Halloween III: El imperio de las brujas

I've read almost all of the reviews here and honestly, I cannot argue with many of the negative points that are raised here. The movie DOES use the "Halloween" name while having only one tiny thread of connection to the Michael Myers movies that came before it and would come later (and that thread, involving a lab technician, can be charitably described as really lame). It is boring in stretches, the idea of Tom Atkins hooking up with Stacey Nelkin is pretty ridiculous, and the plot makes no sense if you think about it for more than 5 seconds.

But I don't hate this film. Why? That's very simple. The first rule of a horror film is to scare the viewer and HALLOWEEN III has scared the hell out of me every time I've seen it! It's hard to pinpoint why, exactly, but the atmosphere of the movie is a huge factor. This film is jammed with ominous synthesized music (very 80's touch), cold and sharp-looking camera work, and a feeling of overwhelming dread and fear. It's very hard to establish atmosphere in any movie or TV show; I was talking about this movie with my brother--who said that he didn't think it was scary at all--and I compared it to THE X-FILES. Both that show and this movie were able to quickly drag me into their bizarre and frightening worlds.

I don't think I could flat-out recommend a movie with this many huge problems, but I'd say it might scare the viewer, and that's not so bad considering how many abysmal horror movies do nothing else right and cannot get that deceptively simple task completed, either.

The movie gets a bad rep for being a Halloween sequel. However, on its own as a b movie, I think its enjoyable. It is a little cheesy and doesn't really hold up well, but I think its a fun time. Some scenes are unintentionally funny, and the story is extremely dark, but its a fun Friday night movie. The soundtrack is awesome though. I think that's the best part of the movie. Chariot Of Pumpkins is a great track.

Despite all the flak that this movie catches, I think that it's a great horror movie. I don't think that it fits in well with the rest of the Halloween series, but as a stand alone film I think it gets the job done. There are two things that I mainly look for in a horror movie. One being creative death sequences, and two being a decent ending. This one delivers with both. I hate it when a horror movie is gritty and tough all the way through and follows up with a happy ending (Scream, Scream 2, should I continue?). Put your prejudices aside and I think you can enjoy this one.

For those of you who turn to 'Halloween' movies to get your Michael Myers on, you probably already know to avoid this movie like the plague. But, here is the truth. John Carpenter never wanted Michael Myers to become a series - he hated writing the second 'Halloween' - thought it was a totally useless concept that Michael turns out to be Laurie's uncle. That's why he blew him up at the end - so he didn't have to do the storyline anymore. Instead, he wanted to use the 'Halloween' title to come out with Halloween-themed movies - a new movie with a new them every year. I guess enough people didn't read that or understand what he wanted to do with it. Too bad. You're missing a decent show.

Halloween III (1982)

*** (out of 4)

Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) has a man show up in his hospital holding a Halloween mask and refusing to let it go. The man is eventually murdered so the doctor teams up with the man's daughter (Stacey Nelkin) to try and determine why. This leads to a Halloween mask factory and its bizarre owner (Dan O'Herlihy) who plans on killing off children using the masks.

HALLOWEEN III was a critical and commercial flop when it was released and you can go to any internet message board and mention this film and usually a fight will quickly break out. Most people can't stand the film because it doesn't feature Michael Myers. I understand that as I still remember the first time I rented this I couldn't help but keep waiting for Myers to show up and when he never did I felt cheated. That also meant whenever I'd watch a HALLOWEEN movie I'd skip this one because it didn't have Myers.

Looking back on the film, history is starting to be kind because once you get over the fact that it doesn't have Myers then you'll see that it's an actual good movie. The original idea by John Carpenter was to have a new subject for each movie. Of course that didn't happen with HALLOWEEN II and after this one turned out to be a disaster the series quickly went back to the scary guy. This film here has a lot in common with INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as you've got evil robots, a mad man and killer masks. Oh yeah, you've also got one of the most annoying songs in film history yet can you not sing along each time it comes on?

Another thing going in the film's favor are the two lead characters. Atkins is just a great blue collar guy and he's a lot of fun here. He has become a cult favorite over the years and it's easy to see why. Nelkin is also extremely good in her role and there's no doubt that the two work quite well together. O'Herlihy is also very good in his laid back approach to the mad scientist. There's also a nice score, some good cinematography and for the most part the story is good.

I do think the film runs on a bit too long and I think Roger Ebert was correct when he said it would have been better had we known why the guy wanted to kill off all the children. Perhaps another draft of the screenplay would have worked but either way, time has proved that HALLOWEEN III isn't nearly as bad as its early reputation.