On October 27, 1978 a tiny, low budget horror movie about a masked psychopath stalking and killing teenagers in the small town of Haddonfield, IL on Halloween night was released, scaring the pants off moviegoers nationwide. Halloween went on to become the most successful independent movie ever made up until that point, creating an iconic horror movie monster in the form of Michael Myers, turning writer-director-composer John Carpenter into a “hot” director, and helping kick-start the slasher movie boom of the 1980s.
As with all financially-successful genre movies, then and now, producers started thinking about making a sequel to capitalize on the film’s success. The first one, Halloween II, was released three years later and did similarly good business, but it’s the second in what would become a decades-long franchise that would prove to be the strangest and most controversial of them all. The much maligned Halloween III: Season of the Witch.
In Halloween III, Dan Challis, a hardworking doctor struggling with the demands of fatherhood and an ex-wife, discovers a plot by Conal Cochran, the CEO of Silver Shamrock Novelties, a corporation that sells hugely popular Halloween masks, to revive the pagan roots of Halloween by ritualistically sacrificing as many children as possible.
To accomplish this, he has microchips containing a piece of Stonehenge placed inside all of his masks that will activate when the child watches “The Big Giveaway” on TV at 9pm on Halloween night, and transforms its head into a swarm of crickets and snakes. With such an outlandish plot, it’s hard to believe that this was actually produced and distributed by a major Hollywood studio in the early 1980s.
By the time it came to start writing the story and screenplay for Halloween III, Carpenter and his longtime producer Debra Hill were resistant to the thought of making just another sequel where Michael Myers continues to terrorize Laurie Strode and the citizens of Haddonfield. According to an on-set report during the making of Halloween III that was published in Fangoria Magazine, when asked about making a third Halloween film, Hill, “…nearly fainted. She said ‘No, absolutely not!’ Not, that is, unless the new picture would not be a sequel, and would be totally different and separate from the previous two films…” What they wanted to do was start fresh and craft a wholly original story, one that had no narrative connection whatsoever to the previous two movies. Their plan was to take the franchise in a new direction by turning it into an anthology series of films where each movie would be completely different from the last, with the only connection being that they would all be set around and deal with the holiday of Halloween.
It was an ambitious idea, but as we all know now, did not happen, due to the fact that Halloween III did not have Michael Myers. Fans were expecting to see their favorite boogeyman continuing his reign of terror across Haddonfield, but instead got a bizarre story about an evil corporation that makes masks that kill kids after they watch a television commercial on Halloween night. Because of this, Halloween III ended up not performing well at the box office and was considered a flop. It stayed in theaters for only three weeks and grossed a disappointing $6,333,259, less than Halloween II’s $25,533,818, and far less than Halloween’s $47,000,000.
Despite being viewed as the worst entry in the series, and ranking as the seventh highest grossing Halloween movie, it has since gone on to become a cult favorite, due to its imaginative, but illogical plot and sinister electronic score by Carpenter and Alan Howarth – which is now celebrated as a classic.
The Origins of Halloween
One of the themes that Halloween III plays with are the origins of Halloween as something much more than just a night where kids get to dress up as witches and skeletons and go door-to-door asking strangers for candy. While Halloween is very much an American holiday, it originally started in parts of Europe 2000 years ago as Samhain.
Samhain, (pronounced SAH-wen, which is pronounced accurately in the movie), was a Celtic pagan harvest festival that took place in in the areas of modern-day Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, Northern France, and the Isle of Man from sundown on October 31 to November 1,between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. Samhain is in fact a Gaelic word that translates to “summer’s end.” According to a 2018 Time Magazine article, “Samhain…marked the end of summer and kicked off the Celtic new year. Ushering in a new year signaled a time of both death and rebirth, something that was doubly symbolic because it coincided with the end of a bountiful harvest season and the beginning of a cold and dark winter season that would present plenty of challenges.”
Much of the imagery people often associate with Halloween such as pumpkins, apples, and to some extent scarecrows have their roots in Samhain’s harvest celebration. This was also a period of time that was associated with a rise in supernatural activity, when it was believed the spirits of the dead would return to revisit their homes, and otherworldly creatures would enter our world to torment the living. According to Nicholas Rogers’ book Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, “The feast of Samhain was the occasion of…reorganizing communities for the winter months…It was also a period of supernatural intensity, when the forces of darkness and decay were said to be abroad…”
What specifically happened during Samhain is still a matter of debate due to a lack of written records from the period. This has led to some misconceptions about the festival, such as that it was a satanic ritual where the Celts worshipped demonic gods. These misconceptions have been attributed to Charles Vallancey, a British military surveyor and amateur historian, who visited Ireland in 1762 and authored a three volume work on Irish history and culture.
According to a 2016 Mental Floss article, “Vallancey…erroneously claimed that linguists had mistranslated the word ‘Samhain.’ Instead of meaning ‘summer’s end,’ Vallancey argued it actually referred to a Celtic god alternately named ‘Balsab’—bal meaning lord, and sab meaning death.” This despite the fact that there is no such god named Balsab in Celtic lore. Vallancey’s work was ultimately dismissed in 1818 as inaccurate.
