Halloween III: Season of the Witch

***Halloween III: Season of the Witch*** is a 1982 American science fiction horror film and the third installment in the *Halloween* film series. It is the first film to be written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. John Carpenter and Debra Hill, the creators of *the original Halloween*, returned as producers. This installment follows the story of Dr. Dan Challis (Tom Atkins) as he tries to solve the mysterious murder of a patient in his 360s hospital. He, along with the patient's daughter, Ellie Grimbridge, (Stacey Nelkin), travels to the small town of Santa Mira, California. The pair discover that Silver Shamrock Novelties, a company run by Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy), is attempting to use the mystic powers of the Stonehenge rocks to resurrect the ancient aspects of the Celtic festival, Samhain, which Cochran connects to witchcraft. Cochran is using his Silver Shamrock Halloween masks to achieve his goal, which will be achieved when all the children wearing his masks watch the Silver Shamrock commercial airing Halloween night.

## Summary

Kids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Doctor Daniel Challis seeks to uncover a plot by Silver Shamrock owner Conal Cochran.

## Good Qualities

1. John Carpenter and Debra Hill were involved in helping make this film.
2. The film could've been received better if it wasn't part of the *Halloween* series.
3. Though it has many flaws, the plot's still pretty passable.
4. A majority of the actors have impressive performances.
5. Creepy and atmospheric soundtrack.
6. The Silver Shamrock Company and Conal Cochran are decent antagonists, though they're nothing like Michael Myers.
7. Even though it doesn't make sense of why the first film is a movie within this film's timeline, it's still nice to see a couple of background references to it.
8. It's far much better than later sequels like *Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers,  Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers*, and *Halloween: Resurrection*.
9. Some of the scenes are borderline terrifying and well-executed, like the scene where snakes and bugs are crawling out of a kid's mask after he puts it on as he watches the Silver Shamrock commercial.
10. The idea of making the *Halloween* franchise an anthology series of movies was pretty nifty on paper, but fans demanded more Michael Myers, so the *Halloween* franchise is now about Michael Myers.

## Bad Qualities

1. It literally has *no* connection to any of the previous two *Halloween* films.
2. Very poor grasp at the what makes the other *Halloween* movies so suspenseful and terrifying.
3. On that topic, *Halloween*'s most significant main characters (Laurie Strode, Dr. Loomis and even Michael Myers) are completely absent and not even mentioned once in the movie. Even the movie's director, Tommy Lee Wallace, admitted that Michael's absense was a stupid idea.
4. If you look closely, you'll see the original *Halloween* is in this film as a movie within a movie that's supposed to be a sequel to *Halloween II*, which is really hard to follow.
5. **False advertising:** On the poster above it clearly shows some kind of demonic figure that may be a witch and the title of the film is called *Season of the Witch*, when it's really about a company that makes demonic Halloween masks, which seems kind of a letdown.
6. The film is also very pointless as it's never brought up again in any of the other *Halloween* films after this.
7. Most of the side-characters seem pointless.
8. Much like *Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning*, it tries its hardest to bring something new to it’s horror franchise, but fails spectacularly.
9. Daniel and Ellie's romance subplot doesn't really serve any purpose to the story.

## Reception

The film currently holds a 42% approval rating and a weighted average of 4.68/10 on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 26 reviews. Its consensus reads, "Its laudable deviation from series formula not withstanding, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch offers paltry thrills and dubious plotting."