Halloween III: Season of The Witch

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third movie in the Halloween film series. It is the first film to be written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. John Carpenter and Debra Hill, the creators of Halloween, return as producers. Halloween III is the only entry in the series that does not feature the series antagonist, Michael Myers. After the film's disappointing reception and box office performance, Michael Myers was brought back six years later in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).

It treats the prior films in the franchise as fictional films, and the film's tagline is a reference to the one from the original as well. It also departs from the slasher genre, which the rest of the installments were a part of, and instead features a "witchcraft" theme with science fiction aspects. John Carpenter and Debra Hill believed that the Halloween series had the potential to be an anthology series of films that centered around the night of Halloween, with each sequel containing its own characters, setting, and storyline. Director Wallace stated that there were many ideas for Halloween-themed films, some of which could have potentially created any number of their own sequels, and that Season of the Witch was meant to be the first.[citation needed]

The frequency of graphic violence and blood is less than that of Halloween II. As with other films in the series, suspense and tension is a key theme, and the element of violence against young children is also explored. On a budget of $2.5 million, Halloween III made a profit by grossing $14.4 million at the box office in the U.S., but it was also the poorest performing film in the Halloween series at the time. Most critics gave the film negative reviews. Despite the reception, re-evaluation in later years has given Halloween III new legions of fans and has established its own reputation as a stand-alone cult film.

Plot
On October 23, in Northern California, shop owner Harry Grimbridge the Third is chased along a barren road by mysterious men in suits. He makes it to a gas station, clutching a jack-o'-lantern mask. He is driven to the hospital by station attendant Walter Jones. At the hospital, Harry is placed in the care of Dr. Daniel Challis, an alcoholic doctor struggling with the relationships between him and his ex-wife, as well as his children. That night, another man in a suit enters Harry's hospital room, murders him, then immolates himself. A few days later, Daniel is confronted in a bar by Harry's daughter, Ellie. He tells her about the strange events of the night Harry died and shows her the mask her father was holding when he was admitted to the hospital. Along with Ellie, Daniel traces the mask back to Silver Shamrock Novelties, a company based in the town of Santa Mira, California. The motel manager explains that Conal Cochran and his company, Silver Shamrock Novelties, which produces wildly popular latex jack-o-lantern, witch and skeleton masks for Halloween, are responsible for the town's prosperity. While signing the motel register, Daniel learns that Harry stayed at the same motel. Other motel guests include shop owners Marge Guttman and Buddy Kupfer, Buddy's wife, Betty, and their son, Little Buddy, who all have business at the company's factory.

Marge finds a stone microchip on the back of a Silver Shamrock button. She is zapped in the face by its laser beam after poking it with a hairpin, leaving her disfigured and causing a large insect to emerge from the wound. Daniel and Ellie learn of Marge's accident, and Daniel attempts to help, but is forced away by a group of men dressed in lab coats, who drive away in a Silver Shamrock van with Marge's body. Cochran arrives and tells everyone not to worry. The next morning, Daniel and Ellie tour the factory with the Kupfers, and discover Harry's car there, guarded by more men dressed in suits. They return to the motel, but cannot contact anyone outside the town. While Daniel attempts to phone for the authorities, Ellie mysteriously disappears and Daniel is captured by the men in suits who are revealed to be androids created by Cochran. Cochran reveals his plan to sacrifice children wearing his masks on Halloween, thus bringing about a resurrection of the ancient age of witchcraft. For Silver Shamrock's "Big Giveaway", which will air at 9:00 P.M. on all television channels following the "Horrorthon", each of these masks contain a fragment of Stonehenge implanted in its trademark microchip. When activated by a flashing signal of the commercial's on-screen "magic pumpkin", the microchip causes the mask wearer to succumb to brain damage from absorbing the energy of Stonehenge and unleashes a swarm of insects and snakes that come out of the wearer's corpse and kill anyone nearby. To demonstrate, Cochran kills the Kupfers this way.

Later that night, Cochran puts a Silver Shamrock mask on Daniel, and leaves him to die the same fate as the trick-or-treating children, who will come back home for his false watch-and-win Halloween sweepstakes that he created for his company. Daniel, destroying the television set and removing the mask, escapes through a ventilation shaft and rescues Ellie. He dumps the chips from the overhead rafters, and activates their signal with the commercial, killing Cochran's employees, while Cochran is vaporized by the Stonehenge rune he was using to create his masks, and destroying the computer chips along with the entire Silver Shamrock factory.

As the two drive away, Ellie attacks Daniel, revealing herself to be an android duplicate and that Cochran's henchman presumably killed her. Daniel crashes the vehicle but decapitates the android with a tire iron. On foot, Daniel arrives at Walter's gas station, where he contacts the television stations and attempts to convince all the station managers to remove the commercial. At the same moment, a group of trick-or-treaters, wearing Silver Shamrock masks, arrive at the station to participate in the "Big Giveaway" on Walter's television. Daniel persuades the stations to take it off channels one and two, but on channel three the commercial keeps on playing. Daniel desperately screams on the phone for the final station to turn off the commercial. His fate is unknown.

Cast

 * Tom Atkins as Dr. Daniel Challis
 * Stacey Nelkin as Ellie Grimbridge
 * Dan O'Herlihy as Conal Cochran
 * Michael Currie as Rafferty
 * Ralph Strait as Buddy Kupfer
 * Jadeen Barbor as Betty Kupfer
 * Brad Schacter as Buddy Kupfer, Jr.
 * Garn Stephens as Marge Guttman
 * Al Berry as Harry Grimbridge
 * Wendy Wessberg as Teddy
 * Essex Smith as Walter Jones
 * Nancy Kyes as Linda Challis
 * Jonathan Terry as Starker
 * Maidie Norman as Nurse Agnes
 * Paddi Edwards as Secretary
 * Joshua John Miller as Willie Challis
 * Michelle Walker as Bella Challis
 * Dick Warlock as Assassin Android
 * Nick Castle as Michael Myers (archival footage, uncredited)
 * Jamie Lee Curtis as the voice of the curfew announcer/voice of the telephone service provider/Laurie Strode (voice acting, archival footage, uncredited)

Production
Skeleton and witch masks created by Don Post, worn by Dan Challis's (Tom Atkins) children. When approached about creating a third Halloween film, original Halloween writers John Carpenter and Debra Hill were reluctant to pledge commitment. Carpenter and Hill agreed to participate in the new project only if it was not a direct sequel to Halloween II, which meant Michael Myers would not be the focus of the film. Irwin Yablans and Moustapha Akkad, who had produced the first two films, filmed Halloween III on a budget of $2.5 million.

Special effects artist Don Post of Post Studios designed the latex masks in the film which included a glow-in-the-dark skull, a lime-green witch and an orange Day-Glo jack-o'-lantern. Hill told Aljean Harmetz, "We didn't exactly have a whole lot of money for things like props, so we asked Post, who had provided The Shape mask for the earlier 'Halloween' [II] ..., if we could work out a deal." The skull and witch masks were adaptations of standard Post Studios masks, but the jack-o'-lantern was created specifically for Halloween III. Post linked the masks of the film to the popularity of masks in the real world:

Most of the filming took place on location in the small coastal town of Loleta, California. Familiar Foods, a milk bottling plant in Loleta, served as the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory, but all special effects involving fire, smoke, and explosions were filmed at Post Studios.

Notes and Trivia

 * Even though it isn't a slasher film, it still is part of the Halloween franchise