Halloween 3: The Halloween Retrospective

Starring Tom Atkins, Stacy Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy

Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace

So, Michael Myers has apparently died.  Where do we go from here?  Well, Halloween 3 answers that question for you.  The Halloween series was originally planned as an anthology series, in which the movie I'm about to review is just part of the plan.  However, it's gotten a lot of hate over the years due to not sticking to the first two movies.  But is it really such a bad movie?  Well, I'll just go right ahead and let you know what I think of it.

The movie opens up with a man named Harry Grimbridge running, and running, and running some more from some men in suits.  Grimbridge makes it to a filling station and soon collapses on the floor, prompting the station attendant to bring him to the hospital.  Grimbridge is taken under the care of Dr. Dan Challis (with a death grip on a Halloween mask he had on him the entire time), but before the night is over Challis' patient is killed in his bed by one of the mysterious men he tried so hard to escape.  The mystery man then walks out of the hospital, into his car, and proceeds to set himself on fire.

If this fire bath doesn't get the dirt off, I don't know WHAT will.

This unexpected turn of events doesn't sit well with Challis.  After he meets up with Grimbridge's daughter Ellie, Challis decides to help her investigate her father's death.  After looking into her father's store records in his shop, Ellie discovers something happened between there and Santa Mira, California.  So Ellie and Challis go to Santa Mira to see what happened.

Arriving in Santa Mira, Ellie and Challis learn that the town relies heavily on the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory, owned by Conal Cochran.  Eventually Ellie and Challis discover that Cochran and his factory are the center of a huge plot to end countless lives all across the country on Halloween night.  With time running out, and Ellie taken by some of Cochran's "men", It's up to Challis to find Ellie and somehow end Cochran's sadistic plan before it's too late.

I'm sorry, but this movie doesn't deserve the hate it's gotten over the years.  Sure, it doesn't have an ingenious plot, but what it does have is solid 80s gold.  Performance wise, Tom Atkins can do no wrong in my opinion, and he was great in this.  Stacey Nelkin did great as the wide-eyed, good daughter Ellie, and Dan O'Herlihy was perfectly cast as Cochran.  Also, keep an ear out for an uncredited Jamie Lee Curtis doing some voice work as a telephone operator as well as the Santa Mira curfew announcer.

"Ewww, why does everything I touch turn into orange goo?

"

I know I complained about the music style change between Halloween one and two, but I actually found the synthesized music in H3 to be very fitting and helped the feel of the movie along some.  There are a few gruesome scenes spread out in the movie, which I felt worked well in the movie's favor.  I didn't consider H3 to really need the same level of suspense and tension that Halloween had.  but then, when it comes down to it, there's no point in comparing ANY of the other Halloween movies to the first one.  It just stands on its own, even after 35 years.

As I previously mentioned, the story for H3 is not very strong.  And having a weak or just plain bad story is not usually a good thing for ratings.  But with solid acting, effective practical effect and that beautiful 80s charm definitely helps to make up for things.  Sure there's no Michael Myers, but it stands on its own as a staple of 80s horror watching in my eyes.  Next time we will continue the saga that fans practically cried out for after seeing a Shape-less Halloween 3.  Rest in peace.

Macabre Rating: 3.5 out of 5 tombstones.