Tom Atkins, armed with his mustache and a six-pack of beer, joins a murdered man’s daughter to investigate dangerous Halloween masks in one of my favorite cult flicks, Tommy Lee Wallace’s HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH.
This write-up contains spoilers for the film.
Halloween 1978 will always be my favorite of the series. It’s a perfect poem of a fall flick, with incredible tension from Dean Cundey’s fantastic and iconic cinematography, a career-making performance from Jamie Lee Curtis, and a resurgence for Donald Pleasence. As directed by John Carpenter, Michael Myers, The Shape, The Boogeyman, whatever you call him, his return home remains a classic. But second to it is Halloween III: Season of the Witch, written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. Having just finished my yearly revisit last week (at Central Cinema in Seattle as part of the monthly horror host Baron von Terror! If you’re in the area, check it out. I go monthly!), I thought I’d give it some words for you!
It’s almost time, kids. The clock is ticking. Be in front of your TV sets for the Horrorthon, followed by the Big Giveaway. Don’t miss it. And don’t forget to wear your masks. The clock is ticking. It’s almost time. -=A synthesizer version of London Bridges plays. And plays and plays. It’ll NEVER stop=-
Good news, everyone wins the prize! I’m sure you’ll love it. We all love our face collapsing into mush while snakes and bugs pour out of every orifice, right?
Right?
Getting to the end first, it’s awesome that the film ends with the bad guys winning. There’s going to be a lot of death as the kids all win the giveaway and Tom Atkins screams STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT. I’ve always been curious about how the fallout went. Did killing all the kids bring your crops back by appeasing the Old Gods of the Harvest? Is Samhain pleased?
Maybe he will. That’s a lot of sacrifice. Sacrifice? Harvest? Magical powers of the stones (specifically Stonehenge)? Yes, Halloween III is an off-kilter modern folk horror in the middle of a slasher series. So much into folk horror that Nigel Kneale wrote the first few drafts. The writer of the British horror sensations The Stone Tapes and Quatermass was tapped by Joe Dante, the original director. Kneale removed his name, hating the final product, leaving Tommy Lee Wallace with sole credit. How did it get there after a series about babysitter murders?
After the success of Halloween, John Carpenter wanted to move on to the other stone-cold classics he had rattling about his brain. Initially resistant, his wallet answered the call, and he, as he freely admits, shat out a half-assed script for Halloween II, shoving in the sister-angle, killing off Myers in an orgy of fire, and trading the tension for a whole lot of murder as Myers hones in on Laurie in the strangely empty hospital for more terror on Halloween night. Despite my snark, I do really enjoy the Rick Rosenthal-directed flick. It ended up ALSO making enough cash to fill countless William Shatner masks, but Carpenter was done with Myers. Convinced (wallet screaming feed me again) to continue, he subsequently convinced the powers that be to move onto an anthology format: a new Halloween film with a wholly new angle every year (as this was released one year after Halloween II). A break from The Shape, Season of the Witch gets Weird, with a bonkers plot, off-the-wall plotting, plenty of “really” horniness, and a bounty of WTF.
What’s not to love? Tom Atkins as drunk divorced dad, and his insane and inane search to find out why a patient was murdered by Adam Scott Yuppie Robots while clutching a pumpkin mask leads him to fightin’, drinkin’, growlin’, cussin’, and fuckin’ his way to Santa Mira, California (the same town from Invasion of the Body Snatchers). He meets up with the daughter of the dead man, and she has the instant hots for Atkins. Everyone does, every woman in this movie (and men? Is there Cochran/Atkins fanfic out there?) is “yup, I want that mustache and the man wearing it”? (his actual wife is in the film, as the laser-faced lady, the only one not to give him eyes) There, he finds a novelty toy maker determined to kill a large number of kids with magical/computer/whatever masks on Halloween night. Let’s see some face lasers, curtain cleaning, a gleefully campy performance by Dan O’Herlihy as Cochrane, a voice-over by Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.
Yes, there were questions. Why are masks still being shipped out on the day? How was Cochran able to steal and ship a stone from Stonehenge from England to California? Why an English stone when everything else is Irish? Can you really computer program an ancient spell? Why did Stacey Nelkin, as the daughter, only pack skimpy lingerie (did Atkin’s mustache mentally tell her?) Do time zones not exist in this world, aren’t all the East Coast kids dead long before the climax? Will the never-ending commercial jingles “bum bum bum bum bum bum three more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. Three more days to halloween SIL-VER SHAM-ROCK! “ ever leave your head (Aside: my dad used to sing that, I remember him doing so when I was little. But despise that he knows my horror pedigree, refuses to believe it’s a Halloween film. No, he won’t just watch it again) Also, what the hell is up with the firefighter extra? Do me a favor, find your copy, go to and watch the firefighter after the hospital murder.
The shot of the kids on Halloween trick or treating on the hill is magic. Love those shots. Reminds me of the “ooh, the spirit is here” credits of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. 
Yes, as we all know, Myers returned in the next installment and has never left across the various reboots, continuity killers, and further Haddonfield (and California prep school) slashings. Halloween III was a critical failure and a commercial disappointment (earning its budget back a few times over but half as much as Halloween II). But it’s gained love over the years, getting a cultural appreciation. David Gordon Green gave it some nods within his trilogy, from having the masks directly, or each of the main posters tinted to match the trio. Heck, with all the talk of the power of the mask in Kills, I fully thought Ends was going to have our survivors heading to Silver Shamrock, becoming a de facto remake? Would it have been too fan service and move past “just because” to “designed to be evil,” maybe, but the Thorn cult of the 5th and 6th films did that anyway.
Maybe it’s better to remain a separate entity. I’m convinced that without the Halloween III moniker attached, Season of the Witch (though without witches besides the costume) would be much better remembered. That asterisk of connection to the Michael Myers series has been a hindrance to being its own Halloween cult classic. I’m not saying it would have been huge, not really. It’s a niche film for sure.
A niche film I adore with every ounce of my Halloween-loving being, Tommy Lee Wallace’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch is weird and unique (like much of his friend and mentor Carpenter’s filmography). An odd duck in the franchise, but one that, for those who appreciate it, appreciate it well. If you’ve seen and dismissed, revisit. If you’ve not, sorry to spoil the hell of it, but maybe knowing the odd will help that first go.
Your author at the show last week. Ready for the Big Giveaway!
