Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983) - REVIEW

It really depends on who you talk to this is either the best of the Halloween series of the absolute worst.  This one is definitely the unique one of the franchise.  Mainly because it lacks anything to do with the previous movies and having said that there is NO Michael Myers or Laurie Strode for that matter.  Up till this movie When you thought of Halloween you thought of Jamie Lee Curtis.  It seems part II would be her last Halloween film, well at least until H20 was conceived.

We start with Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) being chased by some cars and he is running for his life.  He runs into the local gas station and collapses.  The attendant takes him to the emergency room were Dr Challis (Tom Atkins) takes a look at him.  Harry is still gripping on a Halloween mask of a pumpkin head and says "they are going to kill us all".  A short time later while Harry is resting an unknown man in a suit enters the hospital and proceeds to kill Harry and then just walking out the front door and setting fire to his car and himself.  Dr Challis is very shaken up with this being all too weird.  After talking to Harry's daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin) the two of them decide to head to the town of Santa Mira where they make the masks he was clutching onto.  Santa Mira is a small almost deserted town except for the big mask factory called Silver Shamrock.  The longer they stay in Santa Mira the more they are in danger.  Will they make it out alive?

The first time I ever heard of this movie was watching Monster Vision on the USA Network with Joe Bob Briggs.  I had never seen this movie at this point and was excited because I was already a huge fan of Michael Myers.  Right before the movie started Joe Bob mentioned that this sequel had nothing to do with the original two and there was no Michael or Jamie Lee.  I was immediately disinterested and went to bed instead of staying up to watch this.  It was not till about ten years later when I finally watched this film because it was at a local grocery store for 79 cents.  I ended up loving the film and the rest is history.

One of the things I really like about the film is how original the story is.  If only they would have named this movie something different so that it wasn't overshadowed by the Halloween franchise it really would have been better off.  As it is now and as I said above the views of this film is a mixed bag.  You either like it our you hate it. In my case I loved it.  I even love more that Scream Factory brought it to Blu Ray last year full of special features.  If you are a fan of the film you owe it to yourself to pick up the Blu Ray not only are the special features excellent but the film itself looks gorgeous.  I would give this movie 8 out of 10 stars.  Stay twisted everyone!