Halloween III: Season of the Witch

1982 • dir Tommy Lee Wallace w/Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy • 98 min • 35mm 

John Carpenter never wanted Halloween to become a franchise and, after the disappointment of the second film, he convinced the producers to try it his way – focus future films in the series on the holiday itself, not a particular antagonist. Unfortunately for everyone, audiences just wanted to see more Michael Myers and they stayed away from this film in droves. Too bad for them because this wild, inventive, paranoid, and phantasmagoric movie has become a cult classic in its own right. When an insane toymaker comes up with a sinister plot to mass-sacrifice children on Halloween night, it’s up to one man to try and save his own kids – and potentially millions of others.