'' is a 1982
Horror Film and the third in the
''Halloween'' Series . It is the only ''Halloween'' film that does not feature a plot revolving around the character
Michael Myers . Directed by
Tommy Lee Wallace , the film stars
Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,
Stacey Nelkin as Ellie Grimbridge, and
Dan O'Herlihy as Conal Cochran. The plot focuses on an investigation by Challis and Grimbridge into the activities of Cochran, the mysterious owner of the Silver Shamrock Novelties company, in the week approaching
Halloween night.
Besides wholly abandoning the Michael Myers plotline, ''Halloween III'' departs from the
Slasher Film genre which the original ''
Halloween '' spawned in 1978. The focus on a psychotic killer is replaced by a "
Mad Scientist and
Witchcraft " theme. Moreover, the frequency of graphic violence and gore is less than that of ''
Halloween II '' (1981), although scenes that depict the deaths of characters remain intense.
Produced on a budget of $2.5 million, ''Halloween III'' grossed $14.4 million at the s and American
Consumerism .
On Saturday,
October 23 , shop owner Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) is chased by mysterious figures wearing business suits. He collapses at a
Filling Station clutching a Silver Shamrock
Jack-o'-lantern mask and is driven to the hospital by the filling station attendant (Essex Smith) all the while ranting, "They're gonna kill us all." Grimbridge is placed under the care of Dr. Daniel "Dan" Challis. While Grimbridge is hospitalized, another man in a suit (Dick Warlock) enters his room and pulls his skull apart, killing him immediately. The man then enters his vehicle, douses himself with gasoline and lights himself on fire, causing the car to explode.
Challis, together with Grimbridge's daughter, Ellie, begins an investigation that leads them to the small town of Santa Mira, California, home of the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory. They learn from a hotel manager, Mr. Rafferty (), Betty (Jadeen Barbor) and their son "Little" Buddy (Bradley Schacter). All have business at the factory and eventually meet gruesome ends because of the Silver Shamrock masks.
mask.]]
A day after arriving in Santa Mira, Challis and Ellie tour the Silver Shamrock factory with the Kupfers and are alarmed to discover Grimbridge's car in a storage building guarded by more men dressed in suits. They return to their hotel but find that they cannot contact anyone outside Santa Mira. Ellie is kidnapped by the men in suits from the factory, and in an attempt to locate her, Challis breaks into the factory. There he discovers that the men in suits are actually
Android s created by Cochran. After Challis is captured by Cochran's androids, Cochran reveals his plan to kill children on Halloween night. He explains that the Silver Shamrock
Trademark on the masks contain a computer chip embedded with a small fragment of a five ton sacrificial stone stolen from
Stonehenge . When the Silver Shamrock television commercial airs on Halloween night, the chip will activate, causing the wearers' heads to dissolve and spew insects and snakes. Cochran further explains that he is attempting to resurrect the more macabre aspects of the
Celtic festival,
Samhain , which he connects to
Witchcraft .
Challis escapes, and rescues someone he believes to be Ellie. They destroy the factory and Cochran in the process, however, Challis finds that Cochran replaced Ellie with an android. After destroying it, Challis returns to the same filling station where Ellie's father had come eight days earlier. Challis contacts the television stations and convinces all but one of the station managers to remove the commercial. The film ends with Challis screaming into the telephone, "Turn it off! Stop it! Stop it!"
When approached about creating a third ''Halloween'' film, original ''Halloween'' writers ,
2006 .
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 ,
2006 . 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
{Link without Title} ..., if we could work out a deal."Aljean Harmetz, "'Halloween III' Masks to Help Scare Up Sales," New York ''Times'',
16 October 1982 , p. 12. 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:
''Every society in every time has had its masks that suited the mood of the society, from the masked ball to clowns to makeup. People want to act out a feeling inside themselves—angry, sad, happy, old. It may be a sad commentary on present-day America that horror masks are the best sellers.''
Most of the filming took place on location in the small coastal town of Loleta in
Humboldt County, 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.
Producers recruited ,
2006 .
Wallace told ''Fangoria'' that he created the title of the film as a reference to "a plot point"—the three masks featured in the film—and an attempt to connect this film with the others in the series. He explained in the interview the direction that Carpenter and Hill wanted to take the ''Halloween'' series, stating, "It is our intention to create an ,
2006 .
Debra Hill told ''Fangoria'' that the film was supposed to be "a 'pod' movie, not a 'knife' movie."Debra Hill interview, Carlomagno, "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," p. 8, available
here ; last accessed 's ''
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers '' (1956). Santa Mira was the fictional setting of ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'', and the name was adopted for ''Halloween III'' as an homage to Siegel's film.Harmetz, "'Halloween III' Masks". Aspects of the plot proved very similar as well, such as the "snatching" bodies and replacing them with androids. ''Halloween III'''s subtitle comes from
George A. Romero 's second film ''
Season Of The Witch '' (1973)—also known as ''Hungry Wives''—but the plot contains no similarity to Romero's story of a housewife who becomes involved in witchcraft.
