Halloween III: Season of the Witch

That plot gives you an idea of how casually insane this movie is, but if you’re able to radically suspend your disbelief (the story is an illogical shambles), the film offers a number of modest pleasures.

Once the action shifts to the dead-eyed denizens of Santa Mira, the remote town that Silver Shamrock calls home, the film becomes a sly and creepy indictment of corporate engineering. It’s not what Halloween fans wanted—and Wallace rubs it in by showing a couple of clips from the original film on TV—but take the Halloween part away and Season Of The Witch is a standalone oddity worth considering on its own terms.

Mr. Wallace clearly has a fondness for the cliches he is parodying and he does it with style.

Obliged to launch the hero on an effective counterattack down the stretch, Wallace goes through the motions proficiently enough for exploitation thriller purposes. He should have quit while he was ahead, but Halloween III demonstrates a reasonable ability to control comic-horror effects on his first derivative try. [27 Oct 1982, p.D9]

Though the film certainly isn't awful, the filmmakers couldn't decide on their focus. Did they want the picture to be be a fun little piece full of black humor, or did they want to go the usual blood-and-gore route?

The one saving grace in Halloween III is Stacey Nelkin, who plays the heroine. She has one of those rich voices that makes you wish she had more to say and in a better role. But watch her, too, in the reaction shots: When she's not talking, she's listening.

There's a delightfully promising premise behind Halloween III -- something's wrong with the kids' masks -- but somehow Wallace gets sidetracked, and the movie wanders away. [30 Oct 1982, p.D5]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

A Halloween movie with no Michael Meyers? Given most of the sequels were dreck, the third outing is an entertaining watch as a Halloween-themed thriller.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Where are the witches? Surprisingly and shockingly bad film in almost every category. The main villain is unknown who, the main character only runs from room to room, the plot is completely stupid. This is not Halloween. This is a strange film in its own right.

Absolutely atrocious in almost every way. I admire the fact that they did try to propel the story in a different direction but the direction they took was not very good