Review of Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (reissue)

Introduction

The original Halloween did better business at the box office than John Carpenter et al could ever have hoped for, and predictably, a sequel followed to cash in on the success. This was then followed by a third movie, Halloween III: The Season of the Witch in 1982.

Long running horror sagas are notorious for getting steadily worse over the years, and after enduring Halloween II, I really wasn`t looking forward to watching the third movie.

This third film is unrelated to the first two except for the title, and does not feature the murderous Michael Myers, instead featuring the maker of Halloween masks, who is hatching a devastating plot for Halloween night...

Video

The video comes in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen whilst not great, is a considerable improvement on the atrocious picture quality of Halloween II. The image is still grainy, but is much lighter and has less dirt, making the movie much more watchable, at least in visual terms.

Once again, even though there`s no Michael Myers, visually, the film is more of the same, as the bodies pile up - and once again the emphasis is clerly on visual suspense rather than special effects.

Audio

Like the first two movies, the soundtrack has been remastered into Dolby Digital 5.1 and sounds quite reasonable, although it sounds much more like a Dolby Pro-Logic soundtrack, with limited volume and range from the rear speakers.

There`s no sign of Carpenter`s famous score here, instead the sound is much more like the synthesiser tones used in Carpenter`s They Live, and if it wasn`t for the title, you wouldn`t know you were watching Halloween.

The dialogue is clear and understandable throughout.

Features

Like the second movie, the extras include an audio commentary from horror-expert Stephen Jones, which is quite interesting and offers an amusing viewpoint.

The disc is packaged in a black Amaray case.

Conclusion

Overall, this movie isn`t really a Halloween movie, despite being titled as such - there is no sign of the characters from the first two (or subsequent four) movies and realistically, this is an 80`s horror movie operating under false pretences.

The video quality is a huge improvement over the second movie, and the first MIA edition of the film to be released in Region 2 (which was full-frame with an unsteady picture and was poor quality).

This is one to rent rather than parting with your hard earned cash, as there is limited replay value.