Halloween III: Season of the Witch (2025)

"You don't really know much about Halloween. You thought no further than the strange custom of having your children wear masks and go out begging for candy."

— Conal Cochran

• Accent Slip-Up: Cochran doesn't have a strong Irish accent for most of the movie, but his pronunciation of Samhain in Irish Gaelic is exactly correct, and while explaining his evil plan his accent not only grows thicker but less refined to sound more like country folk would. According actor Dan O’Herlihy, he used a Cork accent for Cochran, because he associated it with “having a good time.”
• Affably Evil: Conal Cochran is a chipper and avuncular man even when he's gleefully explaining his sinister plan to Challis.
• Age-Gap Romance: Challis and Ellie hook up even though there is more than a 20-year gap in their ages. Challis even suspiciously asks her age, suspecting that she might be underage, though she insists that she's older than she looks. Incidentally, actress Stacey Nelkin's own age-gap romance with Woody Allen was the inspiration for Manhattan.
• Air-Vent Passageway: How Challis manages to escape his confinement.
• The Alcoholic: Dr. Challis, who arrives at his children's home late after a round of drinking, spends so much time at a bar that his staff direct people to look for him there, and proposes postponing their business in Santa Mira because he could "use a drink."
• Alliterative Name: Conal Cochran.
• Ambiguous Ending: It's unknown if Dr. Challis successfully persuades the TV stations to cease broadcasting Cochran's mask-activating transmission although the desperation in Challis's voice suggests that things take a turn for the worse. On a more optimistic note, the masks may have lost all their power anyway since Cochrane is dead and his factory is destroyed.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Dan rescues Ellie, only to find out in the end that she's a robot.
• Apocalypse How: One of the more horrifying examples: it's one specifically directed at children with adults simply as colateral.
• Artistic License – Law: In the end, Challis calls a single number to plead with someone on the other end to stop broadcasting the Silver Shamrock commercials. The person on the other end stops two channels from broadcasting, and Challis continues pleading with the person to stop the third. But there are federal laws against one organization operating multiple television stations in the same market.
• Awful Wedded Life: The Challises are divorced but stuck together because of their children. Linda criticizes Conal incessantly.
• Bait-and-Switch: The opening begins with Harry Grimbridge running from someone. If one hasn't seen the trailers, they may be fooled into believing that Harry is fleeing from Michael Myers, at least before the Silver Shamrock car emerges from the shadows.
• Big Brother Is Watching: Cochran has taken over Santa Mira and installed cameras and mics everywhere, just in case someone gets funny ideas about opposing him.
• Body Horror: When one of Cochran's little pranks misfires in Marge's face, it's partially peeled away, and bugs start coming out of her mouth. What's left stays alive a while longer – unfortunately. Doubles as a sick Chekhov's Gun to what happens when the mask works as intended...
• Bond Villain Stupidity: When Dan gets caught in the factory, Conal lets him live long enough to explain his evil plot and then places Dan in a Death Trap. This makes no sense since Dan is insignificant and serves no purpose to Conal. Logically, Dan should have been killed instantly like every other victim in the movie.
• Book Ends: The film opens and ends the same way, with a Harbinger of Impending Doom arriving at a gas station (the same gas station, as a matter of fact).
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The last shot of the film is of Dan screaming "STOP IT!" while looking directly at the camera.
• Brown Note: The last commercial. Downplayed, though, as it's not the commercial itself that does the damage, but the computer chip it activates.
• Call-Back: A commercial for a TV airing of the original Halloween can be seen on a TV set, and the airing itself can be seen on another TV later.
• Corporate Conspiracy: Conal Cochran, who runs the Silver Shamrock Novelties company, plans to send out a signal on Halloween night via television that will kill every child wearing a Silver Shamrock mask as a Human Sacrifice for the Celtic Gods. And he succeeds.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Conal Cochran. The man runs Santa Mira like a police state, invites his top salesman and his family to Santa Mira to kill them, and, oh yes, and his business is a front for murdering America's children.
