Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (Movie #59)

People rag on this movie a lot,and I kind of understand why. Supposedly, John Carpenter's original idea with the Halloween movies was to make each subsequent movie about a different scary horror concept, but the studio convinced him to write the script for Halloween 2 as though it were a direct sequel that brought back Michael Myers, so he did it against his better judgment,with the stipulation that he be allowed to make Halloween 3 as a totally different scary story concept not related to the Michael Myers mythos. That was the downfall, I think. People saw that Halloween 2 had Michael Myers, so after that, they expected ALL the movies to have Michael Myers, so when THIS movie came out, people didn't want to watch a Halloween movie without Michael Myers. It doesn't help that this movie is so esoteric. It's something I would have loved as a kid,but once you get older, the idea of Halloween masks that take over and kill you seems something better suited to an R. L. Stine novel and not something grown-ups should watch in a horror movie. Not only that, but the "villain" is over-the-top like the narrator of a kid's Halloween special, and while it works for the role, it makes the whole thing seem...well, a little juvenile. Not that I'm bothered by that. I love watching "Are You Afraid of the Dark" and other scary things marketed at kids, but people who wanted to see another brutal Halloween massacre won't take kindly to all of this kiddie spook show crap.

The movie itself isn't bad,really. I mean, the acting is kind of bad, and the plot is a little far-fetched (masks that are evil, people who try to stop the evil plot get killed by superhuman seeming guys who act like robots, this is all a plot by a mask-making company run by a creepy over-the-top old guy who thinks Halloween is too commercial, etc.) It's not bad tho0ugh, I mean, I've seen far worse,and again, I think this only suffers because of its connection with the other Halloween movies. People wanted to see Michal Myers going on a rampage and instead they got this,and then they got pissy. I like this movie, though. I like the idea of Halloween returning to its roots of corrupting children, and some guy trying to stop it (even if his plan to stop it is so laughable that there's no way anyone but a kid would buy it...are you sure this isn't a kid's movie?)

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