Ceris' 31 Days of Horror Challenge: Day 23 - Halloween III: Season of the Witch

So we start by following a man running down a deserted road followed by a car. He makes it into a car lot but is caught by a man in a suit. He manages to release the stops on a car which crushes the man on top of him - I’m not sure how he managed it but it worked out well for him!

Art by Gary Pullin

He is eventually found and driven to the hospital by the gas station attendant. He is under the care of Dr Daniel Challis. The man - Harry is murdered by one of the men in suits who then blows himself up in his car!

Daniel is in a bar a few days later - Halloween is playing in the background - and he is confronted by Harry’s daughter Ellie. Daniel tells her he was clutching a Jack O Lantern mask which Ellie tells him they sell in the shop. Daniel and Ellie travel to Santa Mira where the masks are made to see what they can find as this is where Ellie thinks he ran into trouble! Along side all of this, Daniel is having issues with his ex-wife (played by Nancy Loomis who was teenager Annie Brackett in the first Halloween film) and I get the feeling his personal life is going to suffer during this film!

Ellie and Daniel stay at a local motel and find out that Harry also stayed there. Daniel bumps into several of the other motel guests who seem a little strange - one woman is fuming she has to stay another night. 5 minutes they’ve known each other and they only know each other cos her father died under his care and they are playing tonsil tennis! Over the town tannoy it is announced that the town curfew is now in place and everyone has to stay at home - feels like lockdown 2020!

The drunk man Daniel bumps into on the way back from the store HATES the factory being in the town! He is confronted later that night by 2 men in suits who rip his head off - I’m getting the impression you shouldn’t bad mouth the company off or you will die! Back in the motel Daniel and Ellie are all over each other again - seriously they need to get a grip. Marge sticks a hairpin the in back of a pin badge and gets struck in the face by a laser. In the middle of the night vans pull up and go into Marge and take her away to a care centre owned by Mr Cochran who just happens to rock up and tell them everything is fine - I smell a rat!

The next day Daniel, Ellie and the Kupfer family who are also staying at the hotel are given a tour of the factory. They discover lots of men in suits similar to those worn by the men who killed Harry, Ellie also spots his car guarded by the suited and booted men! Back at the motel Daniel is unable to contact anyone as the phone lines aren’t working and by the time he gets back to the room Ellie has mysteriously disappeared - shock...not! The men in suits appear outside the motel and crash through the door Daniel just locked - clearly they want him for something!

After arriving at the factory, Daniel discovers that the men in suits are in fact robots but is caught by Cochran and his cronies! Cochran reveals to Daniel his big plan that when the ‘Big Giveaway’ is aired everyone wearing a Silver Shamrock mask will be killed thanks to a microchip in the back of the mask. Resulting in insects and snakes coming from the deceased and killing anything nearby! It was gross...but pretty cool. Cochran makes Daniel watch as he locks the Kupfer family in a room and demonstrates this for him.

Having tied Daniel up Cochran tells him about the witchcraft he is involved in that came from his homeland. He places a mask over Daniels head and turns on the TV and leaves Daniel in the room. Daniel manages to smash the TV set and escape from his ties and remove the mask before escaping his cell through a ventilation shaft. He manages to save Ellie and then destroys Cochran’s robots by playing the Big Giveaway advert while dropping the microchips on them! Cochran is also destroyed when the witchcraft he was using to create his masks vaporises him and destroys the factory.

Ellie and Daniel escape however it turns out Ellie is in fact a robot and attacks Daniel but it’s okay he ends her with a tire iron! Daniel makes it to the gas station a minute to 9 and calls the local stations and asks them to take the advert off the air - he manages to get 2 channels to turn the advert off but the third keeps the advert running - but we don’t know what happens to Daniel or the millions of kids watching in their Silver Shamrock masks. To be honest I think he failed miserably.

I didn’t mind this film, quite enjoyed it actually. I forgot I was watching a film from the Halloween franchise a lot, but I did enjoy it and would happily watch it again! As an individual, stand alone film it's fantastic, I wouldn't really call this a Halloween film though.

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