Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

"Halloween... the festival of Samhain! The last great one took place three thousand years ago, when the hills ran red... with the blood of animals and children."

- Conal Cochran

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 horror film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. It is the third installment in the Halloween franchise, though has nothing to do with the films that either preceded it or followed it. The premise behind the Halloween film concept was to create an anthology series focusing on spooky events that take place on Halloween. The plot of this film involves an evil industrialist named Conal Cohran who uses Halloween masks as part of an ambitious plot to cull victims for a sacrifice to an ancient Celtic god.

Plot
An evil industrialist named Conal Cochran steals one of the stone slabs of Stonehenge of Salisbury Plain England and uses mineral deposits from the slab towards his own dastardly ends. Cochran is also the president and CEO of Silver Shamrock Novelties, the largest toy manufacturer in the world specializing in Halloween masks and based in the town of Santa Mira in Northern California. Cochran uses his knowledge of Druidic lore and the Stonehenge minerals to craft masks that turn people into grotesque piles of bugs and snakes. It is his intention to have all of the trick or treaters across the globe don his special masks at a pre-planned time and place. According to Cochran, it represents not only his life's work but the greatest "trick" of all time. Enforcing Cochran's goals is an army of human looking robots.

One of Cochran's buyers begins to get wind of the nefarious plot and tries to warn others. Shop owner Harry Grimbridge finds his way into a county hospital where he meets Doctor Dan Challis (Tom Atkins). Before passing out on a hospital table, Harry utters a chilling warning. "They'll kill us all!" But before he can clarify his prophecy, he is murdered by a well dressed man (robot) who crushes Harry's skull. The agent then douses himself in gasoline and sets himself on fire. The only evidence left at the crime scene is a Silver Shamrock Halloween mask.

Harry Grimbridge's daughter, Ellie, comes to the hospital to identify her father's body. She meets Doctor Challis and Dan tries to console Ellie over her loss.

Dan and Ellie begin to suspect a connection between Harry's death and Silver Shamrock Novelties. The two decide to investigate, and they travel to the company town of Santa Mira. The entire city is under the authoritative thumb of Conal Cochran and just about everyone works for Silver Shamrock in some capacity. Dan and Ellie operate under the guise of a married couple and rent a hotel room.

They meet Conal Cochran who invites them on a tour of the Silver Shamrock Facility. Ellie is kidnapped and Dan discovers the villain's nefarious plot. He is captured and tied to a wooden chair at a special office in the facility. Cochran explains how he plans on using subliminal messaging via his masks to make all of the children in the nation tune in to a special give-away being aired at 9:00 pm October 31st on all local television channels. At which point, they will transform into the afore-mentioned bugs and snakes. It is Cochran's design to use the death of such a massive amount of children as a sacrifice to the old Celtic god Samhain.

Dan manages to escape, but unfortunately Ellie is killed (off screen) and replaced with a robot duplicate. Challis succeeds in destroying many of Cochran's laboratory systems, but it proves to be too little too late. The Silver Shamrock give-away commercial airs promptly at 9:00 pm Halloween night. It is assumed that all children wearing Silver Shamrock masks who are watching the commercial at the time then die.

Notes & Trivia

 * Not to be confused with the 1973 George Romero film Season of the Witch.


 * Tommy Lee Wallace pays homage to John Carpenter's first film in the franchise, Halloween. A clip from the film can be seen in this movie.


 * Includes an uncredited cameo appearance by Jamie Lee Curtis as the curfew announcer.


 * Tommy Lee Wallace provides the voice of the announcer on the Silver Shamrock commercials.


 * The Silver Shamrock jingle is to the tune of London Bridge.