Review

This time nobody’s coming home kids, but Mikey will be back with you next movie. H3 doesn’t have anything to do with the first two movies, and goes its own way. A warlock has a nefarious plan to turn Halloween back into vintage fun times, including sacrifices and stuff. You’ll have to watch the movie to get how he plans to do this on a fairly mass scale. Combating the eee-vil dude is Doc Dan, who somehow fits in a bit of baddie-banging in between drinks and smokes. And nope, I don’t reckon the Surgeon General would be impressed. Actually quite a good movie ensues.

Eight more days till Halloween …. (God I hate that tune).

If there’s ever a movie in the Halloween franchise which receives widespread condemnation, even from franchise fans, then this is that movie. Michael Myers devotees really really hate this film with a vengeance. Generally the fans get a tad hot under the collar because the flick is named “Halloween” yet it doesn’t have resident franchise draw card Mikey in it. Poor babies, even the Friday the 13th franchise was sans Jason in a couple of movies, so learn to live with it would be my call.

John Carpenter wanted to do a series of movies based loosely around the themes of Halloween, and directed by newcomers. Pretty much, H3 is Carpenter getting what he wanted. Also helping was the franchise owners who didn't think fans wanted additional movies featuring Michael! It would be the last time they would make this mistake, though a certain crime against humanity was waiting in the noughties to ensure we all realised what blockheads they were.

Anyways, H3 kicks off screaming in a pretty decent fashion. Wallace is on the ball with a high-octane opening, which has you wondering just what might be in store over the next hour and a half. Unfort the movie sort of slows down from that point till the final confrontation, so we’re left with some filler, some toned down gore, and the idea that things might go to hell in a hand basket pretty bloody quickly if we’re lucky and just wait another ten minutes. I was still waiting at the end of the movie btw, but figured I got my coins’ worth anyway with a pretty effective attention grabber.

Director Wallace can lay down a show, and he isn’t going by the numbers here. The movie has a very dark feel to it, the sets have a real cool factory grunge thing happening for them, and the camera angles aren’t static. All in all Wallace keeps the pace going, and doesn’t allow the movie to become bogged down. Pity we didn’t get the resulting Halloween smack-down we are hoping for. There are a couple of twists coming at ya, but if your horror radar is up and running you’ll probably see them long before the plot decides to head in that direction.

This movie would have been much better received if it didn't have "Halloween" in the title

Wallace could have perhaps added a slightly quicker pace, but other than that I wasn’t complaining over here. I was actually having a hoot with some of the scenes; particularly dug the kids out trick or treating while waiting for the tricking to go entirely different to your normal October 31st.

Clearly Wallace has been influenced by a whole swag of other movies, including JC’s original outing. There’s for sure a Stepford Wives beat going down, and I was kind of reminded of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though I can’t really put the old thumb on why. You’ll probably notice a few more as the movie unfolds.

I was wondering if they paid the actors in green stamps or something, as apart from a manically cool performance from Dan O’Herlihy (Conal Cochran), everyone else just fronts up and reads their lines. Tom Atkins (Dan) has got wood, and not in a good way. Ham-fisted, phoned in from the dark side of the moon came to mind. And he reminded me too much of Tom Selleck, which ain’t a good thing. Stacey Nelkin (Ellie) is meant to be a bright go-getter, but she simply comes off as everyone’s idea of a blonde in this movie. Nelkin would probably be more at home in the movie of the week on Seven, as she doesn’t do much with her role in this movie.

A quick bit of T&A is tossed our way as Wallace tries to cover all his horror bases. Stacey gets down to the Victoria’s Secret gear at one stage, and you may or may not get a quick boob flash as she pops out of the shower. You’ll have to be pretty quick with the pause to work it out. I didn’t bother to be honest. Gals will need to cover their eyes during Atkins’s nude bit to ensure they don’t have nightmares. Dude, there’s a reason for all those gyms in LA!

I was digging the soundtrack as it had that Halloween vibe going down, mainly because John Carpenter fronted it. The big fella is normally pretty spot on with the sound, and he doesn’t disappoint with this movie.

Halloween III is notable for being the one without Michael in it, and of course for ScaryMinds favourite Jamie Lee also going on vacation. Don’t dive in if after Myers fun time, as this is a stand-alone movie which has zero to do with Haddonfield. Overall the movie is a pretty good 1980s horror flick that has some tension happening, and which might pop the odd surprise at you. If ya don’t like slashers then you can safely view the movie, and then claim you’re seen at least one of the franchise entries. So that’s kind of cool I guess.

The movie was the second worst performer of the franchise but still managed $14.4 U.S. domestic on a budget of $2.5. Even when Halloween movies do badly, they are still highly profitable. John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill forced Universal into making the movie, as they didn’t want another shape outing. Universal soon found the fans actually didn’t concur with that decision, hence in the future there would be a whole lot more Mikey for fans to groove to.

If you go into this movie with the knowledge that it has nothing to do with Myers, his family, or the town of Haddonfield then you might just have a good time. There’s certainly a lot worse 1980s horror available, and H3 has a charm all of its own. Just don’t expect good acting, as you’ll not see the horror forest for the trees. Does that even make sense?