So far so much straying from Halloween itself. So tonight, Matthew, I've returned to the Sates, to a slightly more modern time for the movie that it's in: Halloween 3
Ah, the dreaded threequel. Nigel Neale wrote this, you know. Then had his name taken off it. Tom Atkins is in it – a sure sign of quality with his horror pedigree (The Fog! Monster Squad! Night of the Creeps!) I’d heard this was at best a guilty pleasure, and had nothing to do with the tale of Michael Myers. Was it right? And did it not?
Yes, reader, for if you’ve not dived into the backstory of this movie to date, both are respectively kind of right, and very much on the money. The idea, apparently, was to have Halloween-adjacent and not necessarily linked stories going forward in this franchise, leaving the tale of poor beleaguered Laurie Strode and less-fortunate souls behind to allow the films to spread their batlike wings and take off. Reader, they didn’t.
This is… fine. A take of sinister advertising, mind-controlled kids, electronic puppetry and dubious Halloween masks, it’s cosmetically on point. But its also a bit confused, fumbles the alleged Celtic connections in a way that many many modern horrors do, and the final product is a real mixed goody bag. Charismatic leads, sure – but I missed the Shape of a proper bogeyman. The movie straddles uneasily the slashy Seventies with the more visceral, technological Eighties. Freddy Krueger was mere months away, and ready to reinvent the form. This could only suffer by comparison.
Halloweenometer. Well, it says it on the tin, and the VHS wrapping is very enticing. PLUS I have feelings about serial killers stealing the season from the spooks and ghouls. But I was a bit stratchy watching this one. On theme, but maybe not on point.
Pumpkinwatch: We're back on familiar ground, and there's plenty to choose from here, including a new fangled digital title sequence! But it's the masks we've come for, so feast your peeps:
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