Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Director:

Tommy Lee Wallace

Writer:

Tommy Lee Wallace (written by)

Release Date:

22 October 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

...and now the earth will run with blood again!

Plot:

A large Halloween mask-making company has plans to kill millions of American children with something sinister hidden in Halloween masks.

Plot Keywords:

Mask | Halloween | Stonehenge | Hospital | Doctor

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Tom Atkins	...	Dr. Daniel 'Dan' Challis
Stacey Nelkin	...	Ellie Grimbridge
Dan O'Herlihy	...	Conal Cochran
Michael Currie	...	Rafferty
Ralph Strait	...	Buddy Kupfer
Jadeen Barbor	...	Betty Kupfer
Brad Schacter	...	'Little' Buddy Kupfer Jr. (as Bradley Schachter)
Garn Stephens	...	Marge Guttman
Nancy Kyes	...	Linda Challis
Jonathan Terry	...	Starker (as Jon Terry)
Al Berry	...	Harry Grimbridge
Wendy Wessberg	...	Teddy
Essex Smith	...	Walter Jones
Maidie Norman	...	Nurse Agnes
John MacBride	...	Sheriff

Also Known As:

The Last Halloween (Philippines: English title)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Nova Scotia) | Singapore:NC-16 | Iceland:16 | Finland:K-15 (uncut) (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 (uncut) (VHS rating) (1998) | Finland:K-18 (cut) (1988) | Finland:K-18 (1983) (cut) | Australia:M | Austria:16 | France:-12 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:18 | UK:15 (theatrical release) (uncut) | UK:15 (video rating) (1986) (cut) | UK:15 (video rating) (2002) (uncut) | UK:15 (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Domino's Pizza - 17 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre, California, USA

Company:

Dino De Laurentiis Company

Trivia:

"Season of the Witch" was the original working title of Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973). "Season Of The Witch" is also the name of a song by Donovan and an alternative name for the George A. Romero film Hungry Wives (1972). Also the name of an upcoming Nicolas Cage movie: Season of the Witch (2010).

Goofs:

Continuity: Towards the end of the movie, Chaliss's shirt goes from untucked to tucked several times between shots.

Quotes:

Buddy Kupfer: Conal Cochran, the all time genius in the practical jokes. He invented sticky toilet paper.
Daniel Challis: Ah!
Buddy Kupfer: Oh you must know. The dead dwarf gag, the soft chainsaw, all his.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth (2000) (V)

Soundtrack:

Do The Boogaloo

Not without its charm

Halloween III has taken on a new life on the AMC cable channel. It is used to pad some time during their "Monsterfest" marathon in the 10 days leading up to Halloween.

It's not a good movie. People who like it, when asked, "Do you want to see a movie that's like the Twilight Zone, only slower, longer, and not as good?" would probably answer, "You had me at Twilight Zone."

There are a few things to enjoy about this movie:

1) The 1-man synthesizer soundtrack is pure early 80s. 2) Also for nostalgia lovers, this movie came out when personal computers had been out for about a year and any kind of computer graphics were considered cool. 3) The producers showed some guts by breaking from the formula (and unfortunately got creamed at the box office for it.) 4) It doesn't have an eye-rolling formulaic ending. 5) It turned out to be somewhat prophetic. 15 years after this movie came out, hundreds of Japanese children were stricken with seizures after watching an episode of "Pokemon." 6) If you like the song "London Bridge," this is the movie for you.

Unfortunately, it's kind of plodding and layers implausibility upon implausibility until it just gets too much. If you watch this movie, here are some things NOT to think about. It'll just make your head hurt: (Spoiler alert)

*How could someone steal a 5-ton rock from Stonehenge?

*If you're a supervillian, is there a better use for your lifelike androids?

*How does Silver Shamrock pay for all those TV ads that must change on a daily basis?

*How much revenue can a company generate with a product line that features a whopping three different masks? (two of which are pretty lame.)

*Did stores used to carry Halloween merchandise for longer into October? (since currently, the Halloween stuff is moved to clearance by about October 20th to make room for Xmas stuff)

*Would a factory so paranoid that it enforces a curfew on its citizens be a little suspicious of two buyers who showed up to get masks on October 29th without phoning first?

*Why is Buddy Kupfer's family staying in a motel if they have a big RV? In fact, why is "one of the richest men in the country" staying in a cheap motel at all?

*When are football games televised on Friday afternoon?

*What makes divorced alcoholic 47 year old deadbeat dads attractive to hot 23 year olds?

*Why are there so many leaves on the trees on October 31?

*Has there ever been a lazier attempt at a montage of cities than the one that appears in this movie?

*Wouldn't time zones put a kink in Cochran's wicked scheme?

*Did network TV used to air horror movies at 7:00 PM? ("The Big Giveaway" at 9:00 follows the airing of the original Halloween movie, with a run time of about 2 hours, including the inevitable commercials.)

*Whom can you call to immediately pull programming from multiple networks, especially if you don't have any special credentials?

*What did this movie have to do with witches or the Donovan song?

I could have overlooked all those glaring problems if Cochran had shown even a modicum of motivation for his evil plan to murder all his customers (and ensure bankruptcy even if he dodges criminal proceedings) but the plot is so preposterous by the time Challis confronts him that Cochran can't even offer up a response. "Do I even need a reason? ... In the end, the planets determine our actions." That's right. Blame it on astrology.

Sheesh!