Halloween III: Season of the Witch

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Halloween III: Season of the Witch

R

1982

1h 38m

Holiday

Horror

Mystery & Thriller

Sci-Fi

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

48%

Tomatometer

44 Reviews

31%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Hospital emergency room Dr. Daniel "Dan" Challis (Tom Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin), the daughter of a murder victim, uncover a terrible plot by small-town mask maker Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy), a madman who's planning a Halloween mass murder utilizing an ancient Celtic ritual. The ritual involves a boulder stolen from Stonehenge, the use of Silver Shamrock masks and a triggering device contained in a television commercial -- all designed to kill millions of children.

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Critics Consensus

Its laudable deviation from series formula not withstanding, Halloween III: Season Of The Witch offers paltry thrills and dubious plotting.

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Michael Maza

Arizona Republic

Dec 22

Wallace works in indictments of American television and the current state of parenting that are far more compelling than anything in Halloween or Halloween II.

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David Elliott

USA Today

Dec 13

Director Tommy Lee Wallace apes the manipulations of series founder John Carpenter yet lacks his gifts for kicks.

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Chris Stuckmann

ChrisStuckmann.com

11/03/2018

D-

Absolutely atrocious. I admire the fact that they did try to propel the story in a different direction. But the story they chose was insanely boring.

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Richard Freedman

Newark Star-Ledger

1d

"Halloween III" is reasonably sophisticated about its gruesomeness.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Jan 1

2.5/4

Halloween III, while not a complete success, at least offers something different from the norm.

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Jeremy Aspinall

Radio Times

Dec 17

2/5

Ultimately, it's the lack of directorial finesse and the rancid look of the piece that condemns it to the sump of 1980s horror.

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Nov 1

I fulfilled a lifelong dream seeing this in person at the cinema. I know these re-releases of old stuff may not sell as well as the big blockbusters, but please do this again next year!! I really believe youre servicing an entirely new audience when offering older movies such as this one!

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Nov 1

I would love a sequel to this.

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Cyns Corner

2d

NOTE: Transferred review from Letterboxd. Re-watched on October 7, 2021, when it came back to the big screen. Got the chance to rewatch this again after several years. Saw it at my local cinema in early October 2021. Video review: https://youtu.be/_SyE8PpvL3c

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Sam M

@Hourglass 3d

Halloween III: Season Of The Witch is one of my favourite movies ever, I love the concept, this movie focuses on both atmosphere and kills, Tom Atkins does great in this movie, and it’s a very underrated Masterpiece

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Lisa M

@Lisa66kayd 3d

This was the scariest film from my childhood I can remember watching. To be fair the whole film is out of it and original willing to ignore the ugly age gap between the love angle

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TheMovieSearch R

@TheMovieSearch 4d

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is one of the most discouraging missteps in horror franchise history, largely because of what it isn’t. After the first two films firmly established Michael Myers as the face of Halloween, this entry’s complete lack of him felt misleading and disappointing. Audiences expected a continuation and instead got something entirely unrelated. The problem isn’t just the absence of Michael Myers—it’s that the film never should have been placed within this franchise at all. The screenplay is messy, inconsistent, and often ridiculous, leaning into strange concepts involving masks and factories without any credible buildup or tension. Rather than feeling suspenseful, the movie often plays like an unintentional joke Direction doesn’t help, as the tone shifts awkwardly between sci-fi, horror, and absurdity. What makes it more frustrating is that the film might have worked as a standalone project under a different title. But as a Halloween film, it feels misplaced

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Tommy Lee Wallace

Director

Tom Atkins

Daniel Challis

Stacey Nelkin

Ellie Grimbridge

Dan O'Herlihy

Conal Cochran

Ralph Strait

Buddy Kupfer

Michael Currie

Rafferty

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Synopsis

Hospital emergency room Dr. Daniel "Dan" Challis (Tom Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin), the daughter of a murder victim, uncover a terrible plot by small-town mask maker Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy), a madman who's planning a Halloween mass murder utilizing an ancient Celtic ritual. The ritual involves a boulder stolen from Stonehenge, the use of Silver Shamrock masks and a triggering device contained in a television commercial -- all designed to kill millions of children.

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Producer: John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Screenwriter: Tommy Lee Wallace
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures, Dino De Laurentiis Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Holiday, Horror, Mystery & Thriller, Sci-Fi
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 22, 1982, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 11, 2015
Runtime: 1h 38m
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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