Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (1982)
Well, I've finally cast my prejudice feelings aside and sat my ass down to watch the infamous "Michael Myers goes AWOL" entry to the "Halloween" series. Yes fans, producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill decided to go a whole new route with the franchise on this one, with the ultimate idea being a new "Halloween" film coming out every year with a whole different story and angle. So, if there's no Michael Myers to off nitwitted teenyboppers, just exactly what are you getting with this film? Glad you asked.
A demented toy maker and president of "Silver Shamrock Novelties", maker of the world's best selling Halloween masks, has a special treat (trick?) planned for the wee ones when they sit down to watch his special Halloween Giveaway commercial during Halloween night. You see, there's this itsy bitsy microchip implanted in the masks, so that when everyone sits down to watch the special with their masks on, in conjunction with the commercials rays or whatever from the TV, some nasty shit goes down, as in bugs coming out the kids facial orifices, facial meltdowns and the like. Basically it's genocide towards the kids of the world, with a pagan twist added for some flavor. So, it's up to a suspicious doctor and his bimbo sidekick to stop the shenanigans and save the world.
Even though this one is trying to go in a whole new direction compared to the first two "Halloween" films, I was amazed that it had such a similar feel to it. Maybe it had something to do with the John Carpenter score, which was one of the film's rare highlights, but it actually felt as if Carpenter was directing, and not Tommy Lee Wallace as the credits state. Even the android killers sorta walk like Myers, and there was that shot of a TV playing the original "Halloween" so, hmmm. Anyway, the first thirty minutes of the film are fairly good, but after that everything starts to bog down and progress very, very slowly, especially at the end of the movie. There are some decent f/x scenes, as in some eyes getting poked out, a juicy head ripping, and of course, the nasty after effects of wearing a Silver Shamrock mask. Acting wise, the only one who seemed to be enjoying any of the onscreen shenanigans was the dude who played the President of Silver Shamrock; everyone else was basically sleepwalking through their roles and looking ugly. Yeah, there's no Michael, no DP (thats hipster talk for Donald Pleasance) and it may be a fairly crappy film, but at least it's better than the fifth and sixth entries huh?