Halloween III: The Unforgettable-Forgettable Sequel

MIKE:  Eight more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween/ Eight more days to Halloween/ Silver Shamrock!

MAX:  Stop it. 

MIKE:  Eight more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...

MAX:  For god's sake, stop it. 

MIKE:  Eight more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...

MAX:  Stop it. Stop it. 

MIKE:  Eight more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...

MAX:  STOP IIIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MIKE:  What's the matter?  Don't you have a Halloween spirit?

MAX:  No!

MIKE:  The concept of the Halloween franchise, as originally conceived by producers/writers John Carpenter and Debra Hill, was that each new Halloween movie was to be a different story.  The original film and its sequel followed Michael Myers (a mask wearing, knife wielding killer) chasing after the sweet, innocent Lori Strode (played by Jamie Lee Curtis).  The first film was a ground breaking movie in the horror genre, and fans gobbled it up; they wanted more of this Myers character, and when they saw that there was going to be a Halloween III, the masses cheered.  However, Halloween III: Season of the Witch didn't deliver on the Mike Myers goods, and fans called foul.  Out of the said franchise, Season of the Witch is often considered to be the worst film of the bunch.  I disagree whole heartedly with that point of view, and consider this movie to be completely under-appreciated for what it was trying to do: tell a new, original horror story that takes place on Halloween.  I love my killers (Freddy, Jason, and Michael), but franchises have a way of deluding those characters and stories into walking, slashing clichés.  Halloween III is a fun horror movie with an interesting concept that deals with ancient Celtic practices and myths.  I think it's funny that Max and I have reviewed two movies this month (Trick’r Treat being the other) that deal with ancient traditions and folklore.  Maybe that's why I love this movie so much...that and Tom Atkins, of course. 

MAX:  Agreed.  The first time I saw Halloween III: Season of the Witch, I was in high school and it was playing in the afternoon on AMC during their annual month long October horror movie marathon.  I was so excited to watch it because I thought it was a Michael Myers movie that I'd never seen before, though I soon learned that it had absolutely nothing to do with the previous Halloween films.  By the end of the movie, I remember being bored and really irritated that I had just wasted 2 hours of my life on this weirdness.  Now, today, I absolutely love it.  That's because if you're a real horror fan, you have to love Halloween III.  You have to love Halloween III because you toughed it out and sat through it, and the more you think about it, it's actually a very fun movie with a cheesy (but amazing) plot.  It may seem outrageous to say this, but I think if more modern horror movies displayed the kind of imagination that went into Halloween III, we'd have a better bunch of movies out today.  That's because Halloween III was a labor of love.  It may have been a box office failure but it will always be considered (an arguable) genre success. 

MIKE:  What might be the movie's down fall, is probably its greatest triumph: the ridiculous acting.  What helps the viewer to mull through this film's story are the actors, lead by none other than Tom Atkins.  I'm going to attempt to spare the reader my man-love-obsession with Mr. Atkins, but the man is a fucking genius when it comes to being a character actor, and he IS quite the character in every movie I've seen him in (Night of the Creeps being my favorite Atkins film).  Atkins gives life to an otherwise dull character, Dr. Daniel Challis (I don't even like the name).  His interactions with all of the other characters, especially the female ones who seem to undress Atkins with their eyes, give this film the perfect lightheartedness to unsettle the viewer from the horrors taking place.  I'm personally a fan of the special effects (though, by far, not nearly as good as other classic horror films), and the creepy men in suits who turn up whenever the shit is about to hit the fan. 

MAX:  Tom Atkins, in my opinion, is probably the spiritual figure-head of 80's horror.  Whether he's a dad that hates "horror crap", a tired beat detective, or an alcoholic sea-faring bachelor, Atkins always manages to bring a fantastic combination of masculine bravado, cheap cologne and Schlitz to every role he's in.  However, (aside from Night of the Creeps), I think it's Halloween III where Atkins really shines.  The way he pats the nurse on the butt, flirts with female doctors, and avoids his ex-wife and children to go play "Sherlock" with a suspiciously young girl in a cheap motel, you kind of just have to admire this guy.  Besides that, I love the way he rattles off lines like, "Slow down, slow down.  It's getting late and I could use a drink."    This is truly his movie.  Atkins sells the whole thing. 

