Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

  • Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
  • Written by Tommy Lee Wallace, John Carpenter, Nigel Kneale
  • Stars Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Don O’Herlihy
  • Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes
  • Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MnaYzBhx0A

Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone

It’s not a continuation of the first two movies at all, but a standalone story. It’s still horror and suspense, with more than a bit of science fiction blended with magic. It’s not one to overthink, but it’s a fun and entertaining film. Not worth hating on just because there’s no Michael Myers doing the killing this time around.

Synopsis

Credits roll as we watch a 1982 computer try to draw a jack o’lantern onscreen. Scary!

We open on a road in Northern California on October the 23rd. A man runs down the road, trying to evade a car. One of the suited men from the car attacks him, but he gets away.

One hour later, we go to a filling station and see a TV news report talking about one of the stones from Stonehenge gone missing months ago, and they still have no idea where it went. The show breaks away to give us a commercial for the Silver Shamrock mask company. “Eight more days till Halloween.” Well, you might know how the song goes by now. If not, you’ll hear it many times throughout the movie. The station attendant is leapt on by the man from earlier, holding one of those Halloween masks. “They’re coming,” he whispers before passing out.

Daniel Chalis stops by his ex’s place after work, and he brought his kids cheap Halloween masks. They aren’t impressed because they have the new Silver Shamrock masks. Chalis is a doctor, and he’s called in to look at the man from before. The suited man from the car sneaks into the hospital and kills the man with the mask. The man then goes out to his car and blows himself up.

The victim’s daughter, Ellie, comes in the next morning to identify the body. The police tell Daniel the murderer must have been on drugs, but he doesn’t believe that at all. The guy looked like a calm businessman. He asks a lady friend in the coroner’s office to take a look personally and see what she can find out for him.

Chalis runs into Ellie at a bar. He tells her what he knows about that happened to her dad. Harry, ran a store that also sold Silver Shamrock Halloween masks. He was last seen heading to the Silver Shamrock factory. The two decide to investigate further.

They get to town, and it’s a weird place; everyone notices them as they drive in. The people of this small California town all have Irish accents, because they’re descended from immigrants way back in the day. Mr. Cochran owns the Silver Shamrock Novelty company and lords over the town as their benefactor.

Various people check into the same motel where Chalis and Ellie are staying. The whole town shuts up and goes dark at the six o’clock curfew. A bum tells Chalis some stories and then lumbers off into the darkness. The bum is executed shortly thereafter.

Marge, a businesswoman here to pick up an order introduces herself to Ellie. That night, Marge examines one of the little Silver Shamrock buttons that comes on every mask. She sticks a pin in the circuitry, and it lasers her face off and then bugs crawl out of what is left over. Meanwhile, Chalis and Ellie have sex. Cochran’s men arrive to clean up Marge’s remains, and Chalis gets to meet Cochran.

The Kupfer family is there for a tour of the factory, and they include Chalis and Ellie. It’s a big factory with an attached museum full of novelties and toys and automatons, and we see that Cochran has been building clockwork toys for decades. Ellie spots her father’s car hidden in one of the garages there. They also see a large number of slim, suited young men just like the one Chalis saw kill her father.

Chalis tries to call the police, or anyone out of town, but he can’t get an outside line. When he returns, Ellie has vanished and five of the suited men come after him. Chalis sneaks into the factory that night and learns that the suited men are robots. He’s captured.

The next morning is the 31st— Halloween. Cochran shows Chalis the heart of the operation, a big stone in the middle of a warehouse connected to a bunch of computers. The one that’s missing from Stonehenge, and Cochran chuckles about how they managed to get it there. Apparently there’s a little speck of the stone in every mask disk. Cochran wants to give Chalis a demonstration, so he turns on a monitor. Which shows the Kupfer family locked in a room to watch TV – a metal, reinforced room with a locked door. Dad thinks Cochran just wants to get his input on some new ads or something. The TV plays the Silver Shamrock commercial, which tells their son to put on his mask. The mask then activates, which makes the boy collapse when his head turns into spiders, snakes, and bugs that kill his parents. The demonstration is a success!

We then see a montage of kids all over the country wearing those masks. This is gonna be big! Cochran gives Chalis a long monologue on what Halloween really means. The planets are in alignment, and it’s time again. Time for a sacrifice. The world is going to change!

Chalis escapes through the air shafts. He calls his harpy of an ex and warns her to get rid of his kids’ masks, but she won’t listen. He frees Ellie and sneaks back into the main control room and starts pressing buttons. He activates the flashing pumpkin sequence and then pours hundreds of the killer discs onto the robotic suited men and lab techs below, shorting them out.

The Stonehenge rock itself activates and disintegrates Cochran before blowing up the whole factory. As they drive away, Chalis and Ellie hear the Silver Shamrock ad on the radio; it’s still all going to happen in just a few minutes. Ellie attacks him; she’s been replaced with a robot.

Chalis runs to the service station and calls the TV station begging them to stop the ad. Nine o’clock rolls around and the ad is taken off the air. Almost. It’s still showing on one channel…

Commentary

This is easily the most hated and maligned of the Halloween movies, simply because Michael Myers doesn’t show up. If it had been named literally anything else, it would be much more fondly remembered. The music does get annoying at times, but the idea itself is pretty unique; harnessing the power of Stonehenge through modern technology. The technology is vague and non-specific enough that it actually does hold up fairly well today.

Dan O’Herlihy is creepy as Cochran – doing a great job of putting a false smile over a core of chilling hatred – with a little genuine glee thrown in for good measure. And Tom Atkins does a good job here as Chalis. The others are mostly just along for the ride.

It’s a fun movie, just don’t watch it expecting an unkillable murderer like Michael Myers.

Oh– how many days till Halloween?