One other belief about Samhain and the Celts is that human sacrifice was practiced. This is still something of an open question as the Celts did not keep any written records, and what accounts of human sacrifice there are may have been exaggerated by the Romans and first century Christian writers in an attempt to tarnish the Celts. If humans were not sacrificed, then animals most certainly were, not to honor a particular deity, but to prepare for the winter hardships to come. Again, to quote from Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, “One can speculate that human sacrifices were common to all quarterly Celtic festivals, Samhain included. But the sanguinary aspect of Samhain more frequently involved the annual slaughter of animals to reduce livestock…rather than the ritual killing of humans.”
Stonehenge
At the beginning of Halloween III, a character watches a news report on the mysterious disappearance of the bluestone from Stonehenge nine months earlier. Stonehenge itself becomes a major part of Halloween III, so it only seems right we take a look at it.
Stonehenge is a prehistoric stone circular monument located on Salisbury Plain, eight miles north of Salisbury, Wiltshire in Southern England. It was built by the Britons in six stages between 3,000 and 1520 BCE during the transition from the Neolithic Period to the Bronze Age. Stonehenge, which comes from the Saxon word Stan-hengen, meaning stonehanging, is composed of two types of stones: sarsens and lintels. Sarsens are a type of sandstone rock that stand 30 feet tall and weigh 25 tons, while lintels lie on top of the sarsens. On the inside of Stonehenge’s circle are the bluestones, smaller rocks which get their name from the bluish tinge they exhibit when broken or wet. According to a 2015 HowStuffWorks article, “The Britons were of diverse ancestry, building Stonehenge at a time when tribal people blended at peace with one another. It was possibly symbolic to bring bluestones from a place of Welsh ancestry together with British sarsens. The monument’s orientation suggests a cosmic unification of the earth, sun and moon.” In the news report from the movie it states that the stone is one of 19, each of which represents the 19 year cycle of the moon. Perhaps this is what the movie is referring to.
Stonehenge is considered not just one of the world’s greatest landmarks – so much so that in 1986 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site – but one of the most mysterious. It’s long been the subject of speculation about who built it and what it was built for. Unfortunately, there’s not many records from the era, which has led to some far-fetched beliefs about its construction, ranging from aliens to the wizard Merlin of Arthurian legend. During the 17th and 18th centuries it was believed that Stonehenge was built by the Druids as a temple. Although this has since been rejected due to the fact that Stonehenge predates the Druids by 2000 years.
It’s more than likely that Stonehenge was intended as a burial site for political and religious leaders, as Salisbury Plains was considered a sacred place. According to the 2015 HowStuffWorks article referenced earlier, “Stonehenge sits in the middle of an older archaeological site consisting of a ditch and bank. Here, archaeologists have found cremated remains of more than 60 humans, in addition to some unburned human bones and many animal remains.” Ultimately, we might never know the true meaning behind Stonehenge’s existence.
Halloween Consumerism
There’s no shortage these days of businesses and corporations who try to cash in on the Halloween. Starting every October 1st and for the rest of the month there’s a seemingly never ending amount of grocery stores, banks, auto insurance companies, fast food chains, and more that try to capitalize on the Halloween spirit. It’s this exploitation of something that used to be more about the natural environment that pushes Conal Cochran to plot the mass murder of his target demographic.
Today, Halloween is one of the most profitable holidays. According to a press release from the National Retail Federation (NRF) from September 20, 2018, the firm Prosper Insights and Analytics conducted a survey that polled almost 7,000 consumers about their Halloween plans and found that Halloween spending would reach $9 billion, with an average of $86.79 being spent. This is slightly down from the previous year when Halloween spending reached $9.1 billion. Within the last seven years the lowest spending was in 2015 with almost $7 billion spent.
While Halloween is without a doubt big business these days, it’s been a consumerist holiday ever since the late 19th century. The very first Halloween masks that were ever sold in commercial stores date back to Kingston, Ontario in 1874. Around this same time, food such as nuts, raisins, oranges, grapes, and, curiously enough, oysters were sold with a Halloween theme. A few short years later, in 1897, candy and chocolates, which we normally associate with trick or treating, were first advertised with a Halloween theme. According to Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, “…America’s Halloween was arguably celebrated in a more consumerist fashion than its British counterpart by 1900. It had emerged as a commercial red-letter day, with a variety of greeting cards, games, and novelties offered for sale.”
Despite its flaws, of which there are many, Halloween III: Season of the Witch remains both a fascinating example of early 80s horror cinema and a glimpse of where Carpenter and Hill could’ve taken the franchise had it been a success.
Sources Used
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Amadeo, Kimberly. “Halloween Spending Statistics, Facts and Trends.” The Balance. November 26, 2018. https://www.thebalance.com/halloween-spending-statistics-facts-and-trends-3305716
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Fawcett, Kirstin. “6 Spooky Facts About Samhain.” Mental Floss. October 26, 2016 https://mentalfloss.com/article/87234/6-spooky-facts-about-samhain
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