• Creator Cameo: Writer/director Tommy Lee Wallace is the announcer's voice in the Silver Shamrock commercials.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Several. Cochran's robots have several very nasty and creative ways of killing their targets, including power drills, crushing their nasal passages to suffocate, and simply ripping people's heads off. There's also what happens to Marge when one of Cochran's mask medallions misfires in her face. The ultimate has to be Buddy and his family, though, when a test mask executes its Magitek spell and slowly destroys his kid right before his eyes...then releases venomous snakes to do the same to him and his wife.
• Cut Phone Lines: Conal does this to long-distance service so nobody can call out of town.
• Darker and Edgier: Until the Rob Zombie reboot of Halloween, this was the darkest and edgiest film in the Halloween series, enough to involve a plot to grotesquely murder as many children in the United States as possible just because the stars were in alignment, being very Bloodier and Gorier (surpassing its predecessor in violence), and all the deaths fall under a cruel and unusual level of brutality.
• Death of a Child: Conal Cochran plans to murder millions of children on Halloween night. A kid dies onscreen when Conal activates the curse on the mask.
• Deceptively Human Robots: Cochran's mooks are Magitek robots who easily pass as human up until you start ripping out their wires. They even sneeze.
• Doppelgänger: After Dan rescues Ellie, she's revealed to be a duplicate robot.
• Downer Ending: Challis succeeds in getting the commercial pulled from two channels, but it plays on a third. Thus, Cochran's plan ultimately succeeds, resulting in the probable deaths of millions of children.
• Dull Surprise: Challis gives a blank-faced reaction to the robot assassin immolating himself.
• Ear Worm: The Silver Shamrock song, which is just "London Bridge is Falling Down" set to different lyrics. It plays on television and radio throughout the film, and kids sing along. Dr. Challis complains, saying, "It just won't stop," proving it's intended to be seen as this In-Universe.
• Evil, Inc.: Silver Shamrock.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Challis destroys the Silver Shamrock factory, Cochran smiles and claps before being consumed by the explosion. However, it's not certain if he's dead given his supernatural nature.
• Fake Shemp: Garn Stephens refused to wear the prosthetic mask during the misfire scene, so a body double was used to complete the scene.
• Fanservice: After Challis and Ellie begin a relationship upon arriving at Santa Mira, Ellie dons a short and seductive black nightie at one point. Challis and Ellie also have a brief sex scene in which he pulls her nightie down, although nothing explicit is shown.
• Fiery Cover-Up: Cochran's agent, an android, kills Harry Grimbridge and then strolls into the parking lot, douses himself in gasoline in his car, lights himself on fire, and explodes. That brings a lot of police attention beyond the single murder and sets Harry's daughter Ellie and Dr. Challis on the case to follow up on the Silver Shamrock mask Harry was clutching when he came into the hospital.
• Foreshadowing:
  • A news show on television covers the mysterious disappearance of a stone from Stonehenge before we find out what happened to is.
  • The movie hints at the true nature of Cochran's henchmen before The Reveal.
    • Teddy complains that the autopsy team must have mixed up the car parts with the body.
    • When the protagonists and Buddy Kupfer's family take a tour of the Silver Shamrock factory, they enter one room full of Cochran's toys, specifically toys built out of machinery.
    • There is also Five-Second Foreshadowing in case the audience hasn't figured it out. After Dr. Challis enters the factory to find Ellie, he encounters an old woman knitting a scarf. After shaking her, he immediately discovers that she is an automaton. In the next sequence, Challis gets in a fight with one henchman and accidentally punches a hole through the henchman's body before realizing the henchman is a robot.
• For the Evulz: Actually averted by Cochran. He has a very specific reason for his mass human sacrifice.

