Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 American science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the first film to be written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. John Carpenter and Debra Hill, the creators of Halloween, returned as producers. Starring Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis, Stacey Nelkin as Ellie Grimbridge, and Dan O'Herlihy as Conal Cochran, the story focuses on an investigation by Challis and Grimbridge into the activities of Cochran, the mysterious owner of the Silver Shamrock Novelties company, in the week approaching Halloween night.Halloween III is the only entry in the series that does not feature the series antagonist Michael Myers, nor does it include story elements from either Halloween (1978) or Halloween II (1981). It, in fact, treats the first film as a fictional film, as one of the characters watches a trailer for the original during the film. It also departs from the slasher genre which the first two installments were part of, instead featuring a "witchcraft" theme with science fiction aspects and parallels to old Celtic fairy tales. Carpenter and Hill believed that the Halloween series had the potential to branch into an anthology franchise of horror films that centered around the night of Halloween with each film containing its own characters, setting, and storyline. Director Wallace stated that there were many ideas for Halloween-themed films, some of which could have potentially created any number of their own sequels, and that Season of the Witch was meant to be the first of the anthology series. However, after the film's disappointing critical reception and box-office gross, Michael Myers was brought back six years later in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).
The frequency of graphic violence and gore is less than that of Halloween II, but the film's death scenes remain intense. As with other films in the series, suspense and dramatic tension is a key theme. The dramatic element of violence against young children, something often taboo even for horror films, is explored.
Produced on a budget of $2.5 million, Halloween III grossed $14.4 million at the box office in the United States, making it the poorest performing film in the Halloween series at the time. In addition to weak box office returns, most critics gave the film negative reviews. One critic suggests that if Halloween III was not part of the Halloween series, then it would simply be "a fairly nondescript eighties horror flick, no worse and no better than many others."
Despite an initially negative reception for the film, largely due to fan disappointment over the absence of Michael Myers, re-evaluation over the past three decades has given Halloween III new legions of fans and established its reputation as a standalone cult film.
On October 23, shop owner Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) runs along a barren road in Northern California, chased by mysterious figures in business suits. He makes it to a gas station clutching a Silver Shamrock jack-o'-lantern mask. He is driven to the hospital by station attendant Walter Jones (Essex Smith), all the while rambling, "they're going to kill us all". At the hospital, Grimbridge is placed in the care of Dr. Dan Challis (Tom Atkins). That night, another mysterious man in a suit enters Grimbridge's hospital room, kills him, then goes to his car and immolates himself.
The next morning, Grimbridge's daughter Ellie (Stacey Nelkin) arrives to identify her father's remains. Ellie and Challis agree to investigate his murder, leading them to the small town of Santa Mira, California. The motel manager (Michael Currie) explains that Conal Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy) and his company, Silver Shamrock Novelties, which produces wildly popular latex masks for Halloween, are responsible for the town's prosperity. While signing the motel register, Challis learns that Grimbridge stayed at the same motel. Other motel guests include shop owners Marge Guttman (Garn Stephens) and Buddy Kupfer (Ralph Strait), Buddy's wife Betty (Jadeen Barbor), and their son Little Buddy (Bradley Schacter), who all have business at the company's factory.
Guttman finds a microchip on the back of a Silver Shamrock button, and is fatally electrocuted after poking it with a hairpin. Challis and Ellie learn of Guttman's accident, and Challis attempts to help but is forced away by a group of men dressed in lab coats who drive away in a van with Marge's body. The next morning, Challis and Ellie tour the factory with the Kupfers and discover Grimbridge's car there, guarded by more men dressed in suits. They return to the motel but cannot contact anyone outside the town. While Challis attempts to phone for the authorities, Ellie is kidnapped by the men in suits and driven to the factory.
Challis pursues them, breaks into the factory, and discovers that the men in suits are androids created by Cochran. Challis is captured by the androids and Cochran reveals his plan to sacrifice children wearing his masks, thus bringing about a resurrection of the ancient age of witchcraft. The masks contain microchips, each containing a fragment of Stonehenge that, when activated by a signal in a company commercial, summon a swarm of insects and snakes to kill the mask wearer and anyone nearby. To demonstrate, Cochran kills the Kupfers this way.
Challis escapes through a ventilation shaft and rescues Ellie. He dumps the chips from the overhead rafters and activates their signal with the commercial, killing Cochran and his employees, and destroying the computer chips and factory. As the two drive away, Ellie attacks Challis, revealing that Cochran replaced the real Ellie with an android duplicate. Challis crashes the vehicle and decapitates the android with a tire iron. On foot, Challis makes it to the gas station and phones the television stations, in an attempt to convince the station managers not to air the Silver Shamrock commercial. He persuades them to take it off channels one and two, but not channel three. Challis desperately yells into the telephone, as the commercial begins to play on the television in front of him.