Halloween III - Il signore della notte

Saw this film again recently after watching it as a kid in the 80s. Nobody else seems to like this film but personally i thought it was great. Maybe its because I'm a sucker for nostalgia and 80's B Movie 'shockers' and sci-fi generally, but also because I love Carpenter's work, especially from this period (and even though he didn't direct this he did produce it and it has many of his hallmarks) - The score is excellent and the whole film has the mood of a period of film-making that is forever imprinted upon my psyche. The story is typically ludicrous and fanciful to the extreme, (the theft of parts of Stonehenge and transportation to Western US for example, and the formation of snakes and insects out of thin air, but then we are talking witchcraft here so fair enough...)

A very bizarrely positioned film in a series that was both preceded and succeeded by psycho-killer Micheal Myers' character, this is in my opinion a little b-movie gem.

Let's get some things straight...

The only real reason people seem to hate this film is because Michael Myers was absent.

For those who don't know, John Carpenter and crew decided since Michael Myers was dead at the end of HalloweeN II, there was no reason to continue on with his story. The decision was to go ahead with the series making each new installment a different story revolving around the Halloween season. Personally, I think this was a wise decision. But after everyone saw it they were screaming 'That wasn't a Halloween movie! Where was Michael?'. Obviously the majority of the audience would rather more Michael Myers rampages than creepy stories set around Halloween time.

Oh well, this movie gives a taste of where the series could have and should have went, before the disappointing HalloweeN 4.

Overall, the acting is top notch. Tom Atkins is a great actor. The soundtrack is one of my favorite John Carpenter scores ever. It has themes, but it's more about synthesized mood and pulsating rhythms. The cinematography by the great Dean Cundey is fabulous. And the entire feel of the film is very unsettling. The film literally freaks me out.

I recommend all of you that diss the film, to check it out once more. Keep an open mind. If this hadn't been a part of the HalloweeN series you would probably like it.

As for myself, I'm glad that this carries the HalloweeN title. Th rest of the films didn't pick up until HalloweeN H2O which is a very worthy entry.

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.

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.

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.