MIKE:  Agreed.  Atkins is always given the best catch phrases.  However, the actual plot is a bit like trying to swallow a jagged jawbreaker whole--it ain't going to happen.  A news report near the beginning of the movie explains that one of the famous stones of Stonehenge has been mysteriously stolen, but this seems irrelevant given in which the movie starts off (a guy running away from strange men wearing suits, while holding a pumpkin mask).  Honestly, the lack of interest in this news piece as seen by the characters (hell, even the announcer of the story lacks any emotional care or curiosity about a two-ton ancient stone vanishing without a trace), makes the brief clip forgettable.  I know I wasn't thinking about it when it's revealed to be hiding in one of the warehouses at the Silver Shamrock factory. The idea is that a Warlock, guised as an elderly business man, is harnessing the power of this particular stone (the moon stone to be specific) to murder a bunch of kids, because the stars and planets are perfectly aligned and ancient practices requires a sacrifice.  The reasoning is not very clear, except that the junction or equinox, or whatever demands for blood to be spilled.  It sounds like I'm bashing the movie, but I'm not.  I really enjoy this concept, though I think the execution misfired. 

MAX:  Atkins (to girl): Misfire? What the hell were they talking about?

MAX(continued):  You are absolutely right in that this is a misfire, and a very enjoyable one at that.  I think it's the fact that they aimed so high with the occult/Stonehenge angle.  You just can't make references to Stonehenge and have it not be funny...I mean, think about This is Spinal Tap!  Of course, it's the absolute seriousness with which this plot is treated that puts things over the edge and makes the movie so ultimately endearing.   The protagonists in this film are staying in an Irish town in California by the name of Santa Mira, where they are trying to infiltrate a Halloween-mask making company called Silver Shamrock.  I don't think a screenplay with that premise could ever get sold today, and the enthusiasm with which they tried to push the suspense in this basically dead story is beyond commendable, it's applaudable.  Somehow, at least for die-hard horror fanatics, this movie still possesses re-watchability.  I would attribute that in part to the influence of Carpenter and Hill as producers.  This film has the "classic Carpenter" feeling to it both in the synth heavy score and soft glowing visuals.  And of course where the visuals are concerned, I can't neglect to mention Dean Cundey.  Carpenter's always faithful cinematographer really serves it up in this movie, adding an atmospheric touch to scenes that could have just as easily looked bland and banal. 

MIKE:  I think what we need to do here, though we've pretty much have gone through half of the review without really talking about it, is explain the story to our viewers.  Dr Daniel "Dan" Challis (again, a really bad character name) played by our favorite Tom Atkins, works at a hospital when a strange man, clutching a child's Halloween mask, and gripped in silent fear, manages to mumble to the doctor, "They're going to kill us.  All of us!"  Challis brushes of the man's rants as mere hysteria, but the mystery thickens when a strange tall man, wearing a business suit and black gloves, visits the patient at the hospital and breaks his skull.  The man in the suit then goes to his car and sets himself on fire (made me think of a modern-day terrorist of sorts), and leaves behind only charred remains of metal, plastic, and gear bits.  Challis is then visited by the dead patient's daughter, Ellie Grimbridge (another really bad sounding character name), and the two of them go to a small town to investigate the mask making factory the Silver Shamrock, and become entangled in the town's dark secrets. 

MAX:  Yeah once Challis and Ellie are entangled in the creepy town, the darkness begins to emerge piece by piece, kind of like in a Lovecraft story.  Except unlike Lovecraft, I'm not sure I would say that the town's secret reveals anything truly "horrifying," per say.  The conspiracy behind the Silver Shamrock Factory, which you alluded to earlier, is absolutely fantastic. While it is, in most ways, a very satisfying explanation, it’s still just comes off more corny than scary.  At the same time, while the moments of action and suspense in this film are not all that scary, there are still some really great special effects that honestly never get old for me.  The effects in this movie are about as fun to watch as any other movie from this era.  No one who loves 80's horror can really forget that part in the motel bed, or the Kupfer family's test viewing of that catchy Silver Shamrock commercial. 

MIKE:  Snakes, grubs, and bugs. Oh my! 

