‘Halloween III: Season of the Witch’ is bonkers

I’m still not sure whether this is a trick or a treat

After John Carpenter’s Halloween became a horror classic in 1978, a sequel quickly followed, charting Michael Myers’ further mayhem in Haddonfield. When that was a financial success, Universal wanted more. Not wanting to repeat themselves again, Carpenter and Debra Hill decided to move on from the slasher genre and introduce an anthology element into the franchise for its third entry. But that direction didn’t sit well with critics or audiences, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch was a critical and financial disappointment, taking in less money than that year’s other big horror movies, Poltergeist, Friday the 13th Part III  and Creepshow. 

Having now seen Halloween III, I understand why. After two movies heavily drenched in suspense and slasher chills, Tommy Lee Wallace’s sequel is a different, much weirder animal. It trades in the primal terror of Carpenter’s original and instead offers a bizarre mishmosh of horror, science fiction, fantasy and conspiracy thriller. It’s silly, not scary. And while there’s enough here to make an enjoyable pick for a bad movie night, I don’t quite know whether its recent critical reappraisal and embrace as a cult classic is deserved. 

Tom Atkins stars as Dan Challis, a doctor who suspects murder after the death of a patient. You would suspect foul play as well if the patient came in after suffering what was apparently a heart attack but wound up with a crushed skull. It’s also not a good look when a stranger Dan chased out of the hospital self-immolates. The police don’t seem to think there’s much worth pursuing, but Dan teams up with the dead man’s daughter, Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), to investigate. Their only clue? A pumpkin mask that is all the rage across the country. Dan and Ellie head out to the town where the company that masks the mask, Silver Shamrock, is headquartered and find that the business and its CEO Cochran (Dan O’ Herlihy) have the town under their grasp, with nefarious plans for world domination and mass murder on Halloween night. 

I’m not sure why anyone thought audiences primed for the tension and terror of Carpenter’s Halloween would be okay with a tale of cursed masks and high-tech warlocks, but okay. But the plot twists go even crazier than that plot description suggests – including an army of robots and masks powered by pieces of Stonehenge – that only the right directorial hand would be able to pull off without drawing titters.  

I understand wanting to pivot from the Michael Myers story. Slashers tend to lose steam quickly, and the idea of a horror anthology that could conceivably become an annual tradition isn’t bad. And tying the story to the origins of Halloween makes sense. But there’s a tonal disconnect, with the conspiracy story silly enough – an evil witch wants to kill the children of the world – that this probably works best as a movie aimed at younger audiences, but the gore is grisly enough to earn it an R rating. I can’t imagine anyone over the age of 13 being legitimately scared by anything that happens here. There are a few gross-out moments of gore – the aftermath of the woman who takes a laser to the face is particularly gnarly – but there’s not much in the way of shock, suspense or dread. It’s a PG-rated premise that feels peppered with studio notes to add a bit of gore and sex to keep it somewhat on brand. 

Tom Atkins is fun to watch; there’s a gruffness to him that sets him aside from the more intellectual Dr. Loomis from the previous films. But Challis is an odd character to position as the hero. His medical practice seems to consist of sexually harassing his coworkers, and outside of the office all we know is that he loves beer (he’s constantly carrying six packs) and doesn’t much want to spend time with his kids. When he has to share a hotel room with Ellie, he wastes no time playing the old “so, I could just sleep in the car if you want to…” card to get her into bed. At least he asks her her age…when they’re about to start round two. 

The cast feels fairly low-rent, but they understand what kind of movie this is. Nelkin is charming and fun, and I like the refined menace that O’Herlihy brings to Cochran. There are a few moments that aren’t necessarily scary but go darker than I expected – the death of a child by mask is a creepy-crawly moment, and the film ends on a dark note I kind of enjoyed. None of it makes much sense and all of it is ludicrous – again, this is a Halloween movie featuring an army of robot soldiers – and I don’t know Wallace is self-aware outfits stupidity. 

I can understand why critics and audiences revolted and the franchise decided to dig up Michael Myers for the fourth entry. But hindsight is 20/20, and I wonder if they would have been smarter to consider this a failure but continue with the anthology format in some way. Financially, they’ve done fine with the Myers IP, but it’s a franchise that has long since run out of gas. But had a second anthology movie delivered, maybe we’d still be getting new installments every few years. 

Like I said, there’s been a bit of a re-embrace of this movie by the horror community in recent years. Given its lack of scares and high prevalence of stupidity, I think that might be a bit much. I don’t know that you could convince me that Halloween III is a good movie by any stretch of the imagination. But it’s so confident in its stupid premise and so full of bonkers, what-the-hell twists that I don’t regret watching it. It’s stupid fun. It kind of works in places. Even if I won’t call it good, I won’t fault anyone for having a laugh with this. It’s both a trick and a treat.