Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror

2/23/2022

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror

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Eeriness abounds on this poster for Tommy Lee Wallace's Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Evil Halloween masks threaten national security, and only one cop is on the right track!

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is written and directed by debuting Tommy Lee Wallace (Baywatch (1989, TV-series)), with John Carpenter (Escape from L.A. (1996)) and Nigel Kneale (Quatermass 2 (1957)) contributing uncredited writing. It is the third entry in the Halloween franchise (1978-) and the only entry not featuring slasher boogeyman Michael Myers.

Tom Atkins (Masquerade (1983, TV-series)) is good as the protagonist cop. Though Myers is entirely absent, and the story has no connection to preceding or later Halloween movies, the feeling of dread is clear and present in Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which is an effective, infernal b-movie horror of its very own ilk.

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

Watch a VHS trailer for the film here

Cost: 2.5 mil. $

Box office: 14.4 mil. $ (North America only)

= Some uncertainty - but at least a huge hit (returned 5.76 times its cost in North America alone)

[Halloween III: Season of the Witch was released 22 October (North America, Turkey) and runs 98 minutes. The original Halloween's writers Carpenter and Debra Hill envisioned Season of the Witch as the first film to turn Halloween into an annual anthology horror franchise, each with a wholly fresh plot and characters. Kneale had his name removed from the credits, because executive producer Dino de Laurentiis insisted that more gore be added to the script. Joe Dante dropped out of directing shortly before production to work on his segment in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), and Wallace was consequently hired. Shooting took place from April 1982 - ? in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release First Blood, to a 6.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#2) and grossed 14.4 mil. $. Regrettably the film's international gross numbers are not made public. It is the lowest-grossing in the Halloween franchise, and this fact turned the filmmakers and studio heads to the opinion that all future Halloween movies must center on slayer Michael Myers. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Wallace returned with The Twilight Zone (1985-86), Max Headroom (1987, TV-series) and theatrically with Aloha Summer (1988). Atkins returned in 6 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in The New Kids (1985). Halloween III: Season of the Witch is rotten at 41 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween III: Season of the Witch?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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2/23/2022

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror

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