"Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (1982)

I kinda enjoy the concept. You're right, it should have just been its own horror flick.

I have to agree too. As a stand alone film it's pretty good. As part of the franchise, it hurt a lot.

The plan was to make a new Halloween themed film every year, but after pissing off Michale Myers fans, the plan was scrapped.

Never cared for it when I was younger since it didn't have Michael Myers, but really grew to like it as an adult. Seems to have become more appreciated in recent years. Agreed that if it was just called Season of the Witch, it would've performed better.

It wasn't the best executed horror flick, but it had a very scary premise. It should be re-made today, with a better known cast & better production values.

Speaking of old movies with great potential remake value, how about "Them"?

Can't believe no one has remade that one yet. Today's CGI would make it a blockbuster.

Is that the one with Rowdy Roddy Piper and special glasses that see the "real" world R4? If so, I love that movie and the premise.

No, that's "They Live" -another movie that would be ripe for remake.

Them is about giant ants I think. But not the same as the giant ants in the Joan Collins star vehicle.

R5: If you're referring to "Them", no, Roddy Piper wasn't in it.

"Them" was made in the 1950s, starring James Arness. It dealt with giant ants, who mutated & attacked ppl as a result of nuclear radiation exposure in the SW US desert. Could be a great apocalyptic-type flick today.

No one in Season of the Witch was a known star at the time & I don't think anyone in it became one.

Stacie Nelkin (Ellie) was the basis for Mariel Hemingway's character in "Manhattan." Did Woody really date her?

She later had a small role in "Bullets Over Broadway."

I saw this when it came out - I remember thinking the story was a bit over the top, but I also enjoyed it. Is this on Netflix or something?

Nancly Loomis who played Annie in the original "Halloween" has a small cameo (and her acting is as impressive as ever!) and Jamie Lee Curtis' voice is heard as the town curfew lady. But no real stars from this.

That's part of what makes it fun.

They should just take off the Halloween name.

The movie is ridiculous but the soundtrack is cool, good electronic music. Unlike most soundtracks that repeat the same 2 or 3 themes, every track is different on Season of the Witch. I will credit the movie for being weird enough to inspire the inventive soundtrack.

The anthology idea could have worked had Halloween 2 kicked it off. Instead, Halloween 2 was a continuation of the first thereby setting precedent for what kind of franchise people expected it to be.

Season of Witch is a fun campy film with some great disturbing elements. And that ending! What a suspenseful and truly dark way to end the film... thousands of children potentially killed and the protagonist was so close to stopping it but ultimately powerless.

Is this the one with that silly TV commercial?

Little kids shouldn't see horror movies. This movie freaked me the fuck out for many, many weeks.

Yes, R13.

R12, he could have at least turned off the damn TV in the gas station he was in and saved one kid's life.

People had cable back then but not as many. That ending would have been impossible now with so many channels.

So many horrifying, mesmerizing scenes for this pre-teen to mull over afterwards. The hospital nurse getting held down and drilled through the head. The kid with the mask having his head melted into cockroaches and snakes while the family watched a test commercial. The patient in the hospital bed murdered by having his face pulled apart by - I think - the same walking android who did the nurse drilling. I was, and am, a fan. There were a lot of B grade but strangely creative and highly disturbing horror that came out in my VCR-era youth, stuff like Season of the Witch, and Phantasm, and the creepy sexual Martin.

Oh yeah I saw this on VHS when I was around 14. Me and my sister stayed home watching mainly horror for weeks during the summer vacation of 1984. All I remember was a kid trapped in a factory, a costume factory? And the pumpkin mask. And yes, it was disturbing. But my sis and I would try and out-front each other, so if you cracked and yelled that's disgusting or whatever, the other one "won".

[quote]So many horrifying, mesmerizing scenes for this pre-teen to mull over afterwards.

Agreed, R18. This movie was made at a time when slasher film violence was still cartoonish, but every now and then something disturbing would happen, like the homeless man's head getting torn off his shoulders.

Today most slasher films are just torture porn, with directors trying to out-gore each other, stories be damned. "Cannibal Holocaust" used to be the exception, now it's the rule.

Agreed, R20.

"How Did This Get Made?" Podcast about this very film.

I have ALWAYS loved this movie, even back when people hated it - it's just nuts and weird and badly acted, and then the whole mask melting crickets thing.....PERFECTION.

Well the bad acting, cheap production values, and effects, ruin it for me. Maybe if it was remade.

You can't remake anything this ridiculous. It would ruin the fun.

I kept trying to figure out where I'd seen the African-American nurse before and realized she was none other than Elvira from "Baby Jane."

I enjoy this weird ass movie more than the michael myers remakes.

Eight more days til Halloween!

Halloween! Halloween!

Eight more days til Halloween!

Silver Shamrock!

$1,000 says this is just the Bipolar Halloween Fanboy posting his 30th thread on HALLOWEEN: THE MOVIE under fresh browser cookies.

This is one of the worst movies ever made.

NOT SCARY IN THE SLIGHTEST.

And why would sorcerers want to kill everyone? TOTAL HORSE SHIT

Cheesiest, corniest kills of any horror movie besides TROLL 2.

R29 shut it mary halloweenbot is obsessed with Laurie Strode and Michael Myers who have nothing to do with this movie.

R30 not everyone , just children!! Sacrificing children on Halloween night to resurrect ancient celtic witchcraft ,pay attention Mary!!

This one scared the crap out of me because my brother knew it scared me and replayed it every night on cable when I was little and the happy sounding but not happy music before the mask horribleness would happen still triggers me.

This would have been a lot better if they changed the sorcerrer character to a woman( a witch) and hired a better actress than Woody Allen’ s ex teen girlfriend to play the lead, she was truly awful.

Lame lame lame movie.

I always mixed Stacey Nelkin and Maureen Teefy up. Those early 80s perms and appearances in 1982 flop sequels to hit 70s movies.

It was a great idea, but TPTB tampered with Nigel Neale's story and ruined what could have been a classic. It was entertaining, but not up to Neale's standards.

If it hadn't had the Halloween 3 title it might have had a chance at the box office but it's not a terrible movie there is some truly terrible acting though.

Tom Atkins has a surprisingly nice ass.

R40 he was hot during this movie and I do not have a daddy fetish

Tom Atkins looks like Rip Taylor.

The lead girl isn't nearly pretty enough to get away with being that shitty of an actress.