Halloween 3...The ONLY sequel to follow Halloween's original idea!

Halloween 3:  Season of the Witch (1982)
Directed by:  Tommy Lee Wallace
Starring:  Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy
Format:  Personal Collection NTSC Region 1
Tagline:  The Night No One Comes Home


     Okay here we go, "Halloween 3 doesn't even have Michael Myers in it!  It sucks!  Worst of the series!  Like WTF?!"  Well anyone who knows anything about the Halloween franchise would just grin with these hateful words being tossed around about my favorite of the sequels.  Yes I do love Halloween 2, 4, 5, and H20 but here comes the franchise education which I got directly from Carpenter's lips at a convention.  Halloween 3 is the ONLY sequel to follow the original idea conceived by the producers and director.  A series of films was to be created all of which took place on the date of Halloween.  That's it!  No slasher series.  But because of the slasher film craze in the 80's the executive producer Moustapha Akkad continued the Michael Myers story.  That all being said I'm glad he did I love Halloween 2, it was scarier than one just not better.  Halloween 4 and 5 also have a place in my heart big time, but they are just kind of cheeseball.  6, well I think it's cool and all but I could, not see it on any given Halloween and not miss it.  H20 I fucking loved and in my opinion is the real continuation of Halloween 2 and end of Myers for good...hated the rest including my hero Rob Zombie's remakes.

Ok back to Season of the Witch now...we have Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) in search of a man who chased an elderly gentleman into his ER and killed him before setting himself on fire.  When the old man's daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin) comes to check out what happened to her father she and Dr. Challis head out to figure out the murder mystery.  I love Tim Atkins the guy just nails every part I've ever seen him in and this is probably my favorite of them all.


Our couple heads out to Ellie's father's store and there they discover that the old man had an appointment to visit the Silver Shamrock factory who sold him Halloween masks for his hardware store.  Her father was gripping one of the masks when he was chased into the hospital and Ellie is just sure that's the lead to follow.
     Once the two of them arrive in Sana Mira the company town where Silver Shamrock Novelties is located they begin to get very nervous as it becomes apparent they are being watched.  "I feel like a goldfish.." Ellie says as they drive up to the hotel where they stay the night pretending to be husband and wife so as to throw off any suspicion. 
     At the hotel they meet Marge a woman who has arrived to fix a screwed up order and the Kupfer family who owns the company that sold the most masks in all of the United States.  Before the night is over Marge mysteriously dies in what is later described as a "misfire" from one of the masks.  You see these masks have been created to bring the destruction of man by way of a video commercial being played by Silver Shamrock on Halloween night and the Halloween masks which were designed by Silver Shamrock have a special chip that contains shavings from a stolen Stonehenge piece.  These shavings carry an evil power which when released will kill anyone around the masks.  It's all quite disgusting as the mask wearer dies first and then from his or her mask comes snakes, bugs, etc. all swarming whomever is near by.  The shavings have a sort of Celtic power to them and the evil owner of Silver Shamrock Conal Cochran is out to destroy the world.  The only thing in his way is...Tom Atkins.
     Loved the fx in this one the death scenes were fantastic.  From robot humans to rotting, disgusting masks with snakes and bugs crawling out of them to a very cool eye socket/bridge of the nose twist and tear not to mention the 80's light fx which I'm not really a fan of usually but they kind of worked in this one.  My favorite effect by far in the movie is the above scene with the pumpkin mask some really scary shit when I was younger.  Shit the robot humans scared the poop out of me when I was younger.  Regardless of anyone's opinion the fact is this film should have been Halloween 2 and has more to do with the original idea than Michael Myers but unfortunately it did bomb as number three so that really shut the door on making any more them.  I personally would have rather seen more separate ideas than a constant continuation of yet another slasher series.  I mean I love them but I can't help but wonder what the other Halloween movie ideas were if I liked this one so much.