  Challis: Why, Cochran...? Why?
  Cochran: Mr. Kupfer was right, you know. I do love a good joke, and this is the best ever, a joke on the children. But there's a better reason! It was the start of the year in our old Celtic lands, and we'd be waiting...the barriers would be down, you see, between the real and the unreal. And the dead might be looking in, to sit by our fires of turf. Halloween - the festival of Samhain. The last great one was three thousand years ago and the hills ran red with the blood of animals and children.

• Graceful Loser: Conal — he appears genuinely impressed with Challis' panache at trashing the place, giving him a little golf clap. That could be because he still has one more ace up his sleeve...
• Helping Hands: After Challis destroys one of Cochran's automatons, its severed arm attacks him.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Cochran gets foiled by his own commercial and Silver Shamrock computer chips.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: The horror starts before Halloween.
• Human Sacrifice: Cochran intends to sacrifice millions of children as an extension of Samhain traditions.
• Indecisive Parody: Mostly serious horror film with occasional moments of silliness.
• In Name Only: Due to Michael Myers ending up in every movie except this one; ironically, this movie probably has more to do with the actual Halloween holiday than the rest.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: The Silver Shamrock jingle is based on London Bridge.
• It Wasn't Easy: Cochrane's only explanation of how he got a piece of Stonehenge into his laboratory is, "We had a time getting it here. You wouldn't believe how we did it."
• Jingle: "_ more days to Halloween!" / "Happy happy Halloween! Silver Shamrock!"
• Kavorka Man: Challis is a rather schlubby, middle-aged divorcee and borderline alcoholic who has a beautiful ex-wife and an ongoing fling with an attractive coroner's assistant. The beautiful and much younger Ellie also throws herself at him after knowing him for a single day.
• Lampshade Hanging: Conal tells Challis that they had a devil of a time getting the Stonehenge monolith to California — which fails to explain how (though a magician never reveals his secrets, he points out). Also lampshaded by the news broadcast about the theft of the monolith.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Starker, the town drunk, gets murdered by Cochran's goons after ranting that he's going to burn the factory down. Later on, Challis destroys the henchmen with their laser chips, before the piece of Stonehenge that Cochran pilfered roars to life and obliterates him. And then the factory burns down. Seems Starker got his own "good joke."
• Load-Bearing Boss: When Cochran disappears, the Stonehenge piece magically shorts out, starting a massive fire that burns down the factory.
• Magitek: Cochran puts tiny pieces of Stonehenge into corporate medallion seals on his masks. When triggered by a specific flashing picture, they execute an extremely destructive spell, messily decaying the head in the mask and releasing deadly insects and serpents to cause collateral damage. The robots are also a likely example of it.
• May Contain Evil: The Silver Shamrock masks' true purpose is to melt their wearers' heads and release creatures (some which are venomous) to kill everyone in the vicinity as a human sacrifice.
• May–December Romance: Dan is well into his 40s, and Ellie is in her early 20s (although she claims to be older than she looks), but the romance happens spontaneously to be fair. Initially, Dan is reluctant to pursue her given the situation, her loss, and the fact he's still technically married (albeit separated).
• Mecha-Mooks: Cochran's henchmen are all eventually revealed to be robots.
• Mr. Smith: Alias of Ben and Ellie when they arrive in Santa Mira.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Challis — he's a womanizer and an alcoholic, but he's far from being a bad person and does everything he can to stop the Silver Shamrock plot.
• Murderous Mask: The lethal masks that Cochran plans to use to murder millions of innocent children.
• Murder-Suicide: Harry's assassin blows himself up in the parking lot after the kill. He's a Silver Shamrock android.
• Mythology Gag: A commercial for Halloween (1978) plays on the TV in the bar, and a portion of the film is shown during the Horror-thon (an odd choice considering Conal's target audience). It's announced dramatically in the commercial as "the immortal classic!"

• Nice Guy: The Kupfer family is pretty obnoxious, but Buddy still comes off as friendly and well-meaning. He calls Ben and Ellie his 'friends' and asks Cochran if they can join them on their exclusive factory tour only a few minutes after meeting them.
• Noodle Incident: How the bad guys got the piece of Stonehenge.

  Conal Cochran: Ha ha! We had a time getting it here. You wouldn't believe how we did it!

