Nothing divides horror fans quite like Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the undisputed black sheep of the franchise. Not until Blumhouse’s Halloween trilogy has any single film in this beloved series been more controversial than Halloween III. Why, Hell, Resurrection gets more love than this one, and that movie is pure stupidity.
I’ve liked this movie since I was a kid, although that’s mostly because (at the time) I didn’t know much about Michael Myers. I remember snooping through my parents’ tape collection and running across something they recorded called Halloween, so I had to watch it! The only scene that struck me was that bratty kid’s head melting into a swarm of creepy crawlies all oozing from the mask he wore.
Holy GOD! What did I just see? That single scene blew my mind. It was sick! It was twisted! It was also disgusting, everything I love, and was the most extreme thing I’d seen at the ripe old age of FIVE! I was totally ok with seeing monsters ripping people to shreds and masked killers stabbing teenagers. I was not prepared for a Halloween mask killing a kid! That felt forbidden. To me, I might as well have just watched a snuff film, and I admit it scared me. I really thought that was the point of the Halloween movies.
I had no clue it was so polarizing. You know this already, but the divide among fans comes down to one point: Michael Myers is not in it. Shhh, we all know he secretly appears on TV, but ignore that for the sake of argument, ok? Many fans have given this movie shit for not fitting into the bulk of the lore.
Now, thanks to director Jason Eisener (Dark Side of the Ring, Hobo With A Shotgun), this brilliant little fan film dares to go back in time and tie the Myers family directly to the dark experimentations of the Silver Shamrock company, a clandestine organization we all know is secretly run by old-world occultists driven by blood sacrifices.
This ambitious short film not only connects Season of the Witch back to Carpenter’s original Boogeyman stalker, but also ties the silent and mysterious Hat Man directly to the origins.
If you’re a fan of past videos like The Confession of Fred Krueger or Krueger: Tales From Elm Street, both brilliant works in my opinion, you’re gonna love this one. Fan-made projects like these and Don’t Hike Alone breathe much-needed fresh life into beloved franchises. Now Project Shamrock joins their ranks and proves how fan projects beat the shit out of big-budget works where studios meddle and screw with what we love.
It’s proving to be quite the lucrative Halloween for Hellraiser this year. For the first time ever, the (in)famous Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios have finally given fans the ultimate chance to truly experience the grizzly horrors that await them behind the riddle of the musical puzzle box. Fans walk, most willingly I must add, through the gaping rift of a giant-sized Lament Configuration as they traverse the blood-strewn familiarity of scenes to assault the senses lifted straight from the iconic early films. Through the infernal threshold, you take your final steps into a world beyond all human experience where pain is worshipped, and the flesh can no longer hide the soul as it’s torn apart.
Since the rights of the franchise are safely back in Clive Barker’s protection, he’s been busy giving fans what they wanted – more. We are simple little things that follow desires no matter how debasing they may be, and we love to consume, so consume on.
For example, Hellraiser has been a primary focus with the fine maniacs over at Trick or Treat Studios, as the team behind giving fans so many nightmares has made it their goal to bring us top-of-the-line masks of the Order of the Gash. They’ve also determined no home is complete without a Lament Configuration sitting on the living room’s coffee table. This replica opens too, so you never know if you’ll be willingly opening the seal to Leviathan’s damned regions. Play with care, kiddies.
On a smaller scale, the same studio is set to release some of the most impressive Cenobite figurines I’ve seen. Originally, NECA held the rights and early in their career released nearly every character from the movies—whether we wanted them to or not. They eventually produced an Ultimate Pinhead, and I waited and waited for them to create the rest of the Cenobite order, but it never happened. Thankfully, Trick or Treat Studios is now releasing the original four Cenobites in an 8-inch scale, which is a significant upgrade from the previous NECA releases. I can’t wait to have them haunting my shelf as soon as they become available.
Let’s not forget the immersive video game, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, now taking up our time. It’s yet another chance to delve into the gruesome world beyond the puzzle box. That and Hell, I nearly forgot a brand new comic series is being published at the time of writing this.
