Halloween III: Season of the Witch

"The night no one comes home."

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace Year: 1982 Runtime: 99 min IMDb: ⭐ 5.2
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Synopsis

A terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked, and at the hospital, babbles and clutches the year's most popular Halloween costume, an eerie pumpkin mask. Suddenly, Doctor Daniel Challis finds himself thrust into a terrifying nightmare.

On October 23, 1982, in Northern California, shop owner Harry Grimbridge, clutching a jack-o-lantern Halloween mask, is pursued by mysterious men in suits. He collapses at the shop of Walter Jones, who calls for help. Harry is taken to a hospital and placed in the care of Dr. Daniel Challis, an alcoholic doctor who has a strained relationship with his ex-wife Linda and two children Bella and Willie. Later that night, Harry is murdered by another suited man, who immolates himself in his car. After identifying his body, Harry's daughter Ellie meets Daniel to talk about the suspicious events surrounding Harry's death. They decide to investigate and travel to Santa Mira, California, hometown to the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory, which made the Halloween mask that Harry carried the night of his death. As they check in to a motel, Daniel learns that Harry had stayed there recently. Marge Guttman, another motel customer, discovers a microchip on the back of the medallion of one of the masks. The medallion emits a deadly energy beam into her mouth as she picks at it curiously with a hairpin. Her face is left mutilated, and an insect crawls out of her mouth. Shortly after, men in lab coats take Marge's body away in a Silver Shamrock van. Daniel overhears the factory technicians describing a "misfire" to factory owner Conal Cochran. While Daniel and Ellie tour the factory the following morning, Ellie finds her father's car, guarded by more men in suits who stop her from getting closer to it. They attempt to call the authorities as they flee, but Daniel cannot reach anyone outside of town by phone. Ellie is kidnapped and taken to the factory; Daniel follows and is captured by the men in suits, revealed to be androids Cochran created. Cochran takes Daniel to the "final processing" control room and reveals his plan: the microchip on each mask contains a fragment of Stonehenge that he stole. Upon viewing the "Big Giveaway" commercial, the microchips on the masks activate, killing the wearer with brain damage and releasing a swarm of insects and snakes that kill anyone nearby. Cochran demonstrates the power of the masks to Daniel by killing the Kupfer family who are visiting the factory. Cochran locks a mask-clad Daniel in a room and explains his plan to resurrect ancient rituals from his native Celtic lands, sacrificing children at Samhain, the pagan celebration of the coming winter. Daniel escapes his bonds and rescues Ellie. He sneaks into the control room, activates the commercial on the screens, and pours a box of the medallions from a ceiling rafter, killing everyone. The Stonehenge remnant kills Cochran and a massive fire destroys the factory. As they flee, Daniel is attacked by Ellie, who is now actually an android replacement, which he destroys after a struggle and car crash. He flees on foot to Walter's shop and frantically contacts television networks, attempting to stop the commercial broadcast. He succeeds with two networks, but seemingly fails with a third, despite screaming into the telephone, pleading with them to stop.

Summary adapted from TMDb and Wikipedia sources.

