- Actors: Tom Atkins
- Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Language English
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: R (Restricted) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Universal Studios
- DVD Release Date: 7 Oct 2003
- Run Time: 96 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0000AOX09
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 48,894 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Halloween III: Season of the Witch was producer John Carpenter's attempt to get the series away from the original psycho-on-the-loose storyline and turn it into a vehicle for more far-fetched Halloween-themed horror tales. Incredibly, the fans voted for more of the same and Carpenter walked away for others to rehash the Michael Myers plotline in a succession of lookalike movies that are still turning up every few years.
Though original screenwriter Nigel Kneale (of the Quatermass series and The Stone Tape) removed his name from the final film after a coarsening rewrite by director Tommy Lee Wallace, his strange touch is evident in the offbeat story. After the mysterious deaths of a toyshop owner, a doctor (Tom Atkins) and the man's daughter (Stacy Nelkin), an investigation takes place in the Irish-dominated Northern California community of Santa Mira, a company town owned by the Silver Shamrock Novelty corporation, whose bestselling Halloween masks are pushed by an amazingly irritating TV jingle you won't ever be able to get out of your head ("Two more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween").
Atkins and Nelkin are typical low-rent horror movie protagonists, dim-bulbs who discover an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style conspiracy involving sharp-suited corporate robots. But guest star Dan O'Herlihy steals the film as a Celtic joke tycoon ("the man who invented sticky toilet paper and the dead dwarf gag") who hates the way American kids are despoiling the religious spirit of Samhain and decides to teach them a nasty lesson. His scheme, which involves a stolen Stonehenge megalith ("sure, you'd never believe how we did it") and a techno-magic spell that turns the heads of TV watchers into writhing masses of snakes and insects, is value for money. O'Herlihy mixes enough serious malice into the charm to come across as a great screen baddie.
On the DVD: Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a disappointment on disc. After letterboxed titles, this defaults to full frame throughout, severely cramping Dean Cundey's Panavision cinematography, and it's a grainy, indifferent print that ill-serves the performances or the atmospherics. However, the severe cuts to the gruesome scenes made to previous video releases (in order to preserve the theatrical 15 rating) seem to have been restored. With an extras-packed Halloween disc on the market, it's a shame the most interesting of the follow-ups rates such a flimsy release--with not so much as a trailer as an extra. --Kim Newman
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Cut version,
By
This review is from: Halloween III: Season of the Witch [DVD] (DVD)
The Sanctuary DVD is missing some scenes thanks to the BBFC. These include an old man in a junk yard getting his head ripped off (resulting in a blood spraying) and an eye gouging near the end. If you want the Uncut version get the old MIA version. Seems they pulled a fast one releasing it uncut. Although the quality is like a vhs rental from the 80's
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Halloween 3 (MIA version),
This review is from: Halloween III: Season of the Witch [DVD] (DVD)
Having just received the M.I.A. dvd of Halloween 3 today, I felt compelled to offer my sixpenny worth on it...
The film in itself, in my opinion, is a modern classic of the horror genre. For those who haven't seen it, I suggest that you take time- especially at Halloween- to watch this surprisingly good and very underrated movie... It is a total departure from the other films in the series- there is no Michael Myers in this one- apart from a brief glimpse of the first Halloween movie, that appears on a TV that the main character sees near the end of the film. The script itself was originally written by Nigel Kneale of Quatermass fame, who asked that his name be removed from the credits, after Dino De Laurentiis, owner of the film's rights ordered more gore, and director Tommy Wallace had revised it, adding some more nasty scenes to Kneale's original work. The film has all the look and feel of a classic John Carpenter movie; atmospheric, claustrophobic, dark and eerie, it is both quite fascinating and genuinely disturbing at the same time. Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin and Dan O'Herlihy give top performances in their respective roles, while John Carpenter's trademark creepy synthesizer score adds a distinct sense of menace to the proceedings. I won't tell you about the plot and spoil it for you, suffice to say that the finished work is very compelling and original, as well as extremely ghoulish and rather quite unpleasant to boot; you will never want to wear a Halloween mask again, never mind let your children wear one. Finally, about the dvd itself: The print on the M.I.A. dvd is fully uncut, containing all the nasty gore scenes that are missing from most of the other UK releases, even the recently issued Scanbox version, as I've recently been lead to believe. The film stands up in it's own right without the gore however, but for those who want to see the complete version, this is the one to track down, unless you can get the region 1 US unrated import. The downside to this release is the picture quality: it looks like a transfer taken from a bog standard VHS print. It is quite murky at times, the colours are a bit weak and it's in fullscreen only; there are no extras, no trailer, and no commentaries, but if you don't mind tweaking the picture a bit on your media player or home entertainment system, and you want to see this Halloween treat it in all of it's gory glory, it is thoroughly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding entry in the franchise,
By Neil B ""HINRG BOY"" (Bury, Lancashire, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Halloween III: Season of the Witch [DVD] (DVD)
I have been a long time fan of this particular entry of the HALLOWEEN series. Those people that dismiss this little gem due to the absence of Michael Myers are missing a treat. This film has an interesting storyline involving paganism, witchcraft, Irish folklore and demonic powers. We get convincing performances from all involved and who could forget Alan Howarth's amazing score? I always watch this film on Halloween night (along with the original film).
Go on, give it a go!
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