Fans are rejoicing after so many years of suffering through far too many sequels, and I’m too lazy to look up how many are out there, but it was pushing double digits and giving the fucking Children of the Corn franchise a run for its money. Then we got a miserable little remake that completely misses the point of what made the original films so legendary.
This rancid stream of putrescent cinematic sins began with the inclusion of Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth. Released by a new studio, Dimension Films, and desperately competing to win over some of Freddy’s big money, Hell on Earth malformed the very being of the Hellpriest (Doug Bradley) by trying to reduce him to a slasher role. I mean no offense to fans of this movie, and no offense to the slasher genre at all. The truth is, Hellraiser was never a slasher piece. It’s more of a splatter film, if anything. One ripe with depth and leaves you feeling uneasy upon viewing it.
Hell on Earth‘s become a cult classic over the years with arguably one good scene (the church, it’s the church scene), and it really does want to up the blood here but still manages to shit the bed. The third installment greatly differs in tone from the first two movies, which are both legendary, especially the first, which is a horror masterpiece, and that’s this film’s greatest iniquity.
All of the lust and philosophy are lost here, and it leaves the film, however ambitious it was, feeling soulless. The heart that beat and bled across the previous two films was missing here, and the same is true for every movie that followed carrying the Hellraiser moniker, leading our beloved Hellpriest on a catastrophic quest of mediocrity that got stupider and stupider as the movies rolled out.
The pigs at the studio selfishly clung to the rights and were required to produce at least one film every few years bearing the name ‘Hellraiser’ to maintain ownership of the name. They didn’t care if they made good movies; they just did what was legally required of them in hopes of one day doing a large-scale remake. Or something of that nature. Everything they released sucked as a result. They’d churn out the godawfulest horror movies imaginable, slap Hellraiser on the title, put Doug Bradley back in makeup, and then rinse and repeat. Essentially, most films in the franchise have no right to be called actual Hellraiser movies; they carry the name alone, and that’s the only connection they have to the franchise. Everything that made the original movies so horrifying was lost.
The decline can be traced back to 1992 and the topic of today’s discussion. In the Leviathan documentary, a brilliant documentary covering the first two films, Doug Bradley opens up about Clive Barker’s original idea for the third Hellraiser film.
Admittedly, it is very bare-bones, and I wish more was known about it, but even searching through the thin scraps of information we’re given, a much better and very different story is discovered among the slithering pulp.
Firstly, instead of moving the franchise forward, Clive Barker was determined to set the third film back in the ancient past, all the way back to ancient Egypt. One thing you’ll realize when diving deeper into Barker’s stunning body of work is his fascination not only for the phantastique, but also a genuine love for history and the manifold influence the Occult has held sway over it. You’ll find this in the fan-favored video game, The Undying, Barker’s take on the Fall of the House of Usher where a friend visits his ailing friend and discovers the Hellish curses laid upon the family from generations of Occult practices. There’s also Mr B Gone, a book about a demon’s journey from Hell to Earth and then his odyssey across medieval Europe.
His Hellraiser III would’ve tapped into a similar vein and gone for a Genesis story. After all, after taking audiences to the heart of Hell, where else could we go? Clive thought the Great Pyramid would be the perfect answer. In his version, we would’ve watched the origins of the Cenobites, with the Pharaoh of Egypt himself completely hell-bent on opening the forbidden gates and joining with the infernal host.
Setting the movie thousands of years in the past, Barker imagined the Great Pyramid as the first Lament Configuration, the means to open the underworld and release the wonders and knowledge of Hell to mortal minds. The Pharaoh would’ve essentially been the first Cenobite, perhaps the first Hellpriest and predecessor of Doug Bradley’s iconic character. Imagine a scene wherein the tip of the Pyramid would’ve come close to touching the tip of Leviathan as the two worlds collide. If for nothing else, I would love to have seen the visuals of this ambitious movie! I bet it required a really big budget though, which might explain why we got a party club and an apartment setting in L.A. instead. Who needs to see the mystical visions of the past when the crew could just film downtown Hollywood? Right? What a pile of rat dicks.
