Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Short description
Halloween III: Season of the Witch follows Dr. Daniel Challis, a hospital physician whose family life is falling apart, after a frightened toy salesman is brought in for treatment. The man has been attacked, and he arrives still holding one of the season's most popular Halloween masks. When he is killed in the hospital that night, Challis and Ellie Grimbridge, the dead man's daughter, set out to trace the mask back to its maker. Their investigation leads them to the small Northern California town of Santa Mira and to the Silver Shamrock Novelties company, run by the secretive Conal Cochran, whose masks are being pushed in an incessant television advertising campaign ahead of Halloween.
The film is directed and co-written by Tommy Lee Wallace, working from a screenplay he wrote with Nigel Kneale; Debra Hill, Dino De Laurentiis and John Carpenter produced. Tom Atkins plays Challis, Stacey Nelkin plays Ellie, and Dan O'Herlihy plays Cochran, with Michael Currie, Ralph Strait and Jadeen Barbor among the credited cast of 27. It was Wallace's first directing credit and arrived in 1982, ahead of Fright Night Part 2 and Vampires: Los Muertos.
Made for about 3 million dollars, it took roughly 14 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 5.9/10 from 69 votes and on TMDB 5.3/10 from 1,595 votes; a film critics' rating of 3.8/10 from 122 reviews places it below even those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- This film, released under the title “Halloween III”, has nothing to do with the previous stories. It doesn't even feature Michael Myers or Laurie Strode, which was John Carpenter's condition for continuing the series.
- John Carpenter did not intend to continue the franchise after the first film about Michael Myers. He wanted to make all the Halloween films with different plots, but the first film from 1978 was so successful that the producers insisted on using Myers. He had “killed” Myers and Loomis hoping to be done with them, then became a producer on this film, but the audience was already waiting for Myers specifically, so Carpenter’s plan didn’t work out. He subsequently sold the rights to use the character, and in 1988 the new owners “revived” both Myers and Loomis, without bothering much with the plausibility of how they managed to survive.
- It took over 40 takes to film the scene where Tom Atkins throws the mask at the security camera.
- Garn Stephens refused to wear a protective mask during the filming of the scene with the misfire, so it had to be filmed with a stunt double.
- Stacey Nelkin recounted that she got the role because she was dating Perry King when he was working on the miniseries “The Last Packard” (1979), where she met makeup artist Ron Walters. Several years later, Walters joined the creative team of “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” and recommended her for one of the roles. She herself was not attracted to filming in horror movies, but her agent convinced her to at least read the script, and she really liked the character of Ellie. She auditioned and was approved for the role. The script required her to be partially undressed in one scene, something she had never done before, but the actress was willing to do even that.
- Initially, Nigel Neil (1922-2006) was the screenwriter, but upon seeing how bloody the film turned out, he demanded through the courts that his name be removed from the credits.
- Originally, it wasn't intended for the film's ending to be shown over the credits. The plan was for the screams of millions of children to be heard during the credits. Director Tommy Lee Wallace decided against adding the screams to leave the ending ambiguous and to allow someone to believe the children were saved. When lead actor Tom Atkins saw this ending, he also liked it, stating that it allowed him to imagine his efforts weren't in vain and that at least his own children had survived.
- At the 24th minute, before leaving the city, Debelzak says: "The distance is about 400 leagues. That's no more than 6 days' journey." Given that one league is 3 miles (about 4800 meters), the group will have to travel about 320 kilometers per day.
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