Film critics like Jim Harper called Wallace's plot "deeply flawed." Harper argues, "Any plot dependent on stealing a chunk of Stonehenge and shipping it secretly across the Atlantic is going to be shaky from the start." He noted, "there are four time zones across the United States, so the ,
2006 .
The cast of ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' consisted mostly of
Character Actors whose previous acting credits included small roles or
Bit Part s on various television series. The exceptions were Tom Atkins and veteran actor Dan O'Herlihy.
as Dr. Dan Challis in the last scene of ''Halloween III''.]]
Cast as alcoholic doctor Daniel "Dan" Challis, Tom Atkins had appeared in several John Carpenter films prior to ''Halloween III''. Atkins played Nick Castle in '',
2006 .
Stacey Nelkin co-starred as Ellie Grimbridge, a young woman whose father is murdered by Silver Shamrock. She landed the role after a make-up artist working on the film told her about the auditions. In an interview, Nelkin commented on her character: "Ellie was very spunky and strong-minded. Although I like to think of myself as having these traits, she was written that way in the script." Nelkin considered it an "honor" to be playing '' and ''
The Waltons ''. After ''Halloween III'', Nelkin continued working as a character actress on television.; last accessed
April 27 ,
2006 .
Veteran Irish actor Dan O'Herlihy was cast as Conal Cochran, the owner of Silver Shamrock and the witch from the film's title (a 3000-year-old demon in Kneale's original script).Carlomagno, "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," p. 8. O'Herlihy had played close to 150 roles before co-starring as the Irish trickster and was nominated for an
Academy Award for his performance in ''
The Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe '' (1954). He appeared in another twenty films and television series before his death in 2005.; last accessed
April 27 ,
2006 . O'Herlihy admitted in an interview with ''
Starlog '' magazine that he was not particularly impressed with the finished film. When asked what he thought of working in the horror film, O'Herlihy responded, "Whenever I use a
Cork accent, I'm having a good time, and I used a Cork accent in
III'' . I thoroughly enjoyed the role, but I didn't think it was much of a picture, no."Dan O'Herlihy interview, "The Man Alone," ''Starlog'', #278, April 2001, in Tom Weaver, ''Science Fiction Confidential: Interviews with 23 Monster Stars and Filmmakers'' (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, 2002), p. 232, ISBN 0-7864-1175-9.
Two members of the ,
2006 .
The film was the directorial debut of Tommy Lee Wallace, although he was not a newcomer to the ''Halloween'' series. Wallace had served as '' (2002), and the miniseries ''
It '' (1990), the television adaptation of the
Stephen King Novel .
Despite disagreements between Wallace and original script writer Nigel Kneale, the actors reported that Wallace was a congenial director to work with. Stacey Nelkin told one interviewer, "The shoot as a whole was fun, smooth and a great group of people to work with. Tommy Lee Wallace was incredibly helpful and open to discussion on dialogue or character issues."
Although the third film departed from the plot of the first two films, Wallace attempted to connect all three films together through certain stylistic themes. The film's opening title features a
Digitally Animated jack-o'-lantern, an obvious reference to the jack-o'-lanterns that appeared in the opening titles of ''Halloween'' and ''Halloween II''. Wallace's jack-o'-lantern is the catalyst in the Silver Shamrock commercials that activates the masks. Another stylistic reference to the original film is found in the scene where Dr. Challis tosses a mask over a security camera, making the image on the monitor seem to be peering through the eye holes. This is a nod to the scene in which a young Michael Myers murders his sister while wearing a clown mask.Collum, ''Attack of the Killer B's'', p. 133. Finally, the film contains a brief reference to its predecessors by including a few short scenes from ''Halloween'' in a television commercial that advertises the airing of the film for that upcoming holiday as a minor
Story Within A Story .
Wallace's use of gore served a different purpose than in ''Halloween II''. According to Tom Atkins, "The effects in this
aren't bloody. They're more bizarre than gross."Tom Atkins interview, quoted at [http://www.halloweenmovies.com/filmarchive/h3bts.htm HalloweenMovies.com Special effects and makeup artist Tom Burman concurred, stating in an interview, "This movie is really not out to disgust people. It's a fun movie with a lot of thrills in it; not a lot of random gratuitous gore."Tom Burman interview, Ellen Carlomagno, "The Effects of ''Halloween III'': Tom Burman Tells All About His Special Makeup Work for the Latest From Carpenter-Hill," ''Fangoria'', #23, November 1982, p. 8, available
here ; last accessed
1982 , p. C28.
