Halloween III, so misunderstood.

[Rocketman]

This is a fantastic movie. The haters are wrong. I think, for starters, the fact that it's called "Halloween III" automatically puts a bad taste in peoples' mouths. I wish it would've been it's own film instead of being the redheaded stepchild of the overall franchise (not the intention at the time, I know). I think if this movie was its own thing and was just called "Season of the Witch", it would be a much more embraced, accepted and popular film with people.

Everything about this film is exceptionally above average. The high-concept story, the haunting music, just the general atmosphere. It all works. It makes you think.

The score in particular is strangely timeless. Some of it reminds me of what Hans Zimmer did for Interstellar. I know that sounds completely asinine. It's got a futuristic feel yet sounds retro by today's standards. What's old is new again, and this almost feels like it was ahead of its time.

 

[NotSoLongAgo]

Halloween III so misunderstood, so boring

 

[P Supreme]

I remember renting this when I was young, then getting my renting rights suspended my moms lolol

 

[Broseph44]

This is a fantastic movie. The haters are wrong. I think, for starters, the fact that it's called "Halloween III" automatically puts a bad taste in peoples' mouths. I wish it would've been it's own film instead of being the redheaded stepchild of the overall franchise (not the intention at the time, I know). I think if this movie was its own thing and was just called "Season of the Witch", it would be a much more embraced, accepted and popular film with people.

Everything about this film is exceptionally above average. The high-concept story, the haunting music, just the general atmosphere. It all works. It makes you think.

The score in particular is strangely timeless. Some of it reminds me of what Hans Zimmer did for Interstellar. I know that sounds completely asinine. It's got a futuristic feel yet sounds retro by today's standards. What's old is new again, and this almost feels like it was ahead of its time.

Agreed. Movie is great and gets too much underserved hate. I absolutely love it though.

 

[Marvolo]

It's too bad Universal doesn't try to do the anthology thing again. I'd love a Halloween Anthology franchise. Every year release a Halloween movie dealing with a different serial killer, or monster, some other scary thing. They shouldn't have abandoned the idea just because Halloween 3 didn't take off.

 

[Wildcard]

Yes, they should have. The Halloween franchise is about the Shape, about Michael Myers. You can't begin a franchise as one solid concept and then deviate to another & expect fans to go with it or for it to even work. It'd be like removing Superman from his films and saying "okay, we're gonna start doing stories on different sets of aliens that aren't Superman, but we'll still call it Superman anyway."

Ridiculous.

Now, with that being said, Halloween III is a good movie...it just should've been labeled differently & marketed as its own thing rather than being apart of an already established franchise. Had they done so, I believe it would've found great success and the idea would've been more easily accepted by fans.

 

[Lord]

Halloween with Michael Myers is just another blah slasher franchise now, the Halloween concept gives you plenty of different story possibilities to tell, staying with Myers hasn't realy helped, which is why the franchise keeps stagnating and dying, there's only so much you can do with a slow killer on the loose during Halloween.

I would say that Halloween would more easily be able to survive without Myers than Friday the 13th would without Jason, even though Jason wasn't the villain in the first Friday movie. Friday the 13th has always been kinda trashy, and it's successful due to how iconic Jason's mask is and due to being about "extreme kills", with a plot that makes no sense and allows the filmmakers to simply do whatever they want. Halloween however is still living in the shadows of that first film, and no Myers film is going to be able to surpass it, the best they could do was simply go into different directions.

 

[Marvolo]

Yes, they should have. The Halloween franchise is about the Shape, about Michael Myers. You can't begin a franchise as one solid concept and then deviate to another & expect fans to go with it or for it to even work. It'd be like removing Superman from his films and saying "okay, we're gonna start doing stories on different sets of aliens that aren't Superman, but we'll still call it Superman anyway."

That's not really the same. The name superman only refers to one thing. The word Halloween referenced a holiday and day of the year long before it represented Michael.

But they definitely shouldn't have titled it Halloween 3. That just made audiences think that it was a part of the continuation. They should have dropped the number 3 and called it Halloween: Season of the Witch or simply called it Season of the Witch.

 

[Vaibow]

How about if the next reboot, or idea be called
'All hallows eve' and the first film has nothing at all to do with Michael Myers, but it is indeed set in that 'universe' and the mask he wears, is discretly on show in a scene and other small easter eggs.
Then the sequel is the Michel Myers story.

 

[Wildcard]

Halloween with Michael Myers is just another blah slasher franchise now, the Halloween concept gives you plenty of different story possibilities to tell, staying with Myers hasn't realy helped, which is why the franchise keeps stagnating and dying, there's only so much you can do with a slow killer on the loose during Halloween.

I would say that Halloween would more easily be able to survive without Myers than Friday the 13th would without Jason, even though Jason wasn't the villain in the first Friday movie. Friday the 13th has always been kinda trashy, and it's successful due to how iconic Jason's mask is and due to being about "extreme kills", with a plot that makes no sense and allows the filmmakers to simply do whatever they want. Halloween however is still living in the shadows of that first film, and no Myers film is going to be able to surpass it, the best they could do was simply go into different directions.

