Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Watched July 16, 2012

1982
Starring: Tom Atkins, Stacy Nelkin and Dan O' Herlihy and the weirdo little brother from Teen Witch; Joshua John Miller.

 Warning: There are no witches in this movie.

I found out there are a couple of unrelated movies that share the title Season of the Witch.  The first on my list to watch was Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Much like Troll 2, this movie has nothing to do with the previous movies. There is no mention of Michael Meyers or Laurie Strode.

 It begins with a guy running away from an evil matrix-like guy. The man is almost murdered by the matrix guy,  he ends up in the hospital clutching a mask. He is then strangled by a different matrix dude, who then gets in his car and douses himself with gasoline and sets himself ablaze. Dr. Challis (Tom Atkins)  watches this happen and has to explain the death to the man's daughter Ellie (Stacy Nelkin.)  Dr. Challis is a gross old dude, but all the ladies seem to want a piece of him.  Dr. Challis and Ellie team up to find out what happened to her dad.  They head up the the Silver Shamrock Novelty factory where the mask was made. This is where the real plot unfolds. The head of the Silver Shamrock company Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy) has a super evil plan for the upcoming Halloween. He has put microchips that contain stolen pieces of Stonehenge rock into the masks he is selling. On Halloween as the kids watch a special program it will activate the masks and kill all the kids. Why he wants to do this is never explained, or I missed it anyway.  Dr. Challis finds out the plan and tries to stop it, it seems like he has done it by calling the TV stations and telling them to stop the broadcast. As the screen goes black you hear the Silver Shamrock theme and it's assumed that all the kids are exploding with blood and bugs.

I wouldn't recommend this. It's pretty slow and the plot doesn't make much sense.  The beginning is kind of awesome as it's a zoomed in computer screen that slowly reveals a digital jack 'o' lattern. The Silver Shamrock commercial for the masks is pretty awesome with it's minimal electro beats even though it's played a million times. You don't root for any of the characters as Dr. Challis is a horrible dad and Ellie turns into a robot. I like the idea of trying a new story since Michael Meyers died in Halloween II, but this one is not a winner.