Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982)

As hard as it is to believe now, there was a time when the Halloween franchise wasn't supposed to stay slavishly tied to boogeyman Michael Myers. It was going to be a series of horror movies all tied to the horror holiday, and this film was the first entry to try something new. Unfortunately, nobody decided to give fans a heads up on the situation, which led to no small amount of confusion and resentment when Halloween III: Season Of The Witch was released back in 1982, making it also the last entry to try something new. The film has, thank goodness, developed a pretty strong fanbase in the intervening years. It may not have the slasher movie fun that the other Halloween movies have, but it's a dark film that mixes sci-fi and horror into one big seasonal treat.

Tom Atkins stars as Daniel Challis, a doctor who ends up investigating the strange death of a man who came into his hospital a few days before Halloween. He heads off, with the daughter of the deceased (Ellie, played by Stacey Nelkin), to the small town of Santa Mira, the place where Silver Shamrock is based. Silver Shamrock is a company that creates Halloween novelties, and it also may be one of the last places that the deceased visited. Run by a man named Cochran (Dan O'Herlihy), Silver Shamrock seems to be up to much more than just making treats for Halloween. The company has some pretty tight security, a strong grip on the town, and a severe way of dealing with anyone who tries to interfere in its affairs.

Written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, with uncredited input from John Carpenter and Nigel Kneale (the latter had his name removed from the credits after seeing his initial story idea made into something much darker and gorier), this is a nasty slice of paranoia that just about manages to keep things tense and entertaining enough to allow viewers to forgive some ridiculousness in the third act.

Atkins does what he does best, so there are no problems with his performance in the lead role, Nelkin is a cute female companion, and O'Herlihy is wonderfully devilish in the role of Cochran. He's charming when in public, but soon reveals his true face when safe behind closed doors. Wendy Wessberg also makes a good impression in her small role, playing a colleague who ends up doing some extra investigatory work for Atkins. Nancy Kyes (who appeared in the first two Halloween movies, under the name Nancy Loomis) has a fun cameo role, playing the wife of Atkins, and Jamie Lee Curtis has an uncredited vocal cameo that fans should keep their ears open for.

The score, credited to John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, is absolutely superb, almost on a par with the iconic score created for the first film in the series, and there's a jingle for Silver Shamrock that will irritate and entertain you in equal measure.

 In case you forgot how it goes . . . . . . . . . . . . . here it is.

Superior horror fare that ended up suffering due to the fact it was released as a Halloween movie, this is well worth a revisit and reappraisal if you've not already given it another chance since it was initially released.

9/10

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Amityville II: The Possession (1982)

Those damn Amityville movies. When I saw the first film I didn't realise that it was much more fiction than fact. Then, just a few years later, when I saw the second movie I didn't realise that it was highly derivative of both The Evil Dead and The Exorcist with a little bit of Poltergeist thrown into the mix.. But the first film being a bit of a fraud never stopped me from enjoying it even after I found out the truth and this sequel remains every bit as unnerving and impressive as it was back in the early 1980s when I first saw it. In fact, considering how much the first movie now almost resembles some sanitised Hallmark take on the famous haunting, it's impressive to see just how dark and nasty this sequel gets. It tramples some taboo material and remains fairly daring from start to finish.

The plot isn't all that different from the first movie, initially. A family move into the house in Amityville and shit gets real. This time around the family is already strained from the very start. There's a domineering and rather cruel father (played by Burt Young), there's a mother trying to keep everyone happy and harmonious (Rutanya Alda), there are two younger children who try to run about and have fun when they can and there are two older children who get on much better than most brothers and sisters (Sonny is played by Jack Magner and Patricia is played by the absolutely gorgeous Diane Franklin - look, I had a crush on her and it's never gone away so let's just drop it and move on). After a couple of unnerving incidents and a failed attempt to bless the house by the local priest (James Olson) it's on to the actual possession part of the movie title and Sonny is the figure that the evil in the house wants to take over.

Directed by Damiano Damiani, and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, there's no denying that the star of the show is once again THAT house. The cast all do pretty good work, especially Magner and Franklin, but the movie creates an intense and almost cloying atmosphere because of the house, helped yet again by a fantastic and creepy score from Lalo Schifrin. There are also some impressive and icky practical effects that hold up well to this day. It's strange to watch the movie 30 years after it was initially released and to see it holding up so well. Oh, most classic films can be watched decades after their release and still enjoyed and appreciated but that doesn't happen so often with horror sequels made to grab a slice from popular cash cows of the time. This is a very rare thing indeed.

Maybe, just maybe, I can't watch the movie without removing all trace of my first reaction to it. The terror I felt every time the musical cues would do their job, the extra beating of my heart when I first saw Diane Franklin, the anger at the father figure too quick to reach for his belt and dole out punishment. Maybe all of those things influence my thoughts on the movie to this day. But, if that's the case, doesn't that just mean that the movie was as effective as it set out to be?

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amityville-II-Possession-Collectors-Edition/dp/B0001M1JOS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1344159810&sr=8-3