🎄 Holiday Cheer Breakdown

Holiday Cheer Level: 5

Content Warnings

⭐ IMDb Parents Guide 🛡️ Common Sense Media

someone is sexually assaulted
spoiler At least Agnes slaps him back.
a cat dies
spoiler A kitten is shown in one of the scenes (31:50 mark), but it is taken inside a house by its owner and is not harmed
there are spiders
spoiler Big one around the 42 minute mark.
there are bugs
spoiler Crickets, beetles, termites, etc. (I don't know they're bugs) crawl out of this kid's head and turn it to mush.
there are snakes
spoiler A Snake comes out of a kids face
someone leaves without saying goodbye
Yes
there's child abuse
Yes
a woman is brutalized for spectacle
Yes
someone is stalked
Yes
someone gets gaslighted
spoiler Sorta, with Rafferty et al telling everyone everything's fine, etc
there's addiction
spoiler The bum in Santa Mira is likely addicted to alcohol, and it's implied that Challis is as well.
alcohol abuse
spoiler Dr. Challis drinks too much, as does the wino in Santa Mira
someone uses drugs
Yes
someone is restrained
Yes
there's eye mutilation
spoiler At about 14 min in there’s a eye gouging scene in a hospital room.
there's excessive gore
Yes
there's torture
spoiler Arguably Cochran tortures Dan by forcing him to watch the 'demonstration'
there's body horror
Yes
heads get squashed
Yes
teeth are damaged
Yes
someone is burned alive
spoiler Car explosion
there's decapitation
Yes
someone's throat is mutilated
Yes
someone is crushed to death
Yes
there's amputation
spoiler A robot loses an arm that takes on a life of its own
someone struggles to breathe
spoiler There's a lot of choking/strangling in this movie.
someone asphyxiates
Yes
somebody is choked
Yes
someone has a seizure
spoiler Sorta--the kid who sees the Silver Shamrock commercial initially acts like he's having one in response to the flashing lights
Someone becomes unconscious
spoiler The man who dies at the beginning is briefly unconscious when brought into the hospital
a kid dies
spoiler A child dies onscreen in a disturbing, but not extremely graphic fashion, and many other children are implied to have died offscreen.
a major character dies
Yes
someone dies
Yes
a non-human character dies
Yes
A child's dear toy is destroyed
Yes
a parent dies
Yes
someone cheats
spoiler Atkins' character doesn't cheat on his wife since she's an ex, but he **does** on the blonde woman he's dating in the morgue.
a family member dies
spoiler A very disturbing death scene involving an entire family in the demonstration scene. As soon as the child in that scene puts on the Silver Shamrock mask, mute and look away.
someone is kidnapped
Yes
there are shower scenes
spoiler The younger main character does the obligatory "barely covered up" woman getting out of the shower bit while they're in the hotel.
there are mannequins
Yes
there are jump scares
Yes
someone vomits
spoiler First time: 1:01:29 - not true v* Personally, it wasn't triggering as it just oozes out of a humanoid robot's mouth. The main character pins him down and punches him in the stomach...and his arm goes through the robot's stomach relieving his blood is indeed Yellow. The yellow "blood" oozes out of the robot's mouth. Second time: 1:27:47 - also not true v* but worse than the first After main two characters drop the coins on the robot guys (they are in the rafters), one robot guy falls and the yellow "blood" expels from his mouth. More like v* than first but still not terribly triggering No audio either time only visual.
There's audio gore
Yes
someone wets/soils themselves
spoiler A kid says he needs the bathroom but that's it
there's spitting
Yes
there's incarceration
Yes
there's smoke or haze
Yes
a priceless artifact is destroyed
Yes
there's a hospital scene
spoiler The protagonist is a doctor, so much of the movie takes place in a hospital.
someone dies by suicide
spoiler It’s technically an android, but I guess it’s suicide.
Someone attempts suicide
Yes
there's misophonia
spoiler This movie is a misophonia nightmare; the term doesn't just relate to "chewing sounds" but many other things. The very repititious music can be a trigger as well as the kissing sounds in the sex scenes
there's body dysmorphia
spoiler Peoples heads turn into pumpkins and someone got a weird mouth face
there's a claustrophobic scene
spoiler crawling through vents
shaky cam is used
Yes
there's flashing lights or images
spoiler The very beginning of the movie, and every time the mask commercial comes on.
there's screaming
Yes
there is obscene language/gestures
spoiler Kid flips his mom off
there are sudden loud noises
Yes
someone is watched without knowing
Yes
the fourth wall is broken
Yes
there is a baby or unborn child
Yes
a minority is misrepresented
spoiler No, Idk why this says Yes.
someone speaks hate speech
spoiler No, although this is the most oddly racist against the Irish film you're likely to see
the black guy dies first
spoiler The few black characters in the film all survive until the end.
there's a large age gap
spoiler The main character has sex with a younger woman and only asks her after how old she is.
religion is discussed
Yes
there is sexual content
spoiler Might be disturbing to some; the much older male character is played as Desirable Because Male (slapping women's butts in the ER, etc) and the younger woman basically jumps him for zero reasons besides very uncomfortable sex scenes that follow.
there are nude scenes
Yes
someone is sexually objectified
Yes
someone is homeless
Yes
the ending is sad
spoiler Ambiguous but likely not good
Santa (et al) is spoiled
Yes
a person is hit by a car
spoiler The car is going extremely slowly, and it hits a man and pins him between it and another car, which apparently kills him.
a car crashes
Yes
a car honks or tires screech
Yes
there's blood/gore
Yes
there's gun violence
spoiler Nobody uses a gun in the movie
there's a nuclear explosion
spoiler No, but there is a regular explosion

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