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Stars:
Tom Atkins, Stacy Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy, and Dick Warlock
Writer:
Tommy Lee Wallace
Director:
Tommy Lee Wallace
Feature
length: 99 minutes
Languages:
English Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 18
Sound:
Monaural Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1982/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“You
don’t really know much about Halloween.
You thought no further than the strange custom of having your children wear
masks and go begging for candy."
Conal Cochran, Founder - Silver Shamrock Company
After the success of the first two “Halloween” films, John Carpenter disciple Tommy Lee Wallace got the opportunity the write and direct a third feature film in the series. This third installment would have the distinction of not having Michael Myers as a character in the film at all unless you count the various shots of television broadcasts showing scenes from the first film. With John Carpenter and Debra Hill producing and Carpenter and Alan Howarth collaborating on another synthesizer score, “Halloween III: Season Of The Witch” opened up theatrically in 1982 and was subsequently despised by the fans who were expecting another Michael Myers tale and critically blasted as just another schlock horror flick. I remember watching it on HBO when I was a boy and even I thought it sucked.
“It
was the start of the year in our old Celtic lands, and we’d be waiting…
In our houses of wattles and clay.”
Conal Cochran, Founder - Silver Shamrock Company
Now
just about twenty-one years later though “Halloween III: Season Of The
Witch” can be appreciated as perhaps the most original, ambitious, and
personally my favorite in the series after the original. Now in our media blitz
culture where we are constantly influenced by TV, radio, movie screens,
interactive media, home video, the Internet, telemarketing, and the growth of
cell phone products to a point where there is at least one cell phone store on
every other block much the way video tape rental stores were in the 1980s, you
can’t simply shut the TV off or get by at least one form a media manipulation
without self imposed exile in room devoid of any modern convenience that has
sound proof walls and no windows.
“The
barriers would be down, you see, between the real and the unreal.
And the dead might be looking in, to sit by your fires of turf.”
Conal Cochran, Founder - Silver
Shamrock Company
Media
manipulation is a harsh term. Not everyone or everything is trying to do
something with a malevolent intent, but it is definitely harder today than it
even was ten years ago to be in a place where there is not some sort of
advertising and surveillance going on. It has become an accepted part of life in
the early twenty-first century. We take it all for granted and few really think
about it until they either try and take a break away from their ISP or are stuck
in a situation where they can’t access the technologies we are accustomed to
like the recent blackouts that have occurred here in New York, in England, and
Italy. I once tried to stay offline for 48 hours and found myself feeling like a
person who just gave up something to fast for a religious holiday or health
reasons. It’s easy when you’re busy and outside to forget about e-mail and
such, but try it for two days one weekend at home and see for yourself.
Now
I mention this personal stuff above because I want you all to imagine that you
knew that some malevolent force was about to trigger a tragedy through the
media. How do you stop it? Could you call all the broadcast, cable, and
satellite TV stations worldwide and say, “Take that ad off the air” and do
you think they would listen? Could you shut down the World Wide Web? There’s
probably some ace hacker reading this somewhere thinking, “Been, there. Done
that,” but for the average person, I seriously doubt it.
"Halloween.
The festival of Samhain. The last great one took place 3000 years ago, and the
hills ran red…
with the blood of animals and children.”
Conal Cochran,
Founder - Silver Shamrock Company
“Halloween
III: Season Of The Witch” deals with the premise of media manipulation for
evil purposes in a way that I think was a bit ahead of its time. The story is a
bit far fetched, but there is a lot in the subtext to be appreciated. While the
news media marvels at the apparent disappearance of one of the monolithic
structures at Stonehenge, a man clutching a mask desperately tries to escape
relentless nondescript men in suits with super human strength. He ends up at the
hospital under the care of Doctor Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins). Ignoring the
man’s warning “They’re going to kill us all” as just ranting, Challis
goes about his on call duties at the hospital until the man is murdered and the
killer literally steps into a car, douses himself with gasoline, and sets
himself on fire.
The
next morning the daughter of the murdered man shows up to identify the body
while the coroner can’t seem to find any remains of the killer from the wreck.
This intrigues the Doctor enough to accompany the victim’s bereaved daughter
on a little detective journey that leads them to a remote town where the Silver
Shamrock Novelties Company has been producing a set of popular Halloween masks
and advertising a surprise for the children who are instructed to wear their
Silver Shamrock masks during the big broadcast on Halloween night. The “Silver
Shamrock” tune in the film is just annoyingly catchy enough to stick in your
mind long after you see the film like some real commercials.
Dan
O’Herlihy gives a terrific performance as the man behind the sinister plan,
“Conal Cochran.” He can smile and be jolly enough to make one think he’s
the nicest old man in the world and then a minute later he can appear so
malevolent, you would not think he was human. There are elements in this film
related to ancient secret societies and sacrificial rights as well as those men
in the suits, who might as well be evil emotionless “Men In Black” long
before the idea became a part of contemporary pop culture. This is a film about
the nature of Halloween itself and the strange history and folklore behind it
crazy enough to be true. In some ways I see this as a sort of forerunner to John
Carpenter’s “They Live,” which dealt with manipulation and control from a
sci-fi context and was also misunderstood by the moviegoers and critics of the
time. Yet watch that film now and look at the way post Regan America has gone
and tell me if you think that film was not also a bit ahead of it’s time? I
love the scene early in the film where the Doctor asks the bartender to turn the
TV to another channel, which is broadcasting “Halloween” and the bartender
replies “Where’s your Ha
“In
the end, we don’t decide these things, you know, the planets do.”
Conal Cochran,
Founder - Silver Shamrock Company
Originally released on DVD through Good Times, “Halloween III: Season Of The Witch” is now being reissued by Universal Studios Home Video as a bare bones bargain DVD title for Halloween. The original letterboxed transfer on the Good Times release was quite good and it appears as if this is the same source material used for this transfer too. Now finally available in an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio, “Halloween III: Season Of The Witch” looks terrific with hardly a blemish and sporting excellent color saturations and contrast. There is a bit of shimmering noticeable occasionally, but it is easy to overlook. A clear English Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack that is free of any analogue background noise or hissing is provided on this disc too. The John Carpenter and Alan Howarth score sounds terrific on this disc. English Captions for the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles are also encoded as options. Unfortunately there are no bonus features to note. Not even a trailer. The menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.
If you like this film as much as I do and you have been waiting to add it to your DVD collection, then this is the version to buy when “Halloween III: Season Of The Witch” debuts on DVD-Video at retailers on and offline on Tuesday, October 7, 2003 from Universal Studios Home Video.
(WARNING
- wearing a mask while watching the film is not recommended. Universal Studios
Home Video and its parent companies as well as GENRE ONLINE.NET and any
employees or affiliates therein are not responsible for the consequences.)
© Copyright
2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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