MAX:  I think there is something so wrong about that scene...once again...I'm not going to say it's scary...but you just don't see a lot of children meeting with gruesome deaths like that these days...not in such a graphic way, anyhow.  Maybe it's the fact that it happens in front of his parents...I don't know.

MIKE:  I think what works for that scene in particular is that you never think to yourself, "Gee, I hope this mask that I'm buying doesn't cause my head to burst open like a piñata, spilling creepy crawly things all over the place." 

MAX:  So, so true.  It's such a weird idea I almost have to wonder how they came up with it.  In a way, that's kind of how I feel about the whole story line...that it's just a bunch of ridiculous half-baked ideas that one would never actually commit to paper.  Yet in this case the writers actually did.  And it's commendable too.

MAX(continued):  Also that Silver Shamrock theme song....It's like the horror movie version of "The Song That Doesn't End" from Lamb Chop.  I mean, that song alone, kind of makes the whole movie for me. 

MIKE:  I bet the idea behind this story stems from some writer's kid going, "This would be totally gross...such and such," and then the writer going, "I've got nothing better than this."

MIKE(continued):  I agree that the music is infectious.  Once I start thinking about it I can't get it out of my head: the carnival music repeats over and over, and then the words repeat over and over...AAAAHHHHH!!!!  GET OUT...OF...MY...MIND!!!!! 

MAX:  Well with that iconic jingle firmly stuck in our heads, it's time to weigh in with our Bloody Nubs of approval for this film.  Personally, while I acknowledge people's distaste for this movie, I would encourage people who have already seen it to go back and watch it with a more open mind.  This is not really part of the Halloween franchise, but it is a quintessential Halloween movie all the same.  If you are looking for something truly creepy to watch, you may want to stick with Freddy or Michael, but if you want to watch a seasonal movie that is laugh out loud fun and goofy, this is a sure thing!  I give it one Bloody Nub down for being not such a great movie, but another Bloody Nub up for consistently kicking ass!

MIKE:  Tom Atkins makes Halloween III: Season of the Witch worth viewing.  He takes the crappiest screenplay and turns it into pure gold by portraying his character very seriously.  This movie fails to do what Carpenter and Hill intended it to do, which was to tell another gripping horror story that takes place on Halloween night, and unfortunately sets up the rest of the franchise to rape the hell out of Michael Myers with shittier storytelling.  I give this film one Bloody Nub up for originality and Atkins, but one MAJOR Bloody Nub down for basically begging the studio to revisit and fuck up the original Michael Myers story.

Seasons Greetings!

MIKE:  Hey, Max!  I've got a couple of movies we can watch tonight.

MAX:  Oh, really?  What have you got?  Something Halloween appropriate?

MIKE:  Of course!  We can watch Trick'r Treat...

MAX:  Yeah that sounds like it would be a good pick for the month of Halloween...

MIKE:  ...or--wait for it--It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! 

MIKE:  Whatcha think?

MAX:  What?  CHARLIE BROWN IS AN ASSHOLE.

MIKE:  Trick'r Treat it is.  Roll it!

MAX:  Trick 'r Treat (2007) is a fun, anthology horror movie that may be a modern heir to Creepshow.  The basic premise is that a small town is having their annual Halloween celebration, and in the mix of the festivities, a number of strange and paranormal events happen, causing the lives (and deaths) of several townspeople to collide.  The opening credits and transitions between scenes are presented in the style of a classic era horror comic, lending these vignettes a fun vintage quality which we've come to expect from the likes of CREEPY and EC comics.  Most importantly, though, this movie is a love letter to Halloween.  The attention to Octoberisms like orange colored lights and fresh fallen leaves really makes for a nostalgic reminiscence on the joy of trick or treating.  This is a good one to watch while carving a jack o’lantern, or with a bowl full of candy corns to eat.