Or maybe it's that they aren't hiring capable writers who can bring fresh stories that make sense? When it does happen (Rob Zombie's Halloween II) people are quick to jump on the "it's too different to be Halloween" bandwagon & bash it unnecessarily so you can't win on that front. But in any event, movies only remain generic as long as you have generic writers/filmmakers giving out generic stories. There's no written rule stating that they have to be that way, or that the reason they are is because they have a recurring villain, it's just because of lazy filmmaking.

And that is oh so wrong. Michael Myers is the third most popular slasher villain of all time. Even in the age of social media, he has not been forgotten in the slightest & I regularly see some sort of reference to him whether it's online or in a movie/TV show. That means he has staying power & popularity so no, the franchise would not survive without him, as proven by Halloween III's attempt considering it is still the lowest grossing of the franchise to date despite not even being close to being the worst.

Your theory has already been proven as a failure. None of the three major franchises would ever work without their main slasher (Jason, Freddy & Michael) at this point.

 

[Lord]

Halloween III came out when Myers was at the peak of his popularity, so this theaory hasn't been tried nowadays. While there are references to him now and then, i would say that most people around my age (15-early 20s) don't realy know who he is. There are also multiple references on tv to the 60s fly film, yet, most people might know about the 80s remake, not that version.

You also mentioned how it's possible to make an Halloween film not be generic, but that when it happened, everyone hated it (Halloween II), so it seems like going with a more original take on the plot, while also keeping Myers doesn't work well either.

Some posts ago, i suggested trying to reboot the franchise as an anthology series, where the first 2 films could be original stories, and the 3rd could be a Michael Myers story, this way you would extablish from the beginning that this is a set of anthologies.

 

[Rocketman]

I think that's the best thing this franchise could do to revive itself. It's really not even a tall order - just make good horror movies and slap the "Halloween" title on them.

There's simply not much more to say about Michael Myers. They hammered him into the ground. If it weren't for their need to explore every single possible facet of a character who should've been a one-and-done thing, there could be 30 of these films by now.

You know what? I'm gonna go on record and say that the first Halloween and Halloween III are the two best of the entire franchise. There.

 

[Wildcard]

Halloween III came out when Myers was at the peak of his popularity, so this theaory hasn't been tried nowadays. While there are references to him now and then, i would say that most people around my age (15-early 20s) don't realy know who he is. There are also multiple references on tv to the 60s fly film, yet, most people might know about the 80s remake, not that version.

At his peak? After only two movies? No, not at all. He was popular, but his popularity didn't "peak" until around the H20-RZH/RZH2 era. You forget that that Rob Zombie's first outing made $80 million, more than any other film in the franchise. So how could his popularity have already peaked two decades before when he was just introduced?

I'm in the same age range & I've seen more than enough to justify that people know who he is. Over the last couple of years I've seen countless memes, discussions, etc. surrounding the character to prove that he is firmly cemented within popular culture.

EVERYBODY knows who Michael Myers is. It's not like they don't play the films on TV all year long.

You also mentioned how it's possible to make an Halloween film not be generic, but that when it happened, everyone hated it (Halloween II), so it seems like going with a more original take on the plot, while also keeping Myers doesn't work well either.

Some posts ago, i suggested trying to reboot the franchise as an anthology series, where the first 2 films could be original stories, and the 3rd could be a Michael Myers story, this way you would extablish from the beginning that this is a set of anthologies.

It's not that it didn't work, it's just that many fans are confused as to what they want. They beg for something new and then reject it when it's given to them in competent fashion. Zombie's H2 (the Director's Cut specifically) is the best film in the series behind Carpenter's original classic but people unnecessarily hate on Zombie so much that they don't really pay attention to the actual quality of the film.

And that's just not going to happen. Halloween IS Michael Myers. Exactly what you're referring to has already been done with Trick 'r Treat so why completely revamp another franchise to fit that same mold when it was tried already and failed miserably.

Makes no sense to me. Not that it'll happen anyway, Myers is the cash cow of the franchise. Take him away and nobody is going to go see it...again, HIII proved it.

Even for Halloween: Resurrection they tried insisting on introducing a new killer but the powers that were shot the idea down quick because they knew the risks of it. It's not smart business.

 

[Lord]

You do know the difference inflaction creates right? If you take it into account, the original film is still the highest grossing film in the series, not to mention that it started the slasher craze, while the second film came out when it was in full swing. The 4th film was released when that popularity was already dying down.

You're lucky then, aside from people who are more film afficcionados, i don't know anyone who have any idea who Myers is, but i do know many who know who Jason, Freddy or Ghostface are.

 

[Kane52630]

http://kane52630.tumblr.com/post/131506218984/halloween-iii-season-of-the-witch-1982

 

[Broseph44]

Song is stuck in my head now, but I don't mind one bit haha.