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Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
11/06, 3/08
11/06:
Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a great horror film, yet there are so much wrong with it.
Okay fine, so what if Michael Myers isn't featured this time? The series can use the break before he goes back to his usual
slice-and-dice ways. It's cool when there's a Scooby-Doo moment.
Tom Atkins infuses his brand of neo-noir into the film, and it's fun to follow his character. It would have been nice if
he did that in more horror films. As well-crafted as the plot is, I know there's a big leap in logic at the end when he made
a phone call to the cable network, exhorting it to shut down the commercial nationwide. Impossible.
All in all, Halloween III: Season of the Witch is an enjoyable horror film with an amble sprinkling of neo-noir
elements.
3/08:
The series takes a bizarre detour as Halloween III: Season of the Witch abruptly drops Michael Myers (well, he makes
a cameo via Movie of the Night) and subsequently goes in a new direction.
I still remember the first time I played it way back in the 80's and asked myself if I got the wrong movie. Last time, I thought
it was good, earning a rating of '8' from me. Now, it's terrible. There are many problems with editing, continuity, and story.
Although the premise is interesting, there's a lot of Invasion of the Body Snatchers going on. The coincidences are
too much: Santa Mira, the transformed obedient citizens, the telephone operators, the doctor character, the female lover who
changes to a robot (which is hard to believe, if you ask me), and the proliferation of Halloween masks instead of seed pods.
I'm a fan of Tom Atkins, but the director has failed him big time while Tom attempted to infuse neo-noir feel
into the sequel. It should've worked, but the negatives, although there's plenty of horror, are too much to overcome.
By the way, while I was reading the title sequence at the begining, I saw Dan O'Herlihy's name and thought it might be him
from Death Wish 3 until I looked at his hair and wondered if there was a relation. Hence, it turns out to be so:
Dan O'Herlihy and Gavan O'Herlihy are father and son. Very cool stuff. Back to the film, what I can't understand is how the
bad guys, working around a ring that's centered in some big room, didn't notice Tom Atkins' character sneaking in. These people
standing in front of the computer, what are they doing?
If the curse is set to begin at nine o'clock P.M., that will mean it's midnight in the east coast. So, if that's the case,
then I doubt the kids, at least most of them, will be staying up late for trick-or-treating or pulling pranks. Worse, if
it goes as planned, I highly doubt most will catch the commercial at the precise time. Oh, yeah, the phone call made to the
television network to shut down the national commercial will never happen in a million of years.
Usually when a product is sold, there will be somebody keen enough to analyze the composition scientifically. Hence, how
come the magnetic button wasn't noticed by millions of people and then further looked at by a few? It'll have ended the plan
and thus the movie rather quickly. Every time the yellow blood oozed from the robots, I immediately thought of
Phantasm.
How about some originality here? Notice the witch in the movie poster...where was he in the film?
In one particular scene, Tom Atkins' character initially entered the room at the motel. It's dark outside as he closed the
door. Yet there's sunlight before and after. So, this made me think: they filmed this part, took a break, and then continued
with shooting. Somehow, they forgot about the middle and decided to make up for it before putting three of them
together to make the sequence. Pretty bad, isn't it?
All in all, Halloween III: Season of the Witch is not horrible, but it's unoriginal that's plagued with many problems,
especially in editing.