An origin story was later explored in Hellraiser: Hellbound, the fourth movie and final film to play in theaters. Here we witness the creation of the Lament Configuration and the man who built it.
The mythology of the toy maker, Philip LeMarchand, was greatly changed for the film. Previously, LeMarchand was a demented occultist who, upon learning the mysteries of Hell’s gateway, sealed the secret inside many, and I mean lots, of different music boxes and scattered them all across the globe to feed upon souls.
Philip LeMarchand
I love this story, and of course Bloodline changed it, making LeMarchand an unassuming toy maker hired by a vile magician in France who wants to fuck a demon. I’m dead serious, and I guess I can’t blame him. Anyone who knows me knows my dream woman is Lady Death. So I get it.
True To The Vision
A comic book was later released that Barker considers the appropriate and true third installment to follow Hellbound. He played a significant role in its story, which clearly reflects his vision as it captures the essence of Hellraiser and provides a conclusion to both Kirsty Cotton’s and Tiffany’s storylines. Together, these brave survivors are on a mission to find and destroy every LeMarchand music box they can, aiming to prevent anyone from ever opening the gates of Hell again.
The story features many twists and turns, including Pinhead’s (attempted) apotheosis and Kirsty’s transformation into the Hell Priestess in his stead. Pinhead presides over her ordination, a touching moment between two icons, the one who got away kind of finale you could say.
The comics were released by Boom Studios back in 2011 and quickly became a must-own for me. Unfortunately, as is the case with comic collecting, trying to pick up back issues will cost you and is tedious as Hell. Thankfully, an omnibus collection of the series is releasing later this year so you have a chance to check out the true third installment of the Hellraiser trilogy. You can check it out here.
All isn’t lost, it would seem. We never got the ancient Egypt story, but there’s plenty of good Hellraiser and all happening as we speak! Not to mention Clive Barker’s said he wants to make one more movie. Will he develop the comic storyline? I’ve heard fans mention an adaptation of The Scarlet Gospel too as a possibility. I’d prefer the comic story just because it’s a great conclusion to the Kirsty and Pinhead drama. Or maybe we’ll get something entirely new. I’d kill for a chance to sit down and talk with Clive Barker about this.
Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Time to play that video game!
It’s been 45 years since studios practically begged Carpenter for a sequel to his monumentally successful Halloween movie; and an unforgettable one at that. I realize this might be a hot take dubbing Dick Warlock King Myers over his amazing predecessor Nick Castle- but I’ll die on this hill. Warlock scared the ever-loving shit out of me as a kid in this simply fantastic sequel more so than the original.
John Carpenter’s Halloween was everything a perfectly effective horror slasher should look like without the heavy gore effects. The film used tension-building sequences paired with genius camera work and of course, the infamous score by Carpenter himself that practically made the movie what it is today. When Halloween II came around three years later, the film allowed Myers to continue his killing quest but in a much more sinister tone; if that were even possible but hey- here we are. The sequel was Halloween on steroids (by 1981 standards anyway), with both an angrier Myers and soundtrack to accompany him during his “walk”, and it made The Shape that much scarier.
Here me out but first, enjoy the greatest pumpkin intro of the franchisethat breaks apart into a grim, grinning skull foreshadowing that is a lot more evil and death was built into this installment so hold onto your kitchen knives ladies-especially YOU Mrs. Elrod!
Now, after Loomis unloads all his bullets into Michael and he simply just walks away from the scene, he slinks into a neighboring home occupied by the Elrods who are winding down from the night with a couple of ham sandwiches and a viewing of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead; or at least they think they are. Michael, in a very ballsey fashion, opens up the back patio door to the kitchen where Mrs. Elrod is preparing her sleepy husband some food, and had her back not been turned, she would have been extra meat for those sandwiches for sure. Myers just grabs the knife sitting on the cutting board and walks out, and Mrs. Elrod lets out a blood-curdling scream that would wake the dead once she sees the missing knife and drips of blood all over the counter. This then grabs the attention of her own neighbor, Alice Martin, who unfortunately doesn’t get away so lucky; and that’s when we see that Myers really isn’t fucking around in the sequel. In the first film, Myers, while it was at random, set his sights on a specific group and stayed the course. Even people getting in his way, by just basically being in his path, didn’t get the slash treatment. Marion Chambers, while he scared her goddamn good, he didn’t kill her. He just needed the car and he very well could have.
