Halloween III: Season of the Witch

In terms of its audio-visual aspects and with a great soundtrack by Carpenter, Halloween III is a decent flick whose storyline (covering up the factory-related secrets) is well-constructed up to its final third. However, everything is ruined by the developments in the last third, when all the cards are finally revealed and we see how the protagonist resolves the situation. It turns out to be pulpy B-movie nonsense. That Stacey Nelkin looked like Michael Jackson didn’t help matters. (21/10/2018)

I didn’t mind at all that it wasn’t about Michael Myers, I liked the departure from the Halloween universe. The premise was in keeping with what was being made in the 1950s and 60s, i.e. appropriately wacky, but in a nice, interesting way. But the cinematic execution of it is absolutely, utterly awful. This is what happens when a film is made by someone with vision but no talent. Zero production value, lack of tension, scenes that unintentionally parody themselves, and the whole thing is clumsily edited on top of that. 97 minutes of suffering, but at least the final few seconds were nice. (13/12/2017)

The editor of the first film wrote a script, which he then directed, to model a whole new mythology on a pedestal called Halloween, which somehow doesn't include Michael Myers. It's a bold move, especially considering the fact that atmospherically it works quite well (even though it's an unprecedented rip-off of Carpy’s methods). But the plot starts to fall flat after a few minutes, and as the runtime progresses, one of the strangest sequels in the film universe is born. Had this been written and directed by Carpenter, this would have been a 100% notch in his collection of cult B-movies. (29/07/2007)

A notoriously tragic step in the wrong direction which could have resulted in ‘just’ a bearable silly B flick if only its creators didn’t try to patch it onto the Halloween series. Overall, Halloween III: Season of the Witch is decently structured and benefits from an outstanding musical track by John Carpenter as well as some memorable scenes (including that obnoxiously repetitive Silver Shamrock ad). But as the incongruous link in an otherwise cohesive series, the film inevitably makes every viewer disappointed and angry. (22/10/2018)

"Halloween 3" is a disappointment if you expect it to be something like "Halloween" again. It simply isn't. It is much closer to the weirder films of the 80s, sometimes you are not even sure if it is meant to be taken seriously or not. Tommy Lee Wallace made something that doesn't fit into the series, but at the same time doesn't impress much as a standalone film either. Unexpected twists are more of a drawback, as they are rather hard to accept. (10/07/2014)