As the scene opens a terrified man is running away from a strong silent figure. He ends up falling down at a gas station, where a man is watching a program about the theft of Stonehenge blocks, and is rushed to the hospital. While this is happening Dr. Daniel Challis, played by Tom Atkins, just arrived home with presents for his children; learning that they already received the insanely popular Silver Shamrock Halloween masks already.
Doctor Challis rushes to the hospital only to find the man clutching another of the Silver Shamrock masks. The patient begins rambling about how “it could kill us, all of us”. He is then murdered by another shadowy figure in a gray suit who promptly kills himself. Dr. Challis then meets the crazy man’s daughter Ellie, played by Stacey Nelkin. These two start investigating the death, and the sinister reasons behind it.
They head to the sleepy town where the masks are made only to notice all of the strangeness going on in this quaint little town that has a curfew and is monitored by surveillance cameras; after finding out all about each other of course. After this, you see a woman fiddling with a piece of the mask before being brutally killed, and then have her body removed by a crew of white coats from the factory. The protagonists finally meant the illustrious Mr. Cochrin (Dan O’Herlihy) who is supervising this cleanup. He assures Challis and Ellie that everything is ok before disappearing once again into a caravan of cars.
In the morning they head to the factory to do some investigating and run into Cochrin once again, who seems to be the perfect businessman. He then takes them onto a guided tour of the factory. A young boy asks for a mask and is told about the “final seal of approval” that leads to the rest of the story behind the masks and their uses that could spell disaster for the trick-or-treaters wearing them.
The rest of Halloween III: Season of the Witch surrounds Challis and Ellie trying to find out more about the reason her father was killed by sneaking back into the factory while they are chased by the gray suited thugs. Challis manages to kill one of the thugs and learns an important secret. They are captured and Cochrin begins to reveal more about his plans as October 31st rolls around. Ill stop with the synopsis here, because the last day provides the most surprises and chances for enjoyment.
After watching Halloween III: Season of the Witch, I was disappointed with how basic the plot was. It truly seemed that a lot of the actions and violence were included just to get a rating and the gruesomeness expected from a horror movie. While there were some original ideas in the monsters, I found it lacking and not enough to make up for the rest of the movie.
The actors in Halloween III: Season of the Witch are a collection of relatively unknown people to a majority of today’s movie lovers; yet a number of them have great credits to their names during the 70s and 80s. Along with this they performed better than expected, when I first heard about the premise of this movie. For such a basic storyline, these actors did remarkably well in bringing life to the characters. The standout star was Dan O’Herlihy. He did an amazing job bringing the psychotic novelty vendor to life, in part through the maniacal laughter. While this is the case for O’Herlihy, Tom Atkins played up the deep, brooding attitude entirely too much. The overacting did not help this films portrayal or acceptance.
This Blu-Ray experience is loaded with extras, celebrating the thirty year anniversary of Halloween III: Season of the Witch’s release. Probably the best part of these added features, other than the sheer amount, surrounds what the box calls them. They are announced on the cover as Silver Shamrock Edition specials, which directly ties into the movie. Of course, there is the usual directors commentary version of Halloween III: Season of the Witch that has become standard with nearly every video release the past few years. Along with this, there is a feature titles Stand Alone: The Making of Halloween III: Season of the Witch. This is actually relatively interesting and delves into many peple, such as executive producer Irwin Yablans and Tom Atkins’ opinions of the film and the reception. Also included in the special features are production stills of the movie, which in laymans terms are referred to as pictures.
When considering that this movie is a Blu-Ray, even one thirty years old, it was extremely crisp and clear. The colors were quite vibrant, even considering the horror aspects of this movie. Actually, the movie cold be said to be a bit over-enhanced, when considering the age of the media shown in the movie. It was a bit of annoyance to see the craters in a mans face, but still see fuzzy television ads. Along with that, the overly enhanced media began to hurt my eyes because of the sharpness, with a lack of balance and blending. Along with this, the menu seemed to be a bit more pixelated than I would expect from a Blu-Ray release.
As for my recommendation about this movie, I must warn you that it is brutally violent, dark and bloody. This is to an extreme level that I felt was unnecessary and unfounded. That coupled with the basic storyline, lack of scare factor and a number of other themes makes me not want to recommend this movie for your viewing pleasure. To me, it seemed like the writers and directors threw in violence, gore and sex because it was expected in a horror movie; not because it was integral to the plot of the story. It will not scare you, nor do I think it is a good example of the horror genre.