Review of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) by Jonathan I — 28 Oct 2014

What a misdirection. I can't imagine the letdown viewers felt going into theaters thinking they were going to get the 3rd chapter in the Michael Myers story. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch is a entire different movie altogether, not connected to the story created in the first two films in any way. While a little investigating would teach me that they planned on making the Halloween franchise into an anthology of sorts, playing through new scary movies each year, (a very cool idea I might add), I don't think they handled the new direction well by dressing it up as a sequel.

That being said, Halloween 3 isn't nearly as bad it's made out to be. If you like extremely cheesy horror/sci-fi, than you'll love it. The movie is more-or-less Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Halloween.

Review Points:

- I understand horror movies, slashers particularly, are known for their gratuitous sex/nudity, but it felt even more ridiculous in H3. The movie follows (strangers to one another) Daniel, a doctor, and Ellie, a young lady whose father was just mysteriously murdered. While their spontaneous partnership is in itself confusing, it's takes it to the next level when they start hooking up...the same day they start investigating...in three different scenes. The hell? It honestly has the vibe of a late night HBO/Cinemax softcore porno. It's really weird.

- They were not subtle in the least about hinting at what was going on. You know almost immediately that the masks are going to kill/hurt the wearers and they are being made by some evil corporation. Not a lot of mystery.

- Love the meta commercial for Halloween within the movie.

- H3 carries a lot of the same vibe, tension, musical score from the previous movies. It successfully feels like an extension of their universe.

- While not necessarily surprising, the robot henchmen were a neat touch. (reminded me a LOT of Edgar Wright's 'The World's End' made 31yrs later. I see where he got the inspiration).

- While there are no teens being brutally murdered, we do get to see some pretty gruesome deaths. Of them, a common element was the sudden appearance of bugs, spiders, and snakes emerging from the corpse. I've seen this effect in Evil Dead (1981) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Seems H3 was a big influence on them.