Review of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) by Mr J — 16 Aug 2010

Halloween III gets the most undeserved crap out of any movie sequel, or movie, for that matter.

The plot is as follows: An evil cooperation distributes Halloween masks to trick or treaters by use of a "catchy" commercial (x more days 'till Halloween, Silver Shamrock). The masks have a logo on the back which, if watched with the "Halloween giveaway" on Halloween night will kill all of the kids who watch it. The masks are so popular that every kid trick or treating has one.

Here is where the thumbs down come in (once they work):

The vast majority of negative reviews about this movie come from the basis that Michael Myers (and Laurie Strode to a lesser extent) isn't in this movie. People wanting to see Michael while watching this movie were disappointed because he was not apart of this movie at all. So, they feel that this movie is a complete lie (because apparently the creators said that Michael was going to be in it). Instead, this movie is about [plot explained above] that happens on Halloween night. And since Michael isn't in it, they complain about the writing and whatnot being terrible.

Here is the story of the origin (coming from memory). John Carpenter and Debora Hill made the first Halloween with no plans to make a sequel. Then, the independent horror movie that was made with a budget of 300 grand grossed over 60 million dollars (non-inflated). As a result of the success, they made a sequel continuing the story of what happened on Halloween night.

==H2 spoiler==> Laurie goes to the hospital where she is once again chased by Michael. In the end we find out she is his sister and both Michael and Dr. Looomis die in an explosion. <==End spoiler==.

Carpenter and Hill wrapped up the two-part story of Laurie and Michael right there. Peace was restored and that was that. Now, the two wanted to make the Halloween sequels a different Halloween-related story each year, which I actually would have preferred to the countless Michael sequels. Thus, our subject today, Halloween III: Season of the Witch was born. It is, as the two of them wanted, a Halloween-themed movie. It has nothing to do with Michael Myers (surprise) because it's not supposed to! No one said it is, which is why people shouldn't get bent out of shape and negatively review this claiming it has nothing to do with the Halloween series. Just because the first two focused on Michael, Laurie, and Loomis doesn't mean every sequel has to have them in it. It's called "Halloween." It focuses on Halloween (the holiday). I could understand peoples' complaints about no Michael if the movie series was called "Michael Myers" or "The Shape," but it's not, so negative reviews based solely on the fact that Michael isn't there (almost all) have no basis. Because of these people expecting to see Michael Myers, he was brought back in the fourth movie (which got even better reviews than this one did).

...

Anyway, the soundtrack in this installment is almost at level with the first two. I say "almost as good" because the first Halloween has the greatest use of music to add to the tension ans suspense out of any other horror movie. Having seen part II only once, I cannot accurately remember the specifics of the soundtrack, but I remember it being similar to the first but not as effective. In this movie, the splash screen is a Silver Shamrock light board making the picture of a jack o lantern while playing a techo-like version of the theme. This is similar to the beginning if the original where the camera is zooming in of the jack o lantern playing the theme. While I don't enjoy the techo-like version as much, it sets the tone for this sequel being different than the first two. As far as can remember, the same music from the first movie is used throughout, but it's used less effectively, like in Halloween II.

The tension and suspense in this movie were great (again, not as good as the original, but I guess without Carpenter directing it couldn't be). The acting was fine for the movie. It was nothing superb, but it was effective. The story was great, the tone was good, and the ending was perfect. It's not nearly as good as the first, but it's a good sequel despite everyone's petty complaint.