Halloween 3 is a solid classic horror film in its own right, from Carpenters epic synth score, to seasoned cast, and absurd plot. Here's the writeup I've wanted to do for a while.

I always like labeling everything I do as a discussion because I like everyone's input. I also want to thank everyone for the positive feedback last post I made.

I know that r/horror would love a nice long write up of Halloween 3, but I'd rather post it to a more casual audience.

I figured that with the new Halloween film out, it would be a perfect opportunity.

So a lot of casual movie goers on here know Halloween is a franchise with many sequels varying in quality, but nay not know the details.

A lot of people on here also have an appreciation for those weird hidden gems.

Halloween 3 is a horror film meant to turn the Halloween franchise into an anthology series of various stories centering around October 31st.

It sadly confused audiences, and downright performed poorly.

Before I start my late night rant, let me get this out of the way.

Halloween 3, if treated as a standalone film, is a fun 80s horror movie. Spoilers ahead.

John Carpenter and Debra Hill still had ties to the franchise at this point, but they mostly kept to a production role, with John scoring it.

Halloween 3: Season of the Witch has this absurd plot about a business mogul witch (worlock, because he's male?) manufacturing deadly Halloween masks empowered by pieces of Stonehenge, and is attempting to activate them in a massive nationwide sacrifice using a commercial to trigger death for any poor bastard wearing it.

Sound ridiculous enough? Well the mogul is surrounded by robot henchmen ripped straight from Alien, weird ooze, tubing, and all.

Who's going to stop this super villian? Well none other than legendary actor, Tom Atkins, who plays a doctor who treats a man trying to spread the word about the masks. Atkins is basically a legend at this point. He appears in most of Carpenter's work somewhere or another. Not to mention his dozens of other acting credits in horror, scifi, and action films. Well anyway the doctor's patient is murdered by a robotic henchman in the hospital room he was staying in, and the henchman goes back ti his vehicle and blows himself to bit.

The rest of the film invokthe doctor and the murdered man's daughter investigating the mogul's factory located in a secluded northern California town. Do those even exist anymore?

They go undercover as a couple and unravel the cultists plans of mass murder.

I know it sounds absurd from a casual perspective, but it honestly just kind of works. There's a great feeling of dread and atmosphere that builds up as the film goes on. It also just FEELS like a perfect Halloween season film.

The plot is absurd, but the execution is what counts, right? Well the film is competently directed. It has a lot of good pacing, with nice scene progression, and shot to shot takes. There's some good shots in this film, and they really capture the feeling of isolation and long standing holiday traditions. Like seriously, some of the scenes in this film could be inspiration for a realist Edward Hopper style painting.

A well directed movie can make almost anything work well. In this case Tommy Lee Wallace, who had the chair, and later went on to direct the IT miniseries, did a great job.

So we have a wild plot, good directing, and guess what else? We have some damn fine acting too. The dialogue is nothing award winning. It's really carried by Atkins, Nelkin (murdered guy's daughter) , and Dan O'Herlihy (cultist business man) They all work great together. Dan plays a really great villian too. I'll totally admit, it's not award winning dialogue, but it's not bad by any means. It all works great. Dan is certainly the strongest in the role.

Lastly, let's go over what carries it all. John Carpenter does the score for this film, as well as Alan Howarth. The score is disgustingly amazing synth. It is atmospheric and catchy. It elevates basically everything that uses it. If you like Carpenter and you like 80s synth, this film is worth watching solely for that.

I can't recommend checking it out more this Halloween season. Halloween 3 is a great old school 80s horror film in its own right. It's moody, it's gory,and it's competently made.

Just pretend it's called Season of the Witch or something. Forget its relationship to the Michael Myers Halloween franchise, and it'll truly become a gem.

It really needs a revisit by old school horror and 80's movie fans alike.

As a warning, I'm half asleep. I'll fix my gibberish tomorrow morning.

6 more days til' Halloween, Silver Shamrock!

Submitted October 25, 2018 at 04:59PM by hippymule https://ift.tt/2z3B1mX