Halloween 3: Season of the Witch

[Flick James]

I watched this for the first time in years this weekend, as it was on AMC. I enjoyed it, just like I did when I saw it in the 80's. Some people hate it, but I don't. I still scratch my head, however, at why it was called Halloween 3 as if it were part of the franchise yet had absolutely no connection with the Michael Myers films aside from a brief moment when someone is watching the original on television. I've always wondered about that.

Then I looked it up on Wikipedia and found out that the reason for this was that they wanted to turn the franchise into an anthology series, with each year having a different film that wasn't necessarily related to the last, the only shared theme being the holiday. It just didn't pan out that way because the film was not a box office success. Now it all makes sense to me. In some ways I'm disappointed it didn't work out. Think of how many films could have been made and how many Halloween marathons we would have today that didn't consist of the two "good" Michael Myers films, followed by a weird film that has nothing to do with the first two but that I liked, followed by several crap films I just can't bring myself to ever sit through again. What a shame.

[Flick James]

Oh, and Halloween 3 still had the badass John Carpenter music going for it. A big plus IMO.

[venomx]

I'm wondering, I have been thinking about this the 1st Rob Zombie Halloween remake. Does anyone think he'll remake Halloween 3 as well? Think about it, the movie was kinda creepy already. I'm sure with his touch and demented imagination if he remakes 3 we may have a winner. The new witch, skull and pumpkin masks may look awesome!

[Skull]

I still scratch my head, however, at why it was called Halloween 3 as if it were part of the franchise yet had absolutely no connection with the Michael Myers films aside from a brief moment when someone is watching the original on television.

I believe John Carpenter's pitch made some sense towards the producers but the mistake was made in Halloween Part 2 when everybody thought it's all about Michael Myers...

When I seen Halloween 3 it was on cable tv at a friends house when I was 13 years old... Although, I dont recall when I've seen Halloween 1 or 2, nor did I understand "franchies" at that age. So I'd enjoyed Season of the Witch for what it was, one spooky Halloween movie that is based upon Halloween.

I'm wondering, I have been thinking about this the 1st Rob Zombie Halloween remake.

I'm ok with Rob Zombie making a Halloween 3...  As long it's about Michael Myers and not about Season of the Witch.  :)

[Neville]

The word was that this film was so awful that I didn't watch it until very recently. Far from great, with too many dry spots, but it has a very interesting background idea and the best atmosphere in the entire series, except for the original.

I can see why the hate, but it deserved a better welcome than it got. I for one I would have loved to see more Halloween themed movies that didn't revolve around Michael Myers getting resucitated again and again. Can you imagine something like "Friday the 13th - The series" in the big screen? That would have been awesome.

[retrorussell]

I believe I heard that Rob Zombie will not be directing Halloween III.  But so far all signs point to it continuing to feature Michael Myers, not the old guy making Halloween masks with deadly coins in them. 

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

To this day I have the Silver Shamrock Mask theme in my head.
You knowm, they didn't need any evil, those things were  a huge suffication hazard by themselves.
-Ed

[Jack]

Think of how many films could have been made and how many Halloween marathons we would have today that didn't consist of the two "good" Michael Myers films, followed by a weird film that has nothing to do with the first two but that I liked, followed by several crap films I just can't bring myself to ever sit through again. What a shame.

I've been saying that for years.  Although I thought part 4 was good, after that they just dropped like a lead balloon.  It would have been immensely more interesting to have a whole anthology series of different and original movies.

[Flick James]

Agreed. I also agree with Skull's statement. I think Halloween 2, although I liked it, killed the notion of there being an anthology series by setting the franchise precedent. It was already too late at that point and all Season of the Witch did was confuse people.

[Trekkie313]

Tom Atkins rules though!   

[voltron]

I dug it. Love the part where the kid has the mask on and it starts rotting and the snakes come out of his mask.

[Coloradosploitation Films]

This was the first Halloween movie i saw as a kid. I absolutely loved it then....and upon viewing as an adult for the first time, it holds up fairly well.
After the uninteresting trash that came later [odd druid connections, retarded stalk and kills, Loomis jumping out of nowhere and scaring the crap out of the people he's supposed to be saving] I feel that they missed a great opportunity to make it a themed series, not straight sequels.

[Torgo]

Halloween 3: Season of the Witch does have a bunch of unintentionally hilarious moments in it. It is still a chore for me to sit through but I am a huge fan of Tom Adkins so if it's on TV, I usually will suffer through it for a while.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Thinking on this, turning the franchise into an exploration of the possibilities of horror movies would have been really nifty.  Instead its a bunch of Michael killing people movies, and a WTF super-Twilight Zone episode. 
I do have a soft spot for this movie, I remember being relived as a youth that there was no slashing in it, just suspense.
-Ed

[akiratubo]

Halloween 3 was actually the first one I saw.  I had no idea what it might have been the "third" of, I just had Mom rent it because of the freakin' cool box art.




The box art, a monster face leering at silhouetted little kids, as well as the subtitle "Season of the Witch" made me think it was going to be a "Hansel and Gretel" sort of movie.  Then it turned out to be about robots.*  Cough.

Do you know how s**tty a robot movie has to be for *me* not to like it at all - especially when I was a little kid?  Apparently, it has to be as s**tty as Halloween 3.  I thought it sucked then and I thought it sucked even more when I watched it again for Halloween.**

*Believe it or not, the entire plot about the masks failed to make any impression on me at all.  Until I discovered bad movie websites and read a couple of reviews of Halloween 3, I had completely forgotten every detail about the masks and their head-asplodey properties.  I only remembered and old man had robots he would send out to kill people.

**When I rewatched it, I might as well have been seeing it for the first time because, as mentioned, I didn't remember the central plot point.  It didn't make the movie any better than I remembered.  In fact, it was worse.  I'd rather have been watching a movie about a crazy old man sending out his robot thugs to kill people on Halloween.