'HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH' REWATCH REVIEW

I remember being nine years old in the video store, renting all of the 'halloween' movies ('Halloween: 20 years later' was still fairly new on video) and the video store employee telling me that this movie could be skipped and had nothing to do with the others. He was correct and for many video store trips, I did in fact skip this movie until curiosity eventually took hold of me.

'Halloween III: Season of the Witch' is a wonderful concept but not a great execution. It dares to go a different route and broaden the horizon on what a 'halloween' movie could be, but it wasn't done well enough to really sell anyone on that concept.

It does make you wonder what could have been if this movie had really smashed the box office, but alas, here we are.

WARNING! SPOILER REVIEW BELOW

It's crazy to think of 'Halloween' as an anthology franchise, but if you think about it, given the varying michael timelines, that's kind of what it became anyway.

but the idea started here - at the first film in our rewatch series - with 'halloween III: season of the witch.' John Carpenter wrote the screenplay, did the score and produced the film hoping he could get audiences and the studio away from the michael myers obsession of it all. carpenter famously didn't want to make 'Halloween II' and added a ridiculous plot twist and then killed Michael Myers off just to get the studio off his back for making more (though that wouldn't stop them from allowing the story to continue later). If this was destined to be a franchise, carpenter envisioned it as an anthology series (much like the 'American Horror Story' type shows today) and began with this film to make it a reality.

The problem, though, was that people are stupid - audiences wanted more Michael Myers slashing everyone to death even though it made absolutely zero story sense to bring him back and the studio agreed with them after it was all said and done - and also because, unfortunately, the movie just isn't good.

The film involves following Dr. Dan Challis, one of the worst family men i have ever seen on screen. he's an alcoholic, a lowlife husband and a seemingly absent father. In the film, he meets the much younger Ellie Grimbridge, a young woman trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her father after he dies under suspicious circumstances. Because he's dying to cheat on his wife and bang this young woman, he decides to travel with her to investigate the Silver Shamrock Toy Company that Ellie suspects her father may have pissed off. Sure enough, they check into a motel, and the good doctor proceeds to cheat on his wife with ellie. Afterward, a woman in a neighboring room who was picking up a Silver Shamrock order is killed in her room with a bunch of people from the company, including Mr. Cochran the factory owner, suddenly showing up to cover it up (not suspicious at all).

Despite this, Dan and Ellie go to the factory the next day and sure enough find the car belonging to Ellie's dad and then are both captured. Here, Mr. Cochran shows Dan the "final processing" room where he explains all of the Halloween masks they produce contain a microchip with a piece of stonehenge inside of it that will activate when children wearing the masks see the "big giveaway" commercial. Mr. Cochran adds that he is doing this to sacrifice children on Samhain for some ancient celtic ritual (what?). Oh also his goons that have been killing people including Ellie's father? Androids...they're androids for some reason. Also when the masks kill their hosts, snakes and insects pour out of where their heads should be.... Why? Who the hell knows...

Dan manages to get away from Cochran and rescue Ellie and makes sure Cochran and his factory are destroyed on the way out. However, Ellie has already been killed and replaced by an android that Dan has to deal with before the movie ends. His final act in the movie is calling television stations to get them to stop airing the "big giveaway" commercial only for one station not to listen to him and the movie ends with him yelling on the phone.

Listen, there's things to love here and the movie is full of good ideas but they just don't work the way they are done. The pacing is boring with not a lot of interesting things going on at all until the very final half hour of the movie and even then what we are seeing is so ridiculous that it's hard to appreciate it. All exposition is given toward the end and the mystery itself is not enticing enough to make waiting for it worth it. The writing itself is fairly solid, but the characters are unlikeable, the vfx are hokey even for the time, and while yes killing kids with halloween masks is terrible, there is never any real sense of overwhelming dread in this movie. The "androids" are also a joke as the performers do their best robot impressions.

There's a couple fun easter eggs here - the original 'halloween' film is playing in the bar Dan goes to, his wife is played by Nancy Kyes who played Annie in the original. It's also filmed in a little town near the other little town I grew up in as a kid, which is fun for me. But otherwise, it's still a bore. The masks from this movie do show up in the most recent 'Halloween' trilogy (though they appear to be Stonehenge-free versions) as easter eggs which really helped people discover a new appreciation for this film. But, truly, you can skip this movie entirely.

Just make sure that if you do watch this movie, you don't watch the "big giveaway" ad too closely...

2/10

You can catch 'Halloween III: season of the Witch' streaming on Peacock now.