Halloween III: Season of the Witch – Film Review

Hospital emergency room Dr. Daniel “Dan” Challis (Tom Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin), the daughter of a murder victim, uncover a terrible plot by small-town mask maker Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy), a madman who’s planning a Halloween mass murder utilizing an ancient Celtic ritual. The ritual involves a boulder stolen from Stonehenge, the use of Silver Shamrock masks, and a triggering device contained in a television commercial — all designed to kill millions of children.

I actually don’t blame John Carpenter and Debra Hill for wanting to shake things up a bit within the Halloween universe when it came to Season of the Witch. They had the idea that they would make a whole franchise of films all set on Halloween Night but each film would have its own unique storyline and characters instead of just doing the same old Michael Myers slasher film over and over again.

Their intentions were certainly in the right place and it’s definitely interesting to think about where the franchise would be today if they stuck with that idea, but in the long run, I’m glad they didn’t because Halloween III: Season of the Witch is honestly terrible. It’s the only entry in the series to date that does not feature the villainous Michael Myers but instead, a new type of villain that’s significantly less interesting and fun to watch.

Gone is the eerie theme of evil coming to strike down an entire town. There’s no boogeyman to be found here – just bad filmmaking. This is a movie that runs at ninety-eight minutes in length and yet for the first forty-five to fifty minutes, not a single thing of unease occurs. In that time there’s maybe one scene that could be classified as “creepy”, but that’s honestly about it. Season of the Witch spends far too much time building up to its admittedly bonkers and much more entertaining third act – one that goes for it and holds nothing back.

The problem is that the two acts that came before it suffer immensely from a lack of solid writing and directing. For a while, the story can be incredibly unclear and it’s often confusing what’s going on during certain sequences. And the characters? They practically don’t even exist because the film never once tries to flesh them out in any way. They’re just kind of there and you have to deal with it. We understand that the main character Daniel Challis is a doctor and that’s pretty much the extent of his character development.

It’s genuinely disappointing to see a movie in this franchise devoid of any depth because the previous two were incredibly interesting films that not only served as fun slashers but also legitimately thought-provoking films. The only time Season of the Witch dares to get philosophical is in its third act which is where it really hits home. I love the third act of this film so much that it genuinely hurts me to rethink the two acts that proceeded it.

As mentioned earlier – I understand why Carpenter and Hill wanted to do new things in this franchise. They probably didn’t understand that Michael Myers would quite literally become the symbol for the series which is why they wanted to test the waters with the things they could do in the series but I have to say that the lack of Myers here makes for an incredibly boring film.

In the previous films, you felt a chill run up your spine every time Myers was on screen. Whether he was lurking in a corner or approaching somebody with his kitchen knife, he truly felt like a force to be reckoned with. The villains in this film are extremely under shown here and don’t really have a good story given to them. For the majority of Season of the Witch, you’ll feel like you’re watching some bizarre 70s cop-drama instead of a film set within the Halloween universe.

One of the constants in this series, though, is the cinematography by Dean Cundey. His work for these movies is seriously so masterful and he makes every single scene feel so incredibly chilling. He is able to make some of the most boring neighborhoods and streets look absolutely frightening. That, plus the score by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth is once again terrific as to be expected by this point, as is the opening title sequence which is definitely one of the most unique in the franchise to date.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch has a few redeeming qualities – namely the performances, some of the kills, and the bonkers third act which is seriously a blast to watch unfold – but the rest of the film suffers significantly. The writing on display is painstakingly dull, the character development here is practically non-existent and the amount of overall entertainment value here is lacking. It may be a Halloween film but it certainly doesn’t feel like it.