Movie Music Archives #006: “Halloween III: Season Of The Witch”
Plot outline (having just about nothing to do with the first two “Halloween” films: A Halloween mask-making company has plans to kill millions of American children with something sinister hidden in Halloween masks. Druids, laser beams and the flabby chest of Tom Atkins all collide in a thrill ride for the ages.
With “Assault On Precinct 13″ and “Halloween”, John Carpenter displayed considerable muscle both as a filmmaker and a musician. His title themes for both films are instantly recognizable, hummable — and also sound great when played on any cheap synthesizer. The scores for “The Fog” and “Halloween II” are less interesting but still good (heavy on the atmospherics), but it’s the one-two punch of the music from “Escape From New York” and “Halloween III”, both done in collaboration with Alan Howarth, that make me shiver with child-like excitement.
“Halloween III” also happens to be, believe it or not, my favorite horror film of the ’80s, even beating out the impeccable “Monster Squad” (the only PG-13 film I know in which a vampire antagonist calls a 4-year-old a “bitch” right to her face). Dean Cundey’s cinematography is just great, the script (first drafted by “Quatermass” creator Nigel Kneale) is genuinely funny, and Dan O’Herlihy’s easily as good here as the villian as he is in “The Last Starfighter”, playing that half-man/half-turtle dude. It is weird, though, how Carpenter chose to score this film and not direct it, when compared with “The Thing” in the same year (1982), which he directed but did not score (Morricone did that one.)
John Carpenter & Alan Howarth - “Halloween III: Season Of The Witch” soundtrack (ZIP file)
February 19th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Maybe there was a score mix-up…you know like one of those farces where two sets of parents each get each other’s baby. We should try playing the Halloween 3 music under the Thing and vice-versa, and see how well it works.