HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH

   Film (1983). Dino De Laurentiis. Prod Debra Hill, John CARPENTER. Dir Tommy Lee Wallace, starring Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy. Screenplay Wallace (but primarily by Nigel KNEALE, uncredited). 98 mins. Colour.

   Not at all a true sequel to the "stalk and slash" Halloween films, this is a horror film with an sf rationale. Crazed Irish entrepreneur Cochran (O'Herlihy), infuriated by Halloween's commercial degradation,plans to restore to it its proper mystical significance. Using microchips manufactured from a stolen Stonehenge monolith, he manufactures and sells huge numbers of Halloween masks that will hideously destroy their child wearers when triggered by an electronic pulse relayed through tv advertisements. Kneale had his name taken off the credits, disgusted at this becoming more and more like a SPLATTER MOVIE, but a true eeriness remains to balance the physical horrors (not all of which are merely arbitrary), especially in the dark-suited, polite ANDROID killers and in the menacing sleepy streets of the company town. Directed by a Carpenter protege, this film has the enjoyably grisly flavour of Carpenter's own.

   PN