Movie Review Halloween 3: Season of the Witch

Halloween 3 Season of the Witch (1982) 

Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace

Written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill 

Starring Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy 

Release Date October 22nd, 1982 

Published October 14th, 2022 

A Halloween movie without Michael Myers was long the vision of creator John Carpenter. For Carpenter, Michael's story ended in Halloween 2 with a massive ball of fire. So convinced of the death of his creation was Carpenter that he reconceived the entire Halloween franchise to eliminate Michael Myers. But, typical of the character, he could not be killed, only briefly detained. Michael Myers may be limited to a stock footage cameo in Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, but the lack of Michael looms over the whole enterprise. 

Actor Tom Atkins takes up the starring role in Halloween 3: Season of the Witch as drunken doctor, Dr. Dan Chellis. Dan has a bit of a drinking problem and a whole lot of ex-wife problems. Michael, late as usual for a visit with his son and daughter, only to find that his gift of Halloween masks was too little too late. Mom, fearing Dad would forget about his kids at Halloween, took the initiative to buy the hottest Halloween costume of the season, the all new Silver Shamrock series of masks featuring Pumpkins, Witches, and Skeletons. 

After getting paged back to the hospital for some drunken doctoring, Dr. Chellis is accosted by a nearly comatose patient. The patient, thought to be dying wakes up after hearing the Silver Shamrock jingle that plays at various intervals at extraordinary volume, on a nearby television. The patient warns Chellis that the bad guys are coming but he dies before he can elaborate further on the matter. The man's death came at the hands of a cold blooded and powerful assassin. Catching a glimpse of the killer, Dr. Chellis is forced to watch as the murderer douses himself in gasoline, killing himself in a subsequent explosion. 

Following the twin tragedies of the death of his patient and the seeming suicide of his patient's killer, Dr. Chellis needs a drink. He retires for the night to a nearby bar where he is met by Ellie Grimbridge (Stacey Nelkin). Ellie has come to identify her father and she wants answers as to how and why he was killed. She believes that the answer has something to do with the shady company behind the season's most popular Halloween masks, the aforementioned Silver Shamrock. 

From there we are treated to a bizarre and not particularly scary series of events in a company town run by a former joke factory. Dan O'Herlihy plays Conal Cochrane, the man behind the masks of the season and a man dangerous enough to build killer robots in order to protect his plan to kill America's child population with his new line of bestselling masks. And, boy, is this a silly premise for a horror movie. What was anyone who participated in making Halloween 3 Season of the Witch even thinking? 

It's clear that someone, be it John Carpenter, Debra Hill, or director Tommy Lee Wallace were watching far too many Twilight Zone episodes but failing to recall what made The Twilight Zone any good. The Twilight Zone was clever and compact. In a mere 30 minutes, Rod Serling could develop characters we care about give them a strange and intriguing plot for us to puzzle about and get out before the premise ever loses steam. The makers of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch have no such luxury. 

Find my full length review of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch at Horror.Media.

Movie Review My Bloody Valentine 3D

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009) 

Directed Patrick Lussier 

Written by Todd Farmer 

Starring Jensen Ackles, Jamie King, Kerr Smith, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins 

Release Date January 16th, 2009 

Published January 15th, 2009 

I love when a movie surprises me. It is one of my favorite experiences. As much as I try to keep an open mind and not prejudge a movie, it happens sometimes that I dread seeing something. It most often happens with horror movies (Thanks Eli Roth). Rarely are my expectations exceeded. So, when they are, it's invigorating and exciting. My Bloody Valentine 3D surprised me. I did not expect to have such a good time with this remake of an obscure 1981 horror footnote.

My Bloody Valentine 3D sets up a Jason/Freddy style murderer named Harry Warden. 10 years ago he killed a bunch of his coal miner coal workers before being nearly killed himself when the mine exploded. A year after the accident, Warden awoke from a coma and set about on 14 murders before being hunted down by cops at the mine and killed.

10 years later, teenagers who survived the attack are now in positions of power in the city. Axel (Kerr Smith) who managed to rescue two friends from Harry Warden, is now the town sheriff. Tom Hanninger (Jensen Ackles) has now taken over ownership of the mines from his late father and has just returned to town to sell the mines.

The woman both Axel and Tom love, Sarah (Jaime King) is now married to Axel but she still thinks often of Tom who she was in love with the night Harry Warden went nuts and Tom disappeared. Now, ten years later, new murders have sparked fear that Harry Warden may have returned.

My Bloody Valentine 3D. has many of the typical cliches of the average horror movie. Most egregious is an awful, manipulative score that spikes when it's supposed to and is completely over the top with the expected orchestral shrieks and dives.

