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 *Halloween*, return as producers. *Halloween III* is the only entry in the series that does not feature the series antagonist, Michael Myers. After the film's disappointing reception and box office performance, Michael Myers was brought back six years later in *Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers* (1988).

Plot

On October 23, in Northern California, shop owner Harry Grimbridge the Third is chased along a barren road by mysterious men in suits. He makes it to a gas station, clutching a jack-o'-lantern mask. He is driven to the hospital by station attendant Walter Jones. At the hospital, Harry is placed in the care of Dr. Daniel Challis, an alcoholic doctor struggling with the relationships between him and his ex-wife, as well as his children. That night, another man in a suit enters Harry's hospital room, murders him, then immolates himself. A few days later, Daniel is confronted in a bar by Harry's daughter, Ellie. He tells her about the strange events of the night Harry died and shows her the mask her father was holding when he was admitted to the hospital. Along with Ellie, Daniel traces the mask back to Silver Shamrock Novelties, a company based in the town of Santa Mira, California. The motel manager explains that Conal Cochran and his company, Silver Shamrock Novelties, which produces wildly popular latex jack-o-lantern, witch and skeleton masks for Halloween, are responsible for the town's prosperity. While signing the motel register, Daniel learns that Harry stayed at the same motel. Other motel guests include shop owners Marge Guttman and Buddy Kupfer, Buddy's wife, Betty, and their son, Little Buddy, who all have business at the company's factory.

Marge finds a stone microchip on the back of a Silver Shamrock button. She is zapped in the face by its laser beam after poking it with a hairpin, leaving her disfigured and causing a large insect to emerge from the wound. Daniel and Ellie learn of Marge's accident, and Daniel attempts to help, but is forced away by a group of men dressed in lab coats, who drive away in a Silver Shamrock van with Marge's body. Cochran arrives and tells everyone not to worry. The next morning, Daniel and Ellie tour the factory with the Kupfers, and discover Harry's car there, guarded by more men dressed in suits. They return to the motel, but cannot contact anyone outside the town. While Daniel attempts to phone for the authorities, Ellie mysteriously disappears and Daniel is captured by the men in suits who are revealed to be androids created by Cochran. Cochran reveals his plan to sacrifice children wearing his masks on Halloween, thus bringing about a resurrection of the ancient age of witchcraft. For Silver Shamrock's "Big Giveaway", which will air at 9:00 P.M. on all television channels following the "Horrorthon", each of these masks contain a fragment of Stonehenge implanted in its trademark microchip. When activated by a flashing signal of the commercial's on-screen "magic pumpkin", the microchip causes the mask wearer to succumb to brain damage from absorbing the energy of Stonehenge and unleashes a swarm of insects and snakes that come out of the wearer's corpse and kill anyone nearby. To demonstrate, Cochran kills the Kupfers this way.

Later that night, Cochran puts a Silver Shamrock mask on Daniel, and leaves him to die the same fate as the trick-or-treating children, who will come back home for his false watch-and-win Halloween sweepstakes that he created for his company. Daniel, destroying the television set and removing the mask, escapes through a ventilation shaft and rescues Ellie. He dumps the chips from the overhead rafters, and activates their signal with the commercial, killing Cochran's employees, while Cochran is vaporized by the Stonehenge rune he was using to create his masks, and destroying the computer chips along with the entire Silver Shamrock factory.

As the two drive away, Ellie attacks Daniel, revealing herself to be an android duplicate and that Cochran's henchman presumably killed her. Daniel crashes the vehicle but decapitates the android with a tire iron. On foot, Daniel arrives at Walter's gas station, where he contacts the television stations and attempts to convince all the station managers to remove the commercial. At the same moment, a group of trick-or-treaters, wearing Silver Shamrock masks, arrive at the station to participate in the "Big Giveaway" on Walter's television. Daniel persuades the stations to take it off channels one and two, but on channel three the commercial keeps on playing. Daniel desperately screams on the phone for the final station to turn off the commercial. His fate is unknown.

Cast

Tom Atkins as Dr. Daniel Challis

Stacey Nelkin as Ellie Grimbridge

Dan O'Herlihy as Conal Cochran

Michael Currie as Rafferty

Ralph Strait as Buddy Kupfer

Jadeen Barbor as Betty Kupfer

Brad Schacter as Buddy Kupfer, Jr.

Garn Stephens as Marge Guttman

Al Berry as Harry Grimbridge

Wendy Wessberg as Teddy

Essex Smith as Walter Jones

Nancy Kyes as Linda Challis

Jonathan Terry as Starker

Maidie Norman as Nurse Agnes

Paddi Edwards as Secretary

Joshua John Miller as Willie Challis

Michelle Walker as Bella Challis

Dick Warlock as Assassin Android

Nick Castle as Michael Myers (archival footage, uncredited)

Jamie Lee Curtis as the voice of the curfew announcer/voice of the telephone service provider/Laurie Strode (voice acting, archival footage, uncredited)