Product Details

• Actors: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy
• Directors: Tommy Lee Wallace
• Format: Anamorphic, Blu-ray, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Shout! Factory
• DVD Release Date: September 18, 2012
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (494 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0089N4G50
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,053 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The one Halloween sequel in which He doesn't come home, Halloween III: Season of the Witch was producer John Carpenter's attempt to get the series away from the original's psycho-on-the-loose story line and turn it into a vehicle for more far-fetched Halloween-themed horror tales. Incredibly, the fans voted for more of the same and Carpenter walked away for others to rehash the Michael Myers plot line in a succession of look-alike movies that are still turning up every few years.

After the mysterious death of a toyshop owner, a doctor (Tom Atkins) and the man's daughter (Stacy Nelkin) investigate the Irish-dominated Northern California community of Santa Mira, a company town owned by the Silver Shamrock Novelty corporation. Atkins and Nelkin are typical low-rent horror movie protagonists, dim bulbs who discover an Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style conspiracy involving sharp-suited corporate robots. But guest star Dan O'Herlihy steals the film as a Celtic joke tycoon who hates the way American kids are despoiling the religious spirit of Samhain and decides to teach them a nasty lesson. His scheme, which involves a stolen Stonehenge megalith and a techno-magic spell that turns the heads of TV watchers into writhing masses of snakes and insects, is value for money, and O'Herlihy mixes enough serious malice into the charm to come across as a great screen bad guy. --Kim Newman

Product Description

When a terrified toy salesman is mysteriously attacked and brought to the hospital babbling and clutching the year’s most popular Halloween costume, an eerie pumpkin mask, Dr. Daniel Challis (Tom Atkins, The Fog, Night Of The Creeps) is thrust into a terrifying Halloween nightmare. Working with the salesman’s daughter, Ellie (Stacey Nelkin), Daniel traces the mask to the Silver Shamrock Novelties company and its founder, Conal Cochran (Dan O Herlihy, RoboCop). Ellie and Daniel uncover Cochran’s shocking Halloween plan and must stop him before trick-or-treaters across the country are kept from ever coming home in this terrifying thriller from writer/director Tommy Lee Wallace (Stephen King’s It).

New special features include audio commentaries, new interviews with cast & crew, a look at the original shooting locations, trailers, radio spots and more!

See all Editorial Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

124 of 134 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Watch The Magic Pumpkin October 28, 2006

By Stanley Runk VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

When talking about the Halloween series, you'll always get the schmuck who says, "oh yeah, then there was that one that didn't even have Michael Myers in it. That was stupid". Yup, I've heard it time and time again. Most of the time this statement comes from someone who hasn't actually seen the film or is just a victim of the general consensus that says this is a terrible film coz it's not a legitimate sequel. Sure there are people out there that honestly just don't like the film, and that's cool coz there isn't a single film that everyone agrees is good. If they have reasons for not liking the film other than the lack of Myers, that's A-OK with me. Here's a little backstory. Halloween 3 was the first and only film in an experiment of John Carpenter's. Carpenter went to great lengths to show the audience at the end of Halloween 2 that Myers is dead, terminated, gone forevermore. Carpenter hated the idea of a second Myers film, but was pressured to write a second(with the help of alot of Budweiser according to Carpenter in a Halloween documentary). He left the directing to someone else coz he felt he'd already made this film before(which he did). After part 2, Carpenter decided to start an entire series of "Halloween" films, each with a different theme. One would be made each year, and come out in theaters around Halloween. If you ask me, that's a pretty cool idea. Halloween 3 was the first film in this new direction. Carpenter producing and Tommy Lee Wallace directing. However, everybody bitched about it and the idea was dead in the water. Carpenter was screwed and abandoned Halloween altogether, then Halloween producer, Akkad, saw dollar signs and brought Myers back with no more association with Carpenter. So that's it. This was a film that coulda been the start of a cool concept, but nooooooooooooooooo. Michael's not even in it, damn it! So, Halloween 3 is forever labelled as that rotten movie to avoid like the plague. So, what about the movie itself? Well, it's no masterpiece of modern cinema, but this movie deserves more attention than it gets. It certainly deserves a cult following if it hasn't got one already. It's actually quite bizarre. It's got a helluva concept that actually uses the druid roots of halloween for it's villains' motives. These points were briefly hinted at by Dr. Loomis in Halloween 2. It revolves around the pagan aspects of the holiday. In fact, while the first Halloween is a superior film to this one, this movie seems more suited to watch on Halloween than the first. It's much much Halloweeny if you catch my drift. There's some flat out crazy stuff in this movie. Plus it has Tom Atkins which is worth two stars right off the bat. You get orange blooded homicidal androids, an evil toymaking company that rules and terrorizes a town in Orwellian fashion, and some crazy friggin halloween masks. Tell me that scene where they "test run" one of the evil masks on an unsuspecting family isn't totally demented and %#$!ed up! That scene scared the hell out of me as a kid. Who can forget the Silver Shamrock song? The band Helloween sample it on one of their songs so I know at least someone out there likes this film. How bout that lady getting blasted in the mouth with the laser, and later has bugs crawling in her mouth? Wacky! And how about that ending? That's one of the coolest endings I've seen in a horror film. You certainly don't see endings like that in this day and age. Everyone wants closure, everyone wants a nice ending. Halloween 3 ain't got no nice ending. But Michael Myers isn't even in it!!! It's impossible to ignore this film's reputation, but if you dig horror films that are definitely out-there, try overcoming prejudice and check this movie out. Then if you dig it, you can proudly flip off the rest of the world for tarnishing this movie's reputation and keeping you away from it for so many years. The hell with Michael Myers I say. And don't forget to watch the big giveaway at 9!!

