New Jersey Stage 2015 - Issue 10 | Page 38

Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (1982) After Halloween II, a controversial decision was made concerning the future of the franchise. Feeling the slasher genre had burnt itself out, the producers decided to adopt an anthology format. The idea was that each new installment would tell a completely different story set around the Halloween season. Michael Myers would no longer feature. It was a brave move, but far from NewJerseyStage.com a wise one. The film was slaughtered by fans and critics alike. As is so often the case though, Halloween 3 has been reassessed, and is held in far higher regard by genre fans today. As a kid, this was actually the first film in the series I had the pleasure of seeing. I was too young to have grown up with the first two installments so I presumed every movie in the fran- 2015 - ISSUE 10 38