Horror Movie Reviews

More Details... Price: $9.99

Title: Halloween III - Season Of The Witch (2003) Starring: Tom Atkins, Jadeen Barbor, Al Berry, Loyd Catlett, and Michael Currie Director: Not available Rating: R (Restricted) Runtime: 99 minutes Avg. Score: 3 Submit Comment Hits: 20

Review of Halloween III - Season Of The Witch

[ Back to Homepage | Back to Horror Movie Reviews Index ]

HellHorror.com not responsible for reviews/comments and they may be removed at any time.

Submit Comment

Comments for Halloween III - Season Of The Witch

• Posted on 2008-07-08
  A surprisingly good guilty pleasure. . .
  
  John Carpenter tried to extend the HALLOWEEN franchise with this 1982 entry, released, of course, just days before the holiday. His friend Tommy Lee Wallace, who had acted as Production Designer and Editor on both the original HALLOWEEN and THE FOG, made his directorial bow with this film. The original story was written by the great Nigel Kneale, creator of Professor Quatermass, but Kneale had his name removed from the credits when Wallace re-, re-, and then re-rewrote his script. It would have been lovely to see what SEASON OF THE WITCH would have been like with Kneale's original story. In any case, Wallace's version of the story is very much a Fifties-style horror/sci-fi film, with mysterious goings on in an isolated Southern California town (a la INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS), a terrible computer-age secret which is obligingly explained by the villain (wonderfully played by veteran character actor Dan O'Herlihy), a lead performer who is not your usual hero (TV character actor Tom Atkins), a damsel in distress (Stacey Nelkin, ditto, TV), and plenty of available victims for the baddies to dispatch in creative ways.
  
  The very atmospheric cinematography in Anamorphic 2:35 to 1 Widescreen is by Carpenter stalwart Dean Cundey, who has also lensed JURASSIC PARK, all three BACK TO THE FUTURE films, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT and ROCK AND ROLL HIGH SCHOOL along with about 65 other films and TV shows. He and Carpenter support Wallace at every turn, making SEASON much better than the usual debut Director feature. And, even though the film had a microscopic budget (courtesy of Universal), the clever use of color, light, shade and available props and standing sets give the film the look of a moderately budgeted feature. Special makeup (by Oscar and Emmy nominated wizard Tom Burman) and effects are used sparingly and judiciously for maximum impact.
  
  The music, surprise surprise, is by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth (and there was even a soundtrack elpee on genuine vinyl, which did contain that "Silver Shamrock" commercial that will bore into your brain by the end of the movie. The music was also reissued on CD on Varese Sarabande, now out of print, but re-reissued on Alan Howarth's own label with 13 bonus tracks, in a limited edition of 1000 (and you can still get it, as of this writing, July 2008, right here on Amazon!)
  
  If you are looking for the further adventures of Michael Myers, you won't find them in SEASON. At the time of release, Carpenter said he hoped that he could start a tradition of a different "Halloween" film every year. SEASON failed miserably at the box office, mainly because, despite the television and print advertising, the public expected The Shape. Too bad.
  
  The DVD edition of SEASON is available in a stand-alone as well as in a double-feature pack with HALLOWEEN 2. Both versions are through Universal. The DVD is in full 2:35 to 1 Widescreen, but has no bonus features, not even the trailer. Darn.
  
  So, if you are in the mood for witches and warlocks and things that go "misfire" in the night, try HALLOWEEN 3: SEASON OF THE WITCH. And if you want to know what I mean by "misfire", you'll just have to watch the movie. Closely. Heh, heh, heh. . .
  
  
  Score: 4
• Posted on 2008-06-20
  Come back Michael, we miss you..........
  
  What was Hollyweird thinking???
  As usual, they weren't.
  They saw $$$ with the Halloween name and decided to take the franchise in a different direction, the WRONG direction.
  Horrid story, horrid script, horrid acting, horrid directing, horrid EVERYTHING!!!!
  An insult to fans of the first two.
  An insult to any movie fan with any intelligence.
  This is without a doubt the worst Halloween in the series.
  It has no redeeming value what so ever.
  AVOID!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Score: 1
• Posted on 2008-04-18
  Oh, dear...
  