Same for little Lonnie- Myers seemed to get off just as well in putting a good fright into his victims while maintaining his kill course targets. BUT, Alice, performing her civic duty upon hearing her elderly neighbors’ screams, got her brutally murdered most viciously and we get our first real jump scare in the sequel. Why? My best-educated horror guess is because she WAS simply in his path and now we know that absolutely NO ONE is safe this time around.
It did its job too. Scared the piss out of me when I first saw it.
Moving on to a now hysterical Loomis who in the first film kept his composure throughout quite well, damn near shoots a kid because he is wearing a similar mask to Michael’s. May as well have anyway since we all know how that scene worked out. The good doctor, throughout the franchise sinks deeper into madness in his fight to stop Michael and, in doing so, endangers those around him. Just look what happened to poor Ben Tramer and then the deputy at the end of the film. The guy was just doing his job-he certainly didn’t ask for this shit.
That’s just terrifying.
Even more horrifying is the scene with the razor blade in the apple. Good LAWD seeing that as a child was traumatizing, almost even more so than Myers on a rampage itself. The lore and urban legends swirling around Halloween night of bastards putting arsenic and razor blades in candy for kids put the fear of GOD into a lot of parents and even some anxious kids as well. Well, in Halloween II they made it real, and it was real disgusting at that. Fairly brilliant writing to add that little extra tidbit in there. Also, full disclosure, for years as a kid, I thought this was an ice cube in the kid’s mouth until my father corrected me; and that totally blew my mind and horrified me. I’m all about transparency here.
Now, aside from a crazy Loomis, laced candy, and an angrier score by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, we have to discuss the biggest sell here as to why Halloween II is much scarier than its predecessor- and that everyone is DICK WARLOCK.
Nick Castle did an absolute bang-up job as The Shape in the original, but it was Warlock’s menacing force of nature that gave Myers a more evil presence. Kind of like what Kane Hodder did for Jason Voorhees, Dick did for Michael and he nailed it as what I think, is the perfect personification of Michael Myers. Many see his moves as robotic in nature, but I think that is precisely what makes The Shape slightly scarier. As stated earlier, Myers is more focused and determined to get the job done this time around sort of like a Terminator. And honestly, would there be anything more terrifying than Michael Myers as a goddamn Terminator?! I think not… The guy walked through a glass door without hesitation without any problem to get to Laurie for fucks’ sake. Just straight through the thing! Or the fact he’s walking down a steep set of stairs without looking at his feet or holding onto anything in that mask that you and I both know is obstructive somewhat in the very least.
That’s just gangster.
Stabbing down at empty pillows, getting his hand almost caught in an elevator door, and his quick- jolt-like movements without using all of his body parts are just nothing short of brilliance on Warlock’s end. Without ever saying a word, a grunt, or even having that heavy breathing as pronounced as it was in the first movie, Warlock managed to give us a more pissed-off Myers and execute it perfectly. I just wish we would have seen more of him in subsequent sequels. But hey, we’ll always have his robotic, malevolent force in Halloween II and Season of the Witch.
Making a good argument for Halloween II being the scariest installment of the Halloween franchise isn’t a hard task, but hey if you disagree , let me know below! Also, if you haven’t already picked up this masterpiece, or have it in your collection, I always prefer the 30th-anniversary edition Blu-Ray from Shout Factory, as it contains the bonus feature of Terror In The Aisles! There are a few third-party sellers, and it’s most definitely worth having a copy of this one in particular.
Now if you know what death is like amazing grace sitting on your face, be sure and get this sequel in during Halloween week!
