Sunday, August 21, 2011

Movie review – “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” (1983) ***

Not many people like this entry in the Halloween series – it doesn’t feature Michael Myers and doesn’t involve a maniac running around knifing people. But I’ve always liked it – partly because I saw it when I was a kid and it scared the crap out of me, with its spooky night scenes of slow cars coming over the horizon.

The plot has doctor Tom Atkins investigate the mysterious murder of a patient because seemingly he wants to (a) get to the bottom (b) have sex with the dead man's hot daughter (c) avoid spending time with his wife and kids. So he takes off a few days of work and goes to one of those small coastal towns so beloved by John Carpenter, and discovers a villainous plot to wipe out all the children in the world. 

The story has some flaws (what are they going to do about time zones), Atkins escapes from some messy situations rather easily, some of the acting is iffy... actually if I start picking I won't stop, but it's got a wonderful creepy atmosphere, the music is fantastic, Atkins is a strong hero (even if his character is a nob), Dan O'Herlihy offers good support, they actually kill a kid on screen. It's pretty creepy.

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