P.S.
I had written this review a few years back when the movie was only available on a rather cruddy, bare bones DVD. I thought this was the best we were ever going to see, but I am so happy and have to give mucho thanks to Shout Factory for releasing this in a Collector's Edition, and on Blu-Ray. It's wonderful for director Tommy Lee Wallace, and others involved with the film, to finally have a voice and give their thoughts and stories on this film. Up until now there has been so little information available about the making of this film(and way too much information about the other Halloween films), and now with a Making Of.. featurette and two commentaries, we finally get some insight. I must say it was actually kind of moving to hear that Wallace was more or less devastated by the failure of this film, but in recent years has become aware of the increasing cult following. Now he seems to feel it was all worth it in the end. Very, very cool. The Shout Factory edition is a godsend, and very highly recommended.

139 of 154 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Open your mind.....Halloween III is a classic! July 4, 2002

By T. M Rogers

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Let me start out by saying that I love Halloween 1 & 2. When it was time for Johm Carpenter and Debra Hill to make another Halloween film, they decided that the Michael Myers character was tired and played out. So they tried something new and fresh with Halloween 3: Season Of The Witch. Being a fan of horror, Carpenter's original idea was to release a new Halloween film every few years, each one with a totally new plot and original characters. His idea was to bring in new directors and serve as a producer for these original scary tales. Well the close-minded public couldn't accept a film with the Halloween heading and no Michael Myers, so the idea was scrapped. Well I used to ditch school to watch this on The Movie Channel in the 80's, so I guess you could say I like it. A sinister warlock that wants to kill thousands of children on Halloween night. Robotic killers that can pull your head right off your shoulders. Masks that use the power of Stonehenge and ancient witchcraft to turn brains into snakes, beetles and millipedes. No way a movie like this would be made today! It almost became "trendy" to bash this film when I was in high school. Now I find more and more people defending it, especially with all the REALLY bad horror sequels that are coming out these days. I'm off to pick up my Silver Shamrock mask...Later!

42 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The third Halloween installment was terrifying!! March 10, 2005

By Floridaguy178

Format:DVD

This is in my opinion one of the most terrifying films I have ever seen, the whole premise of this film is enough to frighten hell the out of anybody. The story for the film was written by Nigel "Quatermass" Kneale, and British highly acclaimed science fiction/horror writer. Nigel "Quartermass" Kneale was so overwhelmed and disgusted by the gruesomeness(blood and gore) of this picture, so he sued the producers of this film to have his name removed from the credits. The film has a deeper meaning to it. Many Americans don't realize the hedonism of Halloween or their not concerned with it. Thousands of young children in North America go trick or treating every year on Halloween, yet they don't realize what their celebrating. The film involves a Celtic warlock disguised as a CEO of large company called Silver Shamrock, who is getting ready for a Halloween like no other. Meanwhile somewhere in the rural outskirts of Northern California an old man is getting chased by a group of assilants in charcoal colored business-suits. The assilants appear to have to have no remorse, and no feelings as well. He gets wounded by the assilants in an industrial parking lot. And ends up the hospital, he is treated at the local hospital by Dr. Challis, Mr. Grimbridge tries to warn everyone about the masks by saying their going to kill us all. Dr. Challis thinks that Mr. Grimbridge is hallucinating so decides that he should be put on some drugs to calm him down. Eventually he calms down but at night time one of the assilants steathly comes into the hospital and goes to Mr. Grimbridge' room, he cuts off his life support and then he squeezes his head until his brains burst. Mr. Grimbridge dies and he walks out of the hospital and gets in his car, the car explodes. Dr. Challis doesn't understand why the mysterious man killed himself, and wants figure out why he murdered Grimbridge so he teams up with his Grimbridge' daughter to try solve this mystery.

Their search leads them to a company town called Santa Mira in Northern California, where Silver Shamrock Novelties is located, what they eventually discover is terrifying. A man named Conal Cochran is selling Silver Shamrock masks to millions of young american boys and girls. What the children and their parents don't realize is what's inside the logo of the mask. Their is a piece of stonehedge fragment hidden inside the back logo of every single mask. When the silver shamrock commercial is aired on Halloween night, the stonehedge inside the mask will be activated and melt the viewer's head who is wearing the mask. Dr Challis discovers that Cochran is interested in taking the world back to ancient Druid times when human sacrifices were made and as he says, "the hills ran red with the blood of animals and children". Indeed, this is what Cochran wants and to achieve this goal, Cochran uses witchcraft and an ancient power to achieve his evil goal. A trick on the children is what Cochran wants, but this is no ordinary trick...this trick will kill millions and set the world back thousands of years into a time of evil and treachery, all of this which is supposed to happen on Halloween night of course. I saw this film on the sci-fi channel and I have also watched in on video. Overall even though this film did break away from the Michael Myers story, it is a terrifying installment to Halloween I and II.