follows the basic horror movie formula. But behind the grisly murders and the shock value of certain scenes, there isn’t much of a story, or for that matter, much to be afraid of. In the end, the only thing convincing about Halloween III: The Season of the Witch is the fact that Halloween is the season of the B-grade horror movie.
***
I cringe a little now at my youthful ignorance. Halloween III is a horror movie, but not a "slasher" movie. I was wrong about the level of Carpenter's involvement in this movie, and I failed to comment on the effectiveness of the soundtrack.