Music remained an important element in establishing the atmosphere of ''Halloween III''. Just as in ''Halloween'' and ''Halloween II'', there was no
Symphonic score. Much of the music was composed to solicit "false
Startles " from the audience.
(left) and Alan Howarth composed most of the soundtrack to ''Halloween III'' using
Synthesizers .]]
The soundtrack was composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, who had worked on the score for ''Halloween II''. The score of ''Halloween III'' differed greatly from the familiar main theme of the original and sequel. Carpenter replaced the familiar piano melody with a slower, electronic theme played on a synthesizer with beeping ,
2006
One of the more memorable aspects of the film's soundtrack was the
Jingle from the Silver Shamrock Halloween mask commercial. Set to the tune of "
London Bridge Is Falling Down ," the commercial in the film counts down the days until Halloween beginning with day eight followed by an announcer's voice (Tommy Lee Wallace) encouraging children to purchase a Silver Shamrock mask to wear on Halloween night:
Eight more days 'til Halloween,
Eight more days 'til Halloween,
''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' opened in 1,297 theaters in the United States on ,
2006 . Internationally, the film premiered in the
United Kingdom ,
Norway ,
Spain ,
West Germany ,
Sweden ,
France ,
Canada ,
Australia , and
Singapore .
In 1983, Edd Riveria, designer of the film's theatrical poster, received a ,
2006 . Riveria's poster art featured a demonic face descending on three
Trick-or-treat ers. His artwork was later featured on the cover of ''Fangoria'' in October 1982. Oddly enough, no creature even remotely resembling the face on the theatrical poster appears in the film.
''.]]
As part of a s for the masks in the film to mass produce masks for retail sale. He speculated, "Because the masks are so significant to the movie, they could become a cult item, with fans wanting to wear them when they go to see the movie." Post gave mask-making demonstrations for a
Universal Studio tour in
Hollywood . The masks retailed for $25 when they finally appeared in stores.
The script was adapted as a
Mass Market Paperback Novelization in 1982 by science-fiction writer
Dennis Etchison writing under the
Pseudonym Jack Martin. The book was a best seller and was reissued in 1984.Jack Martin, ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'', (New York: Jove Books, 1982), ISBN 0-515-06885-3; 1984 reissue, ISBN 0-515-08594-4. Etchison wrote the novelization to ''Halloween II'' only a year before.
The film was later released on
VHS ,
Laserdisc , and
CED format in 1983 by
MCA/Universal Home Video . Subsequent videotape re-issues were released in 1984, 1987, and 1996. GoodTimes Home Video owned the rights at one point and released a VHS in 1996.
DVD versions were distributed by Goodtimes in 1998 (with a re-issue in 2001) and Universal in 2003.
The film's soundtrack, composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth and released by
Varese Sarabande , is extremely hard to find today, and those copies found carry pricetags ranging from 80 dollars to several hundred dollars due to its rareness.
Critical response to ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch'' proved to be mixed. ''New York Times'' reviewer Vincent Canby struggled to apply a definite label to the film's content. He remarks, "'Halloween III' manages the not easy feat of being anti-children, ,
2006 . Jason Paul Collum points to the absence of Michael Myers and the film's
Nihilistic ending as reasons why the film dissatisfied reviewers and audiences alike. ''Halloween III'' remains the only film in the ''Halloween'' series in which the villain is not defeated and evil plan foiled.Collum, ''Assault of the Killer B's'', p. 133.
Tom Milne of ''
Time Out '', a British magazine, offered a more positive review, calling the title "a bit of a cheat, since the indestructible psycho of the first two films plays no part here." Unlike other critics, Milne thought the new plot was refreshing: "With the possibilities of the characters
the previous ''Halloween'' films well and truly exhausted, ''Season of the Witch'' turns more profitably to a marvellously ingenious Nigel Kneale tale of a toymaker and his fiendish plan to restore Halloween to its witch cult origins." Although Milne was unhappy that Kneale's original script was reduced to "a bit of a mess," he still believed the end result was "hugely enjoyable."Tom Milne, review of ''Halloween III: Season of the Witch,'' ''Time Out'', reprinted in 2nd ed., 1991, p. 277.
Academics find the film full of critiques of late twentieth-century American society. Historian Nicholas Rogers points to an anti-." Upset over the
Commercialization of the Halloween holiday, Cochran uses "the very medium he abhors as a weapon against itself." Harris references other big business critiques in the film, including the unemployment of local workers and the declining quality of mass produced products.Martin Harris, "You Can't Kill the Boogeyman: ''Halloween III'' and the Modern Horror Franchise," ''Journal of Popular Film and Television'' 32.3 (Fall 2004): pp. 104–105.
