John Carpenter’s Halloween is one of the most iconic slasher films to date, with its haunting minimalist score and tale of a crazed masked man killing young women in the American suburbs. It solidified Jamie Lee Curtis as the seminal Scream Queen and birthed not only an entire franchise but also greatly influenced a generation of horror cinema.
1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch marked a departure for the series. Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, it completely shed the Michael Myers storyline.
Dark but campy, it instead hones in on a mad scientist who plans to mass murder children by way of an ancient Celtic ritual that involves satanic Halloween masks. Though not as influential, its kookiness is worth a watch.
Luckily, you can revisit the flick Oct. 30 at Esquire Theatre — just in time for Halloween.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30. $10. Esquire Theatre, 320 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, esquiretheatre.com.
This article appears in Oct 16-29, 2019.
