Halloween III: Season of the Witch

"The night no one comes home."

1982 1h 38m EN

😐

5.3

MID

★5.3TMDB · 1,604

HorrorScience FictionMysteryThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital clutching the year's most popular Halloween mask, Dr. Daniel Challis sets out to investigate the strange events and finds himself thrust into a nightmarish conspiracy.

“The night no one comes home.”

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Cast

Tom Atkins
Daniel Challis
Stacey Nelkin
Ellie Grimbridge
Dan O'Herlihy
Conal Cochran
Michael Currie
Rafferty
Ralph Strait
Buddy Kupfer
Jadeen Barbor
Betty Kupfer
Brad Schacter
Little Buddy
Garn Stephens
Marge

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Writers: Nigel Kneale, Tommy Lee Wallace
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $2.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.8× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

44 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Halloween Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Carpenter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Millie Moore shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin and Dan O'Herlihy carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Tommy Lee Wallace directs. Dean Cundey behind the camera. John Carpenter scores. Millie Moore cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $2.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Made its money back 5.8× over at the box office.
344 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "Halloween Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, shot by Dean Cundey. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by John Carpenter. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Millie Moore shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin and Dan O'Herlihy carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "The night no one comes home.".
10IMDB entry: tt0085636 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 17 themes, including "mask", "factory", "commercial", "gas station".
12Released under 20 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Dean Cundey
Original score: John Carpenter
Editing: Millie Moore
Production design: Peter Jamison
Makeup / hair: Thomas R. Burman
Sound: James Cavarretta
Stunt coordinator: Dick Warlock
Runtime: 98 min · 1h 38m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $2,500,000
Box office: $14,402,425
Return: 576% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Part of

Halloween Collection

Halloween is a horror film series that consists of slasher films focused on the fictional character of Michael Myers. Michael's killings occur on the holiday of Halloween, on which all of the films primarily take place. Originally intended to be an anthology franchise, the only film that doesn't feature Michael or any of the characters from previous films is Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). However, audiences were unhappy with Michael's disappearance, and he was eventually brought back for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).

Also by

Tommy Lee Wallace

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-11-03
★ 7/10
Conglomerate Carnage. A different animal to the Halloween films that preceded and followed it, Season of the Witch is slowly but surely gaining an appreciation as a standalone horror film. Gone is Michael Myers’ indestructible killing machine, in his place is the nefarious Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy), the owner of the Silver Shamrock corporation that specialises in Halloween masks. Cochran has a sinister plan this year - and it’s deadly - Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins) and Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin) are caught in the middle of the vile plot and may just be the only salvation to Americana. With Nigel Kneale involved in the writing process Season of the Witch is delightfully fiendish. There’s definite barbs being stung here about the commercialisation of holiday occasions, Cochran is intent on restoring Halloween to the true meaning of its origins, creating a Silver Shamrock world order in the process. Kneale would take his name off the credits when the studio tampered with his vision, a shame because his core essence remains - even if Cochran as a Warlock Wicker Man type could well have been genius. With John Carpenter and Debrah Hill over seeing things from their production chairs, the picture had supervision of some standing. Tommy Lee Wallace maybe directing but it feels like a Carpenter movie, from Dean Cundey’s photography - Carpenter’s foreboding synth musical score – and the sharpness of the horror scenes (which are excellent), it’s not hard to see the “non Michael Myers” Halloween series that Carpenter had envisaged after part 2 had been and gone. Boosted by an irritatingly potent advertisement jingle (a Silver Shamrock variation on London Bridge is Falling Down) that counts down the days to Halloween and the day of carnage, Season of the Witch is consistently gnawing away at the senses. Having Atkins and O’Herlihy propping up the acting helps, both are reliable performers for this material, while the race against time finale has edge of the seat credentials. It doesn’t all work of course, there’s some drag and the narrative feels schizophrenic at times, while if it wasn’t for Cundey’s camera work then Wallace’s inept direction of scenes would be over exposed. Yet as it asks Halloween franchise fans some forgiveness for not actually being part of the franchise, it delivers a smart sci-fi horror hybrid that’s not without shock and awe. 7/10
talisencrw2016-05-09
★ 8/10
I distinctly remember being in Grade 8 when the film came out, and for four major reasons: 1) The excellent TV commercial, with John Carpenter's spooky music and the spider crawling out of the mouth of the mask; 2) The decent book adaptation written for young adults, that I read at the time, and thoroughly enjoyed; 3) Karen Carpenter died of a heart attack from anorexia nervosa; and 4) Major songs on the radio around that time were 'Centerfold' by The J. Geils Band and 'Bette Davis Eyes' by Kim Carnes. Though I had not yet seen the previous two films and wasn't old enough (the R-rating, and my parents were somewhat strict about that kind of thing), I really wanted to see it, but over the years, I never really got around to it, until recently I found used the entire 'Halloween' franchise on a 10-blu ray pack, and no longer have any sort of excuse, really. I loved Wallace's work in 'Stephen King's It' (except for the last half-hour, but that's probably the book's fault and not the director's) and I thought his 'Vampires: Los Muertos' was rather underrated, so an added attraction for me was to watch his directorial debut here. He impressed me. I enjoyed the film and all of the extras on its blu ray very much. If you like horror films at all, you should watch this. Protagonists Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin are very good here, and I liked Dan O'Herlihy even better than when I had previously seen him in 'The Virgin Queen', 'Imitation of Life', 'The Cabinet of Caligari', 'Good Against Evil' and the first two 'RoboCop' films, and, as always, Dean Cundey provides excellent cinematographical work and the soundtrack by Carpenter and Alan Hogarth is dependably solid. Don't bother with the negative reviews that came out at the time the film was released: Most people were upset that the film didn't have Michael Myers in it, and didn't give it a chance. Find out for yourself--in my humble opinion, it's worth both purchasing and at least a rewatch.
Repo Jack2020-10-28
★ 6/10
A Halloween movie with no Michael Meyers? Given most of the sequels were dreck, the third outing is an entertaining watch as a Halloween-themed thriller.