Why Halloween III: Season of the Witch Deserves Another Chance
Back in 1982, audiences marched into theaters ready for another round of Michael Myers mayhem. They wanted the mask, the knife, the silent stalking. Instead, they got Irish witchcraft, Stonehenge magic, killer Halloween masks, and a television jingle so irritating it could qualify as a form of psychological torture. Needless to say, people were not happy. Critics sneered, fans booed, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch quickly became the black sheep of the franchise. But here’s the thing — time has a funny way of flipping the script. What was once dismissed as a disaster has slowly grown into a cult gem, and if you’ve never watched it (or swore it off decades ago), now is the time to grab a mask, pour a drink, and dive back in.
The idea behind Season of the Witch was actually pretty clever, though horribly mistimed. Carpenter and producer Debra Hill had already blown Michael Myers to smithereens in Halloween II and figured the franchise could survive without him. Their plan was to turn Halloween into an anthology series, with each new movie telling a completely different spooky story set around October 31. Imagine a big-screen Twilight Zone where the unifying thread was the holiday itself. Pretty smart, right? Well, not if you were a paying customer in 1982, who, instead of Jamie Lee Curtis running for her life, got Tom Atkins as a boozy doctor ignoring his kids while road-tripping with a much younger woman to investigate a mask factory. Horror fans didn’t just frown — they rioted with their wallets, and the film tanked.
But let’s be honest: if you go into Season of the Witch without expecting Michael Myers to show up, it’s actually kind of brilliant. The plot is bonkers in the best possible way. Atkins plays Dr. Challis, a man who stumbles into a conspiracy run by Conal Cochran, a sinister Irish toy maker with a factory in a creepy little town called Santa Mira. Cochran’s plan? Embed tiny pieces of Stonehenge inside Halloween masks, beam a TV commercial at kids across America, and watch as their heads erupt into snakes, spiders, and goo. Yes, it’s as insane as it sounds. And that’s exactly why it works.
The film is dripping with weird little details that make it impossible not to love once you surrender to its madness. The Silver Shamrock jingle — sung by director Tommy Lee Wallace himself and set to “London Bridge is Falling Down” — is so irritatingly catchy it’ll be lodged in your head until next October. The masks, designed by Don Post Studios, are unforgettable: a skull, a pumpkin, and a witch, all instantly iconic. And then there’s Cochran, played by Dan O’Herlihy with such calm menace that you almost root for his insane plot. Who else could deliver a monologue about the joys of ancient sacrifices while smirking like a grandfather reading a bedtime story?
Behind the scenes, the chaos matched the craziness on screen. The original script was written by Nigel Kneale, who envisioned a dark, thoughtful sci-fi story about consumerism and witchcraft. But producers wanted more gore, Kneale hated the rewrites, and he eventually yanked his name off the project. Joe Dante was supposed to direct before bailing, so Wallace stepped in for his feature debut. Jamie Lee Curtis was nowhere to be seen, although her voice does pop up as the Santa Mira curfew announcer. The whole thing was stitched together like Frankenstein’s monster, and somehow, that weird patchwork energy adds to its charm.
Of course, audiences in 1982 didn’t see it that way. Roger Ebert gave Halloween III: Season Of The Witch one-and-a-half stars and called it “low-rent.” The New York Times said it was anti-Irish, anti-capitalism, anti-children, and anti-television — which, let’s be real, kind of makes it sound amazing. Box office returns were dismal, making it the weakest Halloween entry until The Revenge of Michael Myers limped along seven years later. But over time, like Carpenter’s The Thing (another 1982 flop turned masterpiece), Season of the Witch found its audience. Today, horror fans celebrate it as a bold, freaky detour that dared to be different in a sea of sequels.
And it’s full of little nuggets that make rewatches rewarding. The fictional town of Santa Mira? That’s a direct nod to Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The nihilistic ending, with Atkins screaming “Stop it!” into the phone as the commercial keeps playing? Straight-up homage to Don Siegel’s 1956 classic. Even the masks themselves are more than props — they’re part of horror history, still sold today by Trick or Treat Studios and prized by collectors. And let’s not forget the enduring fan theory that Cochran’s druid cult might be linked to the Cult of Thorn from Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Imagine all that insanity actually connecting into one mega-lore. Delicious.
So why should you give Halloween III another shot? Because it’s fun. It’s weird. It’s unapologetically different. It’s the kind of movie where a TV ad can melt your child into a puddle of snakes, and everyone plays it with a straight face. Tom Atkins drinks beer, kisses girls half his age, and still somehow saves the day — or tries to, anyway. Dan O’Herlihy gets to be the kind of villain who twirls his mustache while casually wiping out America’s children. And the ending, with Atkins screaming down the phone as the screen cuts to black, is one of the bleakest mic drops in horror.
Season of the Witch isn’t just worth a rewatch, it’s practically a Halloween tradition at this point. Sure, Michael Myers is scary, but nothing will haunt your dreams like that damn jingle echoing through your skull on repeat. So grab a Silver Shamrock mask, sing along to “Happy, happy Halloween,” and remember that sometimes the most hated movies of yesterday make the best cult classics of today.
