HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH: 4K Blu-ray (Universal, Dino De Laurentiis, Debra Hill Productions, 1982) Shout!/Scream Factory

Okay…I am going to begin this review of director, Tommy Lee Wallace’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) by suggesting outright that it is not a very good horror movie. My level of displeasure with it today has far less to do with the fact it had absolutely no connection to the original two movies in this ongoing film franchise (nor any to the subsequent sequels yet to follow it) but, in fact, was a valiant, if thoroughly flubbed attempt by Carpenter to ‘grow’ the series into something it’s not – an anthology homage to the pagan festival of Samhain, by telling ‘other’ spooky tales under the banner of shudders he alone had created. I confess, in 1982 I was one of the absolutely outraged who, attending the premiere of Halloween III, sat disgusted in the dark waiting for the resurrection of Michael Myers, only to be treated to a shameless sequence in which this picture’s star, Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Akins), while getting comfortably numb in a seedy bar, watches the ‘closet’ scene with Jamie Lee Curtis from the original Halloween, virtually unmoved by it, while nursing a drink. Was this Wallace’s attempt at glib humor. If so, it didn’t rub off on me then, and still seems awkwardly to serve only as a reminder of how far removed his picture is from Carpenter’s original fright fest.

To be fair to Wallace, his picture had nowhere to go but down. Deprived of the first two movie’s arch nemesis, Michael Myers – seemingly to have burned to a crisp in Halloween II the year before, and, as yet unaccustomed to the incongruity of churning out movie sequels that make absolutely no sense at all, with Myers somehow morphing from just a psychotic killer, into a supernatural entity, impervious to death – even by decapitation – Wallace herein was forced to embrace an entirely new story for this third installment to the franchise. Precisely why Wallace and Carpenter chose to completely dump the other marketable survivors from the first two movies, chiefly Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance, was, otherwise the gravest mystery to afflict Halloween III: Season of the Witch. But the enduring hurdle for even the most casual viewer to overcome with Halloween III, much more so, ardent fans, remains that it has absolutely nothing to do with the first two movies. Tricking an audience with the pretext they are about to see a continuation of a horror saga they are wholeheartedly invested in, then completely to deprive them of this satisfaction, was grotesquely underhanded to downright dirty marketing. And it did not serve the picture’s reputation well at all.

If only for an ounce of continuity or perhaps a change of title, or even returning Pleasance and Curtis to the franchise, Halloween III might have given some hope for another perilous ‘good time’. Alas, no. Instead, we were given elderly shopkeeper, Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) running for his life down an isolated road at night, trailed by a carload of monolithic businessmen toting concealed weapons. Clutching a jack-o-lantern mask from the Silver Shamrock novelty factory, Grimbridge eludes his assailants only to be murdered in his hospital bed a short while later by another ‘businessman’ (Dick Warlock), followed into the hospital parking lot by Dr. Daniel Challis who then witnessed this unidentified stranger set himself on fire. Okay, I have to admit, the first 15-minutes of Halloween III are exceptionally scripted and deftly handled for maximum ominous skin-crawling delight. Regrettably, from this rather haunting opener, the chills were to generally evaporate into an exercise of abject tedium as Challis embarked on his one-man crusade to get to the bottom of things. What he discovers, however, is not an ingenious whodunit, but an atrociously absurd murder plot, more grotesquely silly than bone-chillingly terrific. Walking away from his medical profession to play an ineffectual Poirot with Grimsbridge’s sultry daughter, Ellie (Stacey Elkin) as his doe-eyed Miss Marple, Challis and Ellie have a fling while following a hunch to Santa Mira. They meet Buddy Kupfer (Ralph Strait), his wife, Betty (Jadeen Barbor) and their young son, Buddy Jr. (Bradley Schacter) who have been invited by Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy), the good-natured CEO of Silver Shamrock Enterprises, to partake in an advanced preview of a ‘very special’ Halloween mask promotion. Cochran is an unsettling presence - a charmer… on the surface, but whose courtly polish hides a more sinister ambition.

