Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The RETURN OF 31 DAYS OF HORROR: #6 Halloween III



Halloween III: Season Of The Witch AKA Halloween III: Hey Where The Fuck Is Michael Myers? The dynamic duo of Hill and Carpenter, decided to try and branch out and turn Halloween into an anthology series. It’s just too bad that they didn’t do it with a movie that was actually, you know, good. Now in theory I actually really like this idea. A cool way to get a new slice of Halloween themed horror every year, sign me up. However, in theory communism works too, in practice though you get Stalin.

Which isn’t to say that Halloween III is as bad as Stalin, no it’s actually worse.

The movie has gained a minor cult following thanks to its odd man out reputation, but I still find it to be borderline unwatchable. It’s a dull, profoundly stupid movie with one of the worst heroes of all time that barely works as kitsch. OK in all fairness there are some moments that work pretty damn well as kitsch. The plot which sails past convoluted and into the realm of performance art, involves a drunken wife cheatin doctor who must stop the evil conspiracy of a costume company that’s run by robotic druids who are planning to kill the world’s children with evil Halloween masks, which contain pieces of an evil space rock, and a damn catchy commericial.

I swear to Christ that I didn’t just make that up, or imagine it in a peyote fueled nightmare. That’s the plot. The actual plot of Halloween 3. Someone took that idea to John Carpenter and he thought it was a good one. He then took this idea to people. People with money and they also thought that it was a good enough idea to invest money in. I… I… The mind boggles. But did you notice the really strange thing in that garbled half sane batch of mad libs plotting. No Witches! Hey I know. There’s Robo Druids but not Witches.

Now look I enjoy the sight of little children in pain as much as the next guy. But the fetishtic detail that the movie devotes to their writhing little bodies crosses the line from creepy to "Wait what the fuck?"



There are few people who are as intrinsically fun to watch as Tom Atkins, but his character is too much of a stupid dick for even him to be enjoyable. Let’s examine the ending for a moment. Atkins is in a gas station arguing with the Television station trying to get them to not run the evil ads. A group of kids come in and start flicking through the channels, trying to find the silver shamrock ad which will make snakes explode from their heads. Oh by the way Atkins knows they'll do this.

So what does Atkins do? Does he warn them. Tell them to stop? Turn off the TV? Tell them to take the fucking masks off? NO! HE SITS THERE AND WATCHES TO SEE WHAT WILL HAPPEN!!!



Now in the truth in criticism department, it’s worth noting that this movie did spawn the theme song I’ve been using for the past two years as the logo for this very event, and the fact that I’ve talked about a metric ton of shit about it, might come off as hypocritical, and just plain weird. But come on listen to that thing tell me it’s not gold I dare you!


Anyway I’m not going to show any mercy just because this blind one legged squirrel actually did find a nut.

Anyway if you want to watch the guy from Night Of The Creeps fight robo druids, to keep childrens heads from melting… Wait Goddamn I’m making the movie sound awesome again.

Halloween III it sucks you’ve got to believe me.

5 comments:

Elwood Jones said...

Ha! Ha! I love that last line.

Halloween 3 could have lead to such great things, but instead it's now seen as the Halloween were Michael was on Vacation.
I think this film is only rivaled by part 6, for directions to take the series that never really worked out. (I tend to ignore all those MTV years I.e "H20" etc)

Shaun S said...

Great post, I gotta agree that I like the premise of the movie and the series, but it failed in the end. I imagine I will write this one up sometime this month as well. Added your blog to list of followed blogs on my site by the way. Keep up the good work.

Wings1295 said...

It's enjoyable for the totally, completely, batshit crazy movie it is. Sense? We don't need to freaking sense! Give me last minute plots and stonehenge and robots and Halloween masks! YEEHAA!

Bryce Wilson said...

Elwood- Yeah I've run into alot of people who actually like H20. It's bizarre. H20 is like a Halloween movie on Qualudes.

Shaun- Thanks Alot! I've got your's up as well.

Wings- Trust me I love a crazy ass nonsensical horror movie as much as the next guy. (Actually probably alot more then the next guy) but there comes a point.

deadlydolls said...

Could not agree more about the dull sleepiness of H20.
HOWEVER: Halloween III is funtastic.

Why? First of all, other than part II, has any Halloween sequel been anywhere near memorable? Season of the Witch is a mess, but I'll take an ambitious mess over a by-the-numbers slasher like Part 4 any day. Atkins is a joy, the plot is ridiculous, the ending nasty and brave. The only disappointing factor is that in the right hands, this idea--both switching the franchise and these killer masks--could have been something of note. Just look at the original movie poster (the red with the witchy silhouettes) to see what I mean.

So yes, it's a bad film, but a bad film worth watching and loving as opposed to a mediocre bland film worth watching and discarding.

Sil-ver Shamrock!