[6]

Reviled in its initial release for lacking any appearance of Michael Myers, truth is Halloween III ain’t that bad, it’s just mis-titled. It plays like an expanded episode of Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, centered around an oafish hero (Tom Atkins) and a stereotypical hot chick (Stacey Nelkin) who team up to uncover a conspiracy involving deadly Halloween masks. Halloween III is silly and it knows it. If you’re going to enjoy it, you need to think of it as an episode of Scooby-Doo. The characters played by Atkins and Nelkin are ridiculous stereotypes, and the way the masks work and where their power comes from will stretch your suspension of disbelief. The movie stretches a little and becomes more scary than silly in its final moments, which are colored in shades of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Far and away the best element of the movie is an appropriately hammy performance by Dan O’Herlihy as the diabolical mask maker. When O’Herlihy is on screen, you simply can’t look away.