The characters make many of the typical horror movie character mistakes from running the wrong direction to not taking care when checking out strange noises to continuing to underestimate the villain even after he has demonstrated unending malice. The killer too does everything expected, not the least of which is over-complicating his plot to the most unnecessary degrees.

All of those gripes aside, I did have fun watching this movie. Director Patrick Lussier offers an oddly shaped narrative early on that shows the killer to be less than supernatural. He faints and weaves his way through the second half of the movie and despite the cliches, does manage to build some solid suspense and mystery.

Most importantly, for me, Lussier doesn't go weak in the knees when it comes to the R-rated stuff. Lussier smartly goes all in on the classic horror movie gore, overstated to the point where the audience can have distance from the human elements but understated enough to make you watch through your fingers as you squirm in your seat.

That's a balance that has eluded most horror movie makers. The Eli Roth's of the world certainly aren't squeamish but the way he and Rob Zombie seem to enjoy their violence makes it off putting. Then there are the Asian invasion PG-13 horror movies who trade gore for atmosphere and more often than not bore audiences to death instead of scaring them to death.

Lussier finds the balance between reveling in the violence and drawing clear moral lines between victims and killer.

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the gimmick of 3D. It is just a gimmick and nothing more. There isn't much that an audience will get out of the 3D My Bloody Valentine that they would not have gotten out of the 2D presentation. I like the digital picture clarity and Lussier's crisp shooting style lends itself well to the presentation, he smartly avoids the typical overly dark settings for more modestly lit scenes that allow audiences a better chance to keep track of the action.

In the end, My Bloody Valentine 3D cheats a little for drama and suspense but it works because Patrick Lussier makes good use of the horror movie formula. He isn't reinventing the wheel, he's just putting it to better use than most other genre directors. We can hardly ask him for much more than that.

My Bloody Valentine is a real surprise, a pretty good formula horror movie.

Movie Review: Drive Angry 3D

Drive Angry 3D (2011) 

Directed by Patrick Lussier

Written by Todd Farmer, Patrick Lussier

Starring Nicolas Cage, Amber Heard, William Fichtner, Billy Burke, Tom Atkins, Charlotte Ross

Release Date February 25th, 2011 

Published February 25th, 2011 

Didn't Nicolas Cage already play a guy who escaped from hell? What movie was that? Didn't “Con Air” guy escape from hell? What about that “Bangkok Dangerous” hitman character? “Ghost Rider?” I don't remember or really care. Nicolas Cage is the only actor on the planet who could so nonchalantly play a guy who escaped from hell and leave you wondering if he's done it before.

”Drive Angry 3D” stars Nicolas Cage as John Milton and if you get the reference in the name you are not likely the target audience for this movie; an almost delicious bit of irony. Milton, as he prefers to be called, John is just too ordinary, is hunting for a cult leader (Billy Burke) who murdered his daughter and has taken Milton's baby granddaughter hostage with the intent on sacrificing her in order to literally raise hell to earth.

How intent is Milton to save his granddaughter? Well, he literally escaped from hell and to top that off, he stole Satan's very own God Killer shotgun. After torching his own muscle car in order to kill some bad guys, Milton needs a ride. Enter Piper (Amber Heard) who has a 69 Charger and enough bad attitude to match Milton bad guy for bad guy.

Together Milton and Piper set on the cult leader's trail all the while being tracked themselves by a cryptic man in a suit who calls himself 'The Accountant' (William Fichtner). We learn that 'The Accountant' works for the Dark Lord Satan but whether he is out to help or hinder Milton's quest is debatable until the end.

”Drive Angry 3D” is directed with great energy by Patrick Lussier who brought a similar edgy, low brow, ugliness and grit to his remake of “My Bloody Valentine.” Unfortunately, that film was a million times more inventive than anything in “Drive Angry 3D” which plays like a series of car chases broken up by Nicolas Cage grunting and standing slump shouldered, lost in thoughts none of us could even imagine. Don't get me wrong, there is a heavy amount of kitsch to be mined from Cage in “Drive Angry 3D” but not the so bad its good kind.

Cage brings zero humor to the role of Milton and co-star Amanda Heard is similarly far too earnest for this material. “Drive Angry 3D” cries out for the kind of over the top Nicolas Cage that drove his “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” to heights of manic, lunatic, craziness. Instead, a subdued Cage in “Drive Angry 3D” cannot make even a scene of fully clothed love making while shooting bad guys work as a comic set piece.

There is a good deal of effort on display in “Drive Angry 3D,” especially from Director Patrick Lussier who deserved better from his star. “Drive Angry 3D” has the elements in place for some seriously B-Movie fun but Cage refuses to have any fun and the movie sinks under the weight of his seriousness.