  Let me get this straight: I am no Halloween fan. Of course, the first movie is a horror classic, but just about the only tolerable sequel is Halloween II, and even that threw aside some of the things that made the original great (the sometimes gratuitous blood and gore feels tacked on, for instance). I am not bothered, like some people are, by Michael Myers' absence from this movie; it could have been a good movie, considering sci-fi master Nigel Kneale (who wrote the Quatermass television serials for the BBC) wrote it. Unfortunately, he is uncredited, as his script was butchered by the studio and he requested his name be removed from the credits. I imagine his script wasn't perfect, but it certainly would have been superior to what we see on screen in this, one of the poorest horror movies I have ever seen (and that includes The Amityville Horror).
  
  Many people are killed in this film by Ralf Hutter lookalikes, and all of these scenes are gratuitously, needlessly violent. Seriously, this is the most pointlessly violent film I've seen since The End of Evangelion. And like that film, Halloween III essentially is nothing more than the cinematic equivalent of two middle fingers thrust at the audience. We even see the original Halloween playing in some scenes, as if to remind us that film was so much better than what you're currently watching.
  
  The script is also remarkably poor, even for a Halloween movie. It conveniently ignores the fact that the United States spans multiple time zones, and it also ignores an explanation for why watching the magic pumpkin broadcast will cause children wearing the Silver Shamrock masks to die and have insects crawl out of their heads, other than the line "A good magician never explains". Now that's what I call lazy scriptwriting. The script gets progressively worse as the film drags on, until it stops dead. This film does not end; it stops, right at an obnoxious cliffhanger. If that doesn't give you a hint that the movie is going to be terrible, I don't know what does.
  
  If there's anything to recommend this movie for, it's John Carpenter's reasonably eerie electronic score. But you can pick that up on CD anyway, so why bother slogging through this garbage to listen to it?
  Score: 2
• Posted on 2008-04-02
  Halloween III: Season Of The Pimps
  
  This has to be the biggest gyp in horror movie history. Im not irate that Michael Myers wasnt in this one but this movie is not scary plain and simple. The plot is this. A toyship dies so a guy and his daugher investigate the death. They later find out that it was a conspiracy involving corporate weasels as well a sorcerer with an evil scheme up the sleeve. The kids in the town wear these shamrock masks and through the TV screen, a program involving a flashing pumpkin and cheesey polka music turns the heads of those children into bugs and serpents. After sitting through this long and tedious movie you would wish you had a shamrock mask too. Like I said in the beginning. Michael Myers not being in this movie is not why I trash it: Its boring and unfrightening. Was the polka music and the flashing pumpkin on the TV screen supposed to be scary? Is the end scene where the TV stations all cut of except one station and the guy is screaming his head off to get them to turn of that staion supposed to be scary? Of course not. They should have just called it Season Of The Witch instead of Halloween III because this movie soiled the legacy of one the best horror movies of all time. Well, horror movie fans this is Ashton Butcher and you just got Pimp'd.
  Score: 1
• Posted on 2008-03-26
  Bare bones horror
  
  This Dvd is a success, though a minimal one.
  
  First and formost, the original (well what I remember anyway) poster or at least vhs art on the cover. Not some poorly photoshoped from movie, or worse, unrelated image with a new tile over the "art". This has the picture I've always thought of as the cover of Halloween 3.
  
  Secondly, the movie. Widescreen, which is a nessecity for me in any format anymore. If there is a possiblity of widescreen over full, wide is the only screen for me. So success. The movie itself is satisfactory quality, and better than vhs. Which is really all I need anyway. Not a high def guy as of yet.
  
  Thirdly, special features. Forget it, there arent any. And to be specific, I dont qualify original trailer as a special feature. To be special the features should be something of note, or pasing trivial intrest, and preferably loads of them. But I dont NEED special features. I want the Feature, as in the movie. And if it's lucky enough to be widescreen, errata be damned.
  
  So a very satisfactory dvd, with my 3 main points: Original (or fondly rememberd) cover art/poster art, Widesceen, and finally better than Vhs quality. So success.
  
  Perhaps eventually a disc will come out with loads of special features, like John Carpenter explaining his theory that this movie was the next in a thematic Halloween series, with each movie focusing on different aspects of the holiday. Not a Michael fest every time. Many people arent aware of this and that knowledge alone may finally cause them to understand what was going on in this movie.
  
  For what it's worth, if you have never seen it, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Michael. If you have heard about it, or have seen it and always hated that it didnt have anything to do with Michael, think of this. It is a very effective movie made by one of the great modern horror directors about an aspect of halloween not often delt with, at least at the time (irish origins, ect) and in an inventive way, with some good scary and memorable moments (six more days to halloween, halloween) that you cant soon forget.
  Score: 3