MIKE:  Trick'r Treat is a love letter to the myths and urban legends of Halloween--I would be hesitant to say that I get a nostalgic feeling while watching this movie, because I don't remember razors in candy bars or carving jack o’lanterns out of a severed child's head.  However, the stories you heard as a kid, "Always check your candy; Never walk alone, always go with a friend; wear reflective strips," were things I was told about.  That's what I love about Trick'r Treat, it plays off of those superstitions, and then digs up some of the older mythos (think pilgrims and even later than that), and plays them out perfectly.  The opening sequence is one of the best we've reviewed, thus far.  We almost see the entire cast from low angle shots, as this fat little boy, with chocolate stains around his lips, walks throughout the town and into the suburban neighborhood where he is knocking over pumpkins.  I loved this concept of tying in all of the stories together, even if the characters really don't interact with one and other, except with a bump in passing, or the turning of a head to overhear a bit of dialog.

MAX:  Well, from the sound of it, Mike, you had some rather dull Halloweens.  My family always hid razors in the candy bars and every year we carved a minimum of one jack o’lantern from a child's severed head.  Anyway, I agree with you about the way they managed to tie the stories together, here.  I also liked that the characters don't really interact with one another, their paths just tend to cross by coincidence.  I see this in a lot of art films, but here it feels more natural, somehow.  Maybe that's because it's All Hallows Eve and anything can happen.

MIKE:  Sure, anything can happen on Halloween, but I think it's just the intelligent directing of Michael Dougherty that keeps this film so neatly tied up.  I love the introduction to Sam, the spirit of Halloween: he's a potato sack mask wearing, footy pajama costume, big-headed (literally) kid who seems to affect each scene with his presence.  Do you remember that bit where the drunk husband and wife (a young couple) come home from the big Halloween party downtown, and the wife blows out the candle in the jack o’lantern, that was priceless.  The husband warns her not to, she asks why, and all he could say was, "Ancient tradition?"  Then she blows out the light and starts taking down the decorations.  Now, I'm the kind of guy who'll leave his decorations up well into the new year (black, rotting pumpkins look so cool covered in snow), so I was appalled by her lack of love and respect for the holiday (my favorite holiday, I might add).  Sam must have shared my sentiments, because he hides in the basket where she is tossing all of the sheets used to make up the ghosts in the yard, and when he pops up, slashing at her with a jagged lolly pop, I was cheering for little guy to cut her up.  The look on the faces of the kids walking by as they see blood (the fight is obscured by the sheet) squirts and splatters from under the sheet, is hilarious.  This is one of the best setups to a horror film that we've seen in a long time.  Am I gushing too much?

MAX:  No I don't think so.  I gush pumpkin guts all over the opening sequence of this movie.  Sam is the narrator of sorts, and even though he doesn't say anything, the way in which he observes characters (and sometimes interferes) is very telling.  I think another real strength of this movie is the casting.  In the scene we both previously mentioned involving the candy bar razor and child decapitation, we get a (surprisingly) comedic interplay between Charlie (Brett Kelly of Bad Santa fame) and Principal Steven Wilkins (Dylan Baker, or as we might remember him, the uber-creepy father from Happiness).  The interesting thing about Baker in this part is that it's almost a natural reprise of the earlier role, in that he is still a "responsible" father figure and school principal, but also someone capable of harming children.  And then of course there’s Anna Paquin in the role of the mysterious red riding hood, "Danielle." I'll confess I'm not a big fan of the True Blood series, but whenever I watch her in this movie, I wish that I was.

MIKE:  I hear Anna Paquin is really hot in the True Blood series, but I'm a bit burnt out on Vampires, and I'm not a big fan of Charlaine Harris' writing.  What I think is interesting about Paquin and her friends (Her older sister and two other girls), is what the audience isn’t picking up on, because they seem perfectly normal.  In fact, I would have thought that they would all die horribly, because they come across as the typical slutty girls that ALWAYS die in the horror movie.  When the girls' true forms are finally revealed (at an awesome bon fire blood orgy, no less) lines like, "I ate bad Mexican," become clear.  It's one of my favorite scenes, because the transformations are so amazing. 

MAX:  I love the werewolf transformation that the girls do in this movie.  It really gives new meaning to the term, "strip show."  Ha-ha-ha-ha!  No seriously, though, the collective feeding the girls do on that group of unsuspecting males is really the atmospheric high point of this film.  I love how they softly scored it to Marilyn Manson's cover of Sweet Dreams, and the orange harvest moon in the sky at the end of that sequence is a nice touch.

