Conglomerate Carnage. A different animal to the Halloween films that preceded and followed it, Season of the Witch is slowly but surely gaining an appreciation as a standalone horror film. Gone is Michael Myers’ indestructible killing machine, in his place is the nefarious Conal Cochran (Dan O’Herlihy), the owner of the Silver Shamrock corporation that specialises in Halloween masks. Cochran has a sinister plan…

I distinctly remember being in Grade 8 when the film came out, and for four major reasons: 1) The excellent TV commercial, with John Carpenter's spooky music and the spider crawling out of the mouth of the mask; 2) The decent book adaptation written for young adults, that I read at the time, and thoroughly enjoyed; 3) Karen Carpenter died of a heart attack from anorexia nervosa; and 4) Major songs on the radio…

A Halloween movie with no Michael Meyers? Given most of the sequels were dreck, the third outing is an entertaining watch as a Halloween-themed thriller.

Wait, what? Halloween? I guess Carpenter had the grandiose idea of expanding the franchise to one movie released around Halloween that was kind of about Halloween...the holiday not the movies. Mike did die in Halloween II. It was a good idea, one year, one horror movie, all under the same anthology franchise. Except the audience, after two stellar slasher films wanted Mike, so best laid plans of mice and men…