Reed's Horror Review of 'Halloween III: Season of the Witch' (1982)

I feel like it's impossible to talk about this movie without talking about the fact that Michael Myers isn't in it... So let me be very clear about this... WHO FUCKING CARES. Jesus fucking christ, every goddamn slasher is just another stale knockoff of another slasher going back decades. GOD FUCKING FORBID a writer or director try to do something unique and interesting without every fucking fanboy of the goddamn franchise whining like a little bitch.

I thought it was an interesting concept. Make the franchise about something new and unique for every installment. They KNEW the Myers outfit had worn out its use and wanted to move the franchise in a new direction. Every new installment would just be about something fucked up happening during halloween in the same universe. There was even supposed to be little things connecting the franchise together. If they made any mistakes at all, it was cutting those connectors pre-production.

This, of course, gave way to dozens of fan theories as to how the franchise connects. My favorite of which was that Michael Myers is the ending product of the ritual from this movie, as a sort of prequel to the first two. None of this has ever really been confirmed and again, I don't really give a shit. I always thought this movie should be judged on its own merits, not its lack of connection to Michael Myers...

And on its own merits MAN this movie was terrible. Don't get me wrong, I fucking LOVE it, but the acting is pretty bad, the plot a is hammy, and the overall movie fits snuggly into the "So Bad It's Good" category. Don't get me wrong, I love it for a reason, and the arching concepts behind the movie are fucking fascinating, but I'd be lying if I said this was a quality film. Jesus, the main actor is Tom Atkins who you may remember from my review of Night of the Creeps (1986) if you followed me from Facebook. He kinda gained a reputation for staring in movies that shouldn't be taken too seriously.

I'm serious when I say I love this movie, but I feel like I can only recommend it for Riffing. There is a lot about it that is actually good. The enemy is neat, the concept is pretty fucking cool and dark, even the ending is pretty shocking, it's just the overall execution wasn't so great.

However, I seriously do recommend every Horror Head give this movie its day in court.

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SPOILERS!!!

There's one scene I kinda have to pick a bone with, even if it is really perfect for the overall hammy tone of the movie. The female lead played by Stacey Nelkin gets turned into one of these automatons and tries to kill Atkins character. I mean, did they really have the opportunity to create a perfect copy of her character in such a short time? It felt a bit forced as a twist. One minute Akins is saving the damsel in distress, the next minute she's trying to kill him.

Here's the thing. The twist is hammy as fuck, but it's kinda perfect for the movie. The overall tone of the movie up until that point really sets it up perfectly for that kind of a twist. I mean, you're basically expecting Nelkin's character to attack Atkins at that point because that makes perfect fucking sense for the tone of the movie. Yeah it's forced, yeah it's silly, but the whole fucking movie feels forced and silly and that's part of why I love it.

Listen, if you're a Horror Head and you haven't seen this, you absolutely have to give it one shot. Just one! It's no worse than any of the cheese movies that came out of the 80s and that comes with its own level of charm.