Holiday Pick: Halloween III
Watch the magic pumpkin!
Looking for a Halloween watch? Try the best Halloween! The one without all the Halloween.
After Halloween II brought back Michael Myers, Halloween III: Season of the Witch did the unthinkable and… didn’t. Instead, Halloween III is a magnificent stand-alone (in the truest sense) entry in an otherwise repetitious franchise. Apart from everything, Halloween III offers up a deliciously wicked Halloween story that offers a glimpse at what might have been: a Halloween franchise not built around Michael Myers but an inventive anthology series of films.
(This is the point where, if you have not seen Halloween III, you should stop reading and go watch it. Some spoilers ahead.)
Halloween III stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Daniel Challis, who becomes determined to uncover the secrets lurking at Silver Shamrock, a novelty company that produces the year’s hottest Halloween masks. If you’ve seen the movie, their earworm of a TV jingle is probably still stuck in your head: “Happy happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock.”
What Dr. Challis discovers is even more sinister than constantly airing a jingle that will literally never leave your brain. The company is run by Conal Cochran, who has infused his popular masks with dark pagan energy from a stolen piece of Stonehenge. When combined with a signal from a particular Halloween broadcast, the masks will… well let’s just say you don’t want to be wearing the mask when that happens. From Cochran’s perspective, the stylized flourish of death and mayhem is all just a “trick” of mammoth proportions.
It’s no coincidence that the televised hypnogogic ritual is tuned to an airing of “the immortal classic”, John Carpenter’s original Halloween. Not only does this separate the film from the events and characters of Halloween I and II, but it also serves to highlight the counter-voyeuristic power in classic horror storytelling: as you watch the abyss, the abyss watches right back. And it just might change you in ways you could never imagine.
Halloween III is one of the best Halloween movies, in a crowded field full of wannabe scares that take place on horror’s favorite holiday. Combining a sharp holiday satire with a delirious performance by Tom Atkins and a synth-tastic score by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, the film is best enjoyed on a cold Halloween night with the lights off and some music on hand to rinse that earworm out of your brain.
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Halloween III: Season of the Witch
1982
directed by Tommy Lee Wallace