MIKE:  You know what else was a nice touch? No CGI.

MAX:  Yes.  That is one of the nice things about this movie, isn't it?

MIKE:  The special effects (transformations, blood, and gore) were awesome.  I even loved the fake death scenes that the kids do when they play a mean trick on the unsuspecting Rhonda (she seems a bit mentally not that).  The attention to detail is beautiful, and very unsettling.  I think it will leave the viewers squirming in their seats.

MAX:  Yes, that segment where the kids perform the prank on Ronda is also strong.  No real FX needed there.  The kids in creepy-ass masks coming up from out of the water is enough to scare us plenty (both times it happens).  The history of those kids on the bus is one of the Halloween "urban legends" you mentioned earlier.  It's also the only story line that completely carries over into another part of the film. 

MIKE:  That's an interesting point that you make.  The story, which is supposed to be an urban legend, turns out to be true when those dead kids rise from the depths of the quarry (an amazing scene).  What I liked about the telling of the story is when you see the bus driver (who had gone down with the kids) emerge from the water, gasping, and with a permanent wheeze, because, if you were paying attention, you would have recognized that wheeze from an earlier scene when you hear Steven Wilkin's neighbor rambling and wheezing from behind the fence.

MAX:  Great observation.  While I certainly understood that old Mr. Kreeg was the bus driver by the end of the film, I never caught the wheezing connection you just made from that scene near the beginning.  I love it when directors drop subtle hints as to what we can expect.  Sometimes it takes me four or five viewings of a film before I pick up on that sort of thing.  What did you think about the end sequence involving Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox) and Sam in Kreeg's house?  I enjoy this part of the film because I think it's rich in atmosphere, and I also like the follow up with the urban legend, as we already mentioned.  On the other hand, I would say if one of the vignettes in Trick r Treat moves the slowest for me, this one would be it.  There is something about the pacing of this segment that drags a little.  I find that's not necessarily uncommon in anthology horror films.  In Creepshow I always tend to zone a little bit during the "Something to tide you Over" segment with Leslie Nielsen.  I don't think it's necessarily a reflection on the overall film in either case.  It's just that not every part of an anthology is going to make the same kind of impact, you know?

MIKE:  I think, much like the scene you mentioned from Creepshow, that it seems to play a bit more slowly, because it's supposed to be scary and funny.  Mr. Kreeg is utterly terrified of Sam--this supernatural kid who has broken into his house--and is going to extreme measures (e.g. a shot gun) to blow this creepy terror away.  Much like Leslie Nielson’s scene in Creepshow, where he goes to extreme and somewhat comical measures to kill Ted Danson's character (he has to watch his girlfriend drown, while, at the same time, he is drowning), the segments from both films, in my opinion, drags a little, because of the mix of humor and horror.  Let's be honest here, even though I love the Evil Dead series, there are parts that seem to drag, and that's because the building of suspense while incorporating humor needs a little more time to formulate.

MAX:  This is a really brilliant point you raise, Mike.  I agree that both of these segments are strong and I think the reason I respond to them the way that I do may be on account of my slight impatience with the humor/horror combo.  I am a big fan of the first Evil Dead, but the more comical that series became the more I basically lost interest.  There is definitely a lot of truth in what you are saying.  Humor/Horror scenarios take time to build and play out.  All the same, I do think humor has worked effectively in Trik r' Treat and all the film rounds out very strong.

MAX:  With that said, we trick or treaters in the balcony are ready to weigh in with our bloody nubs of approval for this film.  In my opinion, Trick r' Treat is a guaranteed goody for your pumpkin pail. If the vignettes in this anthology don't fill you with Hell-raisin’ Halloween spirit, I guarantee you are not a Halloween person. I give it two Bloody Nubs up!

MIKE:  Trick'r Treat encompasses everything that I love about Halloween and horror movies: a rich sense of fall, using all of the colors late October is known for, and the perfect utilization of suspense and terror that ties so neatly with other traditional Halloween horror stories.  I give Trick'r Treat two Bloody Nubs up.

MIKE:  Max do you have time to carve this jack o’lantern with me?

MAX:  Sure!

MIKE:  Don't forget to help me with the eyes.