Back in the early 80's, the horror genre was thriving. The slasher subgenre was hitting it's stride thanks to films like Friday the 13th, Halloween 2, and even films like the first Halloween, Black Christmas and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the previous decade. Tut there was one movie however that was getting a lot of buzz prior to it's release. A film in the Halloween franchise that had people clamoring for what could come next in this legendary series after the events of the first two films. And that movie...is Halloween 3.
Halloween 3: Season of the Witch was released on October 22nd, 1982 to critical and commercial failure. While the the film did actually make a decent profit at $14.4 million dollars to the $2.5 million dollar budget, it was nowhere near as successful as the first two films in the franchise were. This poor reception led to the film only being in theaters for around a week or so before it left the box office. This film suffers from many, many mistakes along the way that ultimately put the nail in the coffin on its potential...and I'm going to explain those mistakes to you and show you why I personally feel that this film is a misunderstood classic.
Halloween 3 mostly suffers from extremely poor marketing. The marketing for this film didn't do enough to tell people that this WASN'T another movie with the face of the franchise himself, Michael Myers. Instead, the marketing was very vague and it seemed like the studio didn't know how to sell it to the audience at the time. This was due to the fact that the creator of the franchise, John Carpenter, didn't want to keep making more movies with Michael Myers. What John Carpenter and Tommy Lee Wallace, who directed Halloween 3 and was the editor and costume designer for the first film, wanted for the franchise after Halloween 2 was to release every single year and be a series of anthology films.
This was a good idea in theory and made complete sense given the context, BUT...there's one problem here. Not only had John Carpenter and his crew made 2 films with the same villain, but that villain had quickly become a horror Icon. So naturally, audiences were expecting to see Michael Myers when they went to see Halloween 3 and when they didn't get what they wanted and were expecting, they spoke their minds. I truly think that if the studio had marketed the film better or had named it just Season of the Witch or another title altogether, then this film may have just had a much better reception than it did. Now that you know why the film has the bad reception that it had back in the day, let me explain to you why I personally think it's a misunderstood horror classic.
Halloween 3 is a film that goes places that most horror films don't even dare to...you see, most horror films like to play it safe. You have a villain, a group of characters that help push the story forward, and a "sole survivor" in most cases. Some films like to play around with that order but it's all generally based around that same formula. Halloween 3 on the other hand, says "we're gonna be dark and taboo at the same time". What I mean by that is most horror films have a happy ending where the person who's chosen as the sole survivor overcomes the villain of the story and lives to tell the tale.
Very rarely do you have a movie that ends on a dark note, and Halloween 3 goes for that. It's also considered taboo nowadays to harm children in a horror movie, but this film? It don't care, it puts a TON of kids in danger and it doesn't care if it's considered "taboo" or not. This film also adds in some social commentary, which wasn't uncommon in those days in the horror genre thanks to films like George A. Romero's "Living Dead" series for example. Halloween 3 tackles the topic of consumerism much like Romero's film Dawn of the Dead did but in a different context than that film did. In this film, Tommy Lee Wallace tackles consumerism in the context of obsessing over a super popular fad and the marketing of said fad.
This is done through the Silver Shamrock Novelties Company and the Halloween masks they produce. The film focuses heavily on kids flocking to stores to buy these masks and even adds in a Silver Shamrock commercial as a bit of satire to how companies advertise their products to the masses. This film also does something that most horror films tend to stay away from, which is to have a villain doing villainous thing with very unclear motivation as to why. The film basically requires you as the viewer to accept the credo that "anything is possible". And this is done through its main villain, Conol Cochran. Cochran explains in the film that people often do mischievous things with no rhyme or reason, and this case is no different.
This movie also manages to subvert the expectations of the audience which I think works in the films favor, although you could argue against it. How the film achieves this is it takes the slasher vibes that the other two films had and throws in our the window. Instead of a crazed serial killer slicing people up left, right and center like in the previous two films, this movie decides to go for a creepy, atmospheric vibe that also blends some witchcraft into it.
This film also does something that not every horror movie does. It makes someone that looks like an Average Joe its main lead. Tom Atkins is his name, and he does a fantastic job in this film of not only playing up the Average Joe look, but also doing things in the film that you would do if you were a typical Average Joe kind of guy and you were in his shoes. Going on a wild goose chase just for a chance to hop into bed with a pretty girl for instance or when the entire plan is revealed, doing everything within your power to try and stop it.
Tom's portrayal of Dr. Dan Challis in this film is very believable and adds to the tension that the film builds because of the type of character that he is. Here's this normal doctor getting thrusted into this completely crazy, wacky situation because he thought with his dick instead of his head. And you're rooting for Dr. Charlie to make it out of this situation even though he doesn't get a whole lot of character development in the film.
And now, we have to talk about the films villain, Conal Cochran. Cochran, played by Dan O'Herlihy is a great villain in this movie. The fact that he's very well spoken, smooth and easygoing in one moment and then he can just switch on a dime to being either subtly or full on creepy and disturbing is why I believe that Conal Cochran is one of the better villains in all of horror, despite the fact that he's literally doing what he's doing in the film simply to cause mischief. Dan O'Herlihy does a phenomenal job with his performance in this movie, and I'm glad that more and more people are starting to recognize that.
Even though the film bombed at the box office in 1982, it has managed to find its audience in the home video market. From the original VHS release back in the 80's, all the way to the current 4K Blu-Ray release of the film from Scream Factory, this film has built a cult following over the years that loves and appreciates it for what it is rather than what it should be and I ask that those of you that are reading this post do the same.
This is definitely a movie that I plan to watch every single year on Halloween, and I'm kicking myself for dismissing it and hating on it like I did as a kid. Did you have a similar experience with the film as I did? Have you always liked the film? Be sure to let me know your experience with the film in the comments below.
I hope you enjoyed this issue, and I look forward to seeing you in the next one!
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