Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! After the masterpiece that was Mom and Dad, I decided to go back to my routes, with just a bit of a twist. For all those returning from last year, you know about me and Halloween. No, not the holiday, the franchise. And, for all you newcomers, I’ll tell you a bit about it. I. Love. Halloween. Micheal Myers is my favorite horror movie character, Halloween 1978 is one of my favorite movies of all time and is my favorite horror movie of all time, and last year, I watched three Halloween movies. Halloween 1978 on day one, Halloween II on the day 10 special, and Halloween 2018 on, you guessed it, the Halloween finale. And this year, I’m back to fill in a few more of those open spots. Today, we venture into a world of Halloween, without the shape. Today, I watched Halloween III: Season of the Witch. For a bit of background, Halloween was ALWAYS supposed to be an anthology series. It was supposed to have different stories with different characters in every movie. That’s what Carpenter intended. However, people loved the Boogeyman so much that Carpenter made Halloween II. Carpenter tried to kill off Michael at the end of that one, and wanted to get back to the anthology in Halloween 3. Just read with me tonight, and you’ll see where that idea went. Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Our film starts on October 23, 1982, with a man running down the street. He has a pumpkin Halloween mask in his back pocket, and we have no idea how important this man and that mask will become. He is cornered by a man in a suit, and a fight ensues. The suited man begins to strangle the man, until he is knocked off of him. Harry, the man, books it down the street once again, and collapses inside of a nearby gas station, saying that “they will kill us all”. The owner notices his condition, turns off his T.V. show about Stonehenge, and speeds to a hospital. Once there, we meet our main character, Dr. Dan Challis. He’s an alcoholic with an ex-wife and two kids, and a pretty strained relationship with both of them.

While in the hospital, he puts Harry to sleep, and goes to take a nap. While sleeping, another suited man sneaks in, and horrifically crushes Harry’s skull by putting his thumbs through his eyes. I’m not joking. After the murder, the man runs out of the building, and lights himself ablaze in his own car. Dan witnesses the whole scene, and is shaken. For the rest of the movie, we traverse through the week before Halloween. After the body is set up for the coroner, Dan’s friend, she can’t find any body. It’s only car parts. Soon after, Harry’s daughter Ellie shows up to the hospital to see her dead father. Dan, the A+ basically married man he is, decides to go for this girl. The next day, Dan is at the bar, and watches THE ORIGINAL HALLOWEEN on the television, as Ellie appears. They decide to go to the Silver Shamrock factories, which is the company that makes the masks. They are hugely successful, and MASSIVE. They have ads playing on television everywhere, saying how many days until Halloween with an extremely catchy theme song that is still lodged in my head.

At the town, the duo checks into a hotel. Dan learns that Harry had stayed at the same hotel, and the mystery grows deeper. Dan of course makes his move, and the pair begin to make out. This man is a married father. This is the daughter of a man who he saw killed the other day. Yeah! Eventually, Dan leaves, and goes to get some booze. We see how strong the surveillance is in the town, and we learn about the founder of Santa Mira (the town), Conal Cochran. Once Dan gets back to the motel, after talking to a homeless man who curses out Cochran (and is killed), he and Ellie get back to it. Sigh. Next door, a woman that Ellie briefly ran into named Marge inspects a Silver Shamrock mask. She takes off the Silver Shamrock medallion on the mask, and discovers there’s a motherboard on it. She begins to tinker with it using her hairpin, and a MASSIVE beam of blue light emits from it and hits her in the mouth and face. Ellie hears this, but she and Dan are too busy to care.

We get back to Marge and see the absolutely horrific effects of the beam. Her face is mutilated, and bugs begin to crawl out of her, which apparently just happens. Men in suits appear, and even Cochran himself, who escorts the dead Marge out in a bag, saying she will be fine. Cochran talks to his men, and calls it a “misfire”. The next day, Ellie and Dan, pretending to be a couple, are able to get into a tour of the factory due to the largest Silver Shamrock mask seller in the nation. This man and his family are hugely excited to see the inside, but our duo has a mission. Once the tour is complete, Ellie notices her fathers car in a lockup. She runs towards it, but is stopped by the suited men. Dan and Ellie make their way back to the hotel, fully set on leaving and calling the cops. But, as Dan tries to make a call, Ellie is kidnapped, and he is unable to reach anyone. He looks outside for the assailants, and finds a whole row of the suited men. Dan books it to the factory, trying to get in. While looking for Ellie, he is attacked by a suited man, and this film jumps the shark for the first time. Dan punches into the man, and finds orange blood. The suited men are all androids created by Cochran.

Cochran appears, and escorts Dan downstairs with him, further into the labyrinth. Downstairs, we see Androids all working at 80s-tastic computers, as they plan for “final processing”. Cochran’s plan is to have every single child in the nation watch the Silver Shamrock “giveaway” Halloween night at 9. While watching, the microchip motherboards will light up, and all of them will be killed. Oh, and the film jumps the shark for the second time here. The entire operation is literally powered by a magical piece of Stonehenge, which was foreshadowed in literally the first five minutes of the film, and comes out of absolutely nowhere. It’s a weird movie guys. We’ll get back to Micheal Myers as soon as I can. We see a demonstration of this. The rich seller who we discussed earlier was put into a room with his family. His son watches the T.V., and his mask and brain melt. And ready everyone? The FOURTH Shark Jump! Out of the corpse of the child comes a SWARM of bugs, from cockroaches to flies to even two dang snakes. I wish I was joking.

Cochran locks Dan up after the display, puts a mask on him, and turns on the T.V. On the T.V., the Original Halloween begins to play once again, and honestly for brilliant effect, as we watch Laurie walk around her house, the stalking music of Micheal playing in the background. The music makes the scene intense, as Cochran explains what Halloween truly is, and why he is doing what he is doing. He calls it the Festival of Samhain (big thing in the “actual” Halloween franchise), and leaves. Dan is able to kick through the T.V., and isn’t subject to the brain melting giveaway. He escapes through a vent, and finds Ellie. He runs with her, and initiates his plan. Dan sneaks into the control room, and drops an entire box of microchips onto the computers and androids down below, killing them with some epic 80s VFX. However, the computers stay on, and (get ready) Stonehenge lights up. A blue swirling light connects all the computers, as Cochran accepts his fate. Stonehenge and the computers unleash a blue light, hitting Cochran at the same time. He literally just vanishes from reality after this. (I’m so sorry. Micheal’s coming back I promise). The Control room explodes, and a fire overtakes the factory and the town. Dan escapes, and tries to talk to the uncharacteristically quiet Ellie in the car. Suddenly, she attacks him. She is an android, and the real Ellie may be dead. Dan defeats her after a huge fight, and runs. He gets back to the gas station, and runs to the phone, in my favorite scene of this interesting, interesting movie. Dan frantically calls the three stations broadcasting the Silver Shamrock Giveaway. Two of them take it off, but one station, one station is left on. Dan cries and begs, screaming into the phone. “Turn it off! Turn it off! TURN IT OFF!!!”. Silence. Black Screen. The End…

Thank you all so much for reading! It is left ambiguous if Dan succeeds in taking out the third station, but I don’t believe he did. And yeah, I know this one was far out. But, welcome back to the world of Halloween! It only gets crazier from here. (Looking at you Halloween 4-6). But, thank you all for sticking with me once again. But, before you go, watch… watch the magic Pumpkin… watch the giveaway…