in defense of
HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH

Shout Factory has upped the ante this month with Blu-ray remasters of not-quite-so-classic 80s Horror under a new line called Scream Factory.

But I don’t have to tell you that.  You know who you are.

You pre-ordered Terror Train and They Live the second you got wind of it.  

You counted down the days for your  Halloween II and The Funhouse Blu-rays the moment you saw their retro-hip pack art.

And the crème de la crème of the seasonal unleashing of course – Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

The most head-scratchingly sick and twisted of the bunch.

I’ll admit, there’s a certain nostalgia for fans of Halloween III: Season of the Witch that masks us from seeing the movie for what it really is—an incredibly poorly made cash-in on a seemingly sustainable franchise.  

 But that’s not important right now.

 Back in the day, the moment you saw the TV Spots, let alone the original key art with its stretched trick-or- treaters silhouetted against a blood red demonic sky, you were hooked. Sure the film had absolutely nothing to do with Michael Myers, the driving force of the first two shockers.  For this kid, the mystery of that was enough to draw you in.  I remember being absolutely fascinated that it had nothing to do with Myers.

Of course, now in the age of meticulously remastered Blu-ray re-releases and scholarly discussions of failed films past, we can reflect on the details behind the film.

Everything and anything you need or wanted or didn’t exactly ask for about Halloween III is on this new release, and I’ll leave you to explore that on your own. The movie remains one of my favorite examples of an incredible concept that fails to come together coherently.

The third entry in the original Halloween franchise remains fascinating to fans of the series and horror in general.

The movie’s themes of corporate consumerism of an originally Pagan holiday is way prophetic (been to a Halloween Spirit store lately?) and its use of Tom Atkins as a sex symbol is a reminder of a place and time we’ll never see again.      

Forget Frankenweenie or Hotel Transylvania this season of the witch, if you really wanna scare the pants off your kids, sit them down in front of the last 10 minutes of Halloween III and watch as they quickly determine that rubber mask they picked up for the big night might not be the best idea this year.