While touring Silver Shamrock’s production facility, Ellie and Challis are alarmed to see Grimbridge’s car in the parking lot, guarded by more monolithic men in business suits. Returning to their hotel, Challis discovers he is unable to call out. Ellie is kidnapped and taken back to the plant. Challis breaks in after hours in the hopes of a gallant rescue. Instead, he is discovered by Cochran. The businessmen are revealed to him as A.I. androids created by Cochran to do his bidding. Cochran has Challis view a video monitor of the Kupfers in their motel room. The TV plays the Silver Shamrock commercial and Buddy Jr. is instructed to put on his jack-o-lantern mask. Implanted with a chip that channels the witchcraft powers of Stonehenge, the mask devours Buddy’s head, unleashing a vast assortment of bugs and snakes that also kill the Kupfers as they helplessly look on. Cochran now informs Challis, on Halloween night every child in America will be wearing one of his masks and thus, suffer the same fate.  Breaking free, Challis destroys the factory and its androids. The powers of Stonehenge consume Cochran while Challis and Ellie steal away into the night. But only a few miles from the factory, Cochran is attacked by Ellie who is actually her android copy. Presumably the real Ellie has died in the factory. After a brief struggle, Cochran destroys android Ellie, then, with frantic pleas, tries to convince the TV stations not to broadcast the dreaded Silver Shamrock commercial that will trigger the mass apocalypse.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch – once thought of as the redheaded stepchild of the Halloween franchise - has since acquired something of a reputation as a cult classic among horror aficionados. Yet, whether one chooses to regard it as a legitimate installment to the franchise or an ambitious and complete departure, the results – at least for me - are the same: awful. Wallace begins his sojourn with a very strong, exceptionally moody set piece, but then completely deflates the suspense with a middle act that plays more like a maimed TV mystery movie of the week, albeit, imbued with Dean Cundey’s exceptional cinematography – the only real highlight of this movie. Most of the middle act of Halloween III is consumed by Challis’ search for the truth and the pending seduction and flagrante delicto he and Ellie share before she is taken away by Cochran’s goon squad. There is no suspense here, and setting much of the action in this middle portion during the day, further serves to defeat the looming sense of dread. This too, is as badly mangled, made so thoroughly convoluted and incoherent in the picture’s prolonged finale, that it neither explains away the purpose of the first two acts nor brings any closure to the story – such as it is. Is Cochran just a perversely demented old man with the same tired dreams of world domination run amuck? Or is he truly the resurrection of a modern-day warlock who believes his money can help him channel the unwieldy Gaelic spirits of Samhain?  Was Ellie always an android, hoping to lure Challis to his death and if so, to what purpose? Or was she really kidnapped by Cochran, murdered and then replaced with a likeness? And again, to what purpose? After all, Cochran’s assumption was, having captured Challis, he would die at the Silver Shamrock factory. So why create an Ellie double to pretend to be Ellie until she can kill Challis? Halloween III has more holes in its story than Swiss cheese. For me, age has not withered my contempt for the picture, today, weirdly to play as a sort of anti-Capitalist diatribe in which techno-magic meets ancient superstitions, but like the Frankenstein monster, gets stitched together from parts stolen from other ‘better’ horror movies, reassembled herein as a grotesque gumbo of lost opportunities.  

For completists of the franchise, Halloween III, the results achieved on Shout!/Scream Factory’s new-to-4K release are nothing short of astounding. A quality affair with an image harvest derived from another original camera negative. Everything checks in here. Color saturation and density are gorgeous. Contrast is ‘bang on’ excellent. Fine details emerge, even from the darkest scenes and film grain looks indigenous to its source. Virtually zero complaints about the way Shout! has handled this release. We get another Dolby Atmos mix that really sounds fantastic. Shout! has also jam-packed this disc with a bag-load of goodies. For kick-starters, the 4K disc gets 2 separate audio commentaries, one from Tommy Lee Wallace, the other from Tom Atkins.  The Blu-ray incarnation contains these tracks too, and adds the all-new featurette, Tricks, Treats And Terror: The Masks Of Halloween III with Justin Mabry. Ported over from Shout!’s previous Blu-ray release, the comprehensive documentary, Stand Alone: The Making Of Halloween III: Season Of The Witch with interviews from Wallace, Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dick Warlock, Dean Cundey and others. We also get another episode of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, an interview with make-up artist, Tom Burman, a teaser and theatrical trailer, plus TV and radio spots, and a stills gallery featuring newspaper ads, posters and other promo art. Bottom line: while no aspersions can be cast at this 4K release, Halloween III, at least for me, remains a real stinker of a movie no amount of digital wizardry can fix. I still think it’s a shameless rip-off with a truly uninspired tale to tell. Regrets.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

1

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

5