• Novelization: The script was adapted as a paperback novelization in 1982, with horror writer Dennis Etchison writing under the pseudonym Jack Martin. The book was a best-seller and was reissued in 1984. Etchison wrote the novelization to Halloween II (1981) the year before. Although Cochran dies in the film, the novelization implies that he may have survived, with the magic of Stonehenge transporting him to another location rather than killing him. The novel also makes it clear that Cochran's plan succeeds, while the film's ending is slightly more ambiguous, although its success is heavily implied.
• Obliviously Evil: Conal Cochran not only doesn't regret that his plan will potentially kill millions of children, but he considers it a funny joke.
• Oddball in the Series: This is the only movie not involved with Michael Myers, to create an anthology series. The series returned to Michael's story when that didn't work out. However Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers does create a tentative link with this film.
• Off with His Head!: What happens to Starker and a robotic Ellie herself at the end, via tire iron.
• Public Domain Artifact: Conal's Unobtanium comes from chips of Stonehenge.
• Pumpkin Person: One of the Silver Shamrock masks is a jack-o'-lantern.
• Pursued Protagonist: The film begins with Harry, with a mask in hand, being chased by one of Cochran's minions.
• Revealing Cover-Up: Cochran sends an agent to murder Teddy, the coroner's assistant, who is examining Harry's killer's burnt remains.
• Ridiculously Human Robot: Apart from their emotionless attitudes, Cochran's goons pass as normal humans relatively easily.
• Robotic Reveal: When Dan punches one of Cochran's minions in the gut, he pulls out wires covered in a slimy orange substance. Ellie is revealed to be one too.
• Shout-Out:
  • Santa Mira is the name of the town in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978). It's a fitting reference since both movies have Evil Doppelgängers and characters trying to warn everyone of the villains' evil plans.
  • The ending theme has the title "Chariots of Pumpkins" on the official soundtrack album, apparently as a nod to Vangelis' score to Chariots of Fire.
  • The original Halloween is revealed to exist as a film in this universe.
• Terrifying Pet Store Rat: Except for the one rattlesnake that does in Mr. Kupfer, the creatures that emerge from Little Buddy's head consist of harmless garter snakes, blacksnakes, and normal field crickets you'd buy in a bait shop.
• This Is a Drill: Teddy gets murdered by being stabbed through the ear/side of her head with a power drill.
• Time Abyss: Cochran somewhat implies his pagan religion to be this, saying that the last time a sacrifice happened due to the same planetary alignment was 3,000 years ago; if that ancient event wasn't the first occurrence, that would make the rite at least 6000 years old, predating recorded history.
• Time Bomb: Frequently reminded through the TV/radio jingle:

  Commercial jingle: x more days to Halloween!

• Title Drop: "Yes, kids, you too can win one of the big Halloween three, that's right, three horrific masks..."
• Titled After the Song: Subverted. The subtitle is also the name of a Donovan song, but it was titled after the George Romero film of the same name.
• Unwitting Pawn: The people who sold the masks for Silver Shamrock like Ellie's dad and Buddy Kupfer had no way of knowing Cochran was using them to set up a mass slaughter of children. Ellie's dad found out and tried to warn people and it got him killed. Buddy probably figured it out when he saw what the mask did to his son, but, he was as good as dead by then, too.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Challis calls the cable station in a frantic attempt to pull the commercials from the air. One by one they get pre-empted by messages of the station experiencing technical difficulties, but whether the last commercial gets pulled in time is left unresolved.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: In-Universe example. Despite Cochran intending for his horror marathon to be watched by children, the original Halloween is stated to be in their lineup. Even if it is edited for television, how many parents would let their kids watch an R-rated movie?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to the real Ellie? Did Cochran kill her after she was abducted? Did she get killed when the factory burned down? Did she escape off-screen? We never find out.
• When the Planets Align:

  Challis: Sacrifices...
  Cochran: A part of our world. Our craft.
  Challis: Witchcraft!
  Cochran: To us, it was a way of controlling our environment. It's not so different now! In the end, we don't decide these things, you know. The planets do. They're in alignment...and it's time again. The world's going to change tonight, Doctor. I'm glad you'll be able to watch it...

• Would Hurt a Child: The evil plot aims to kill millions of innocent children across the United States, in as grotesque a way imaginable, using the very masks their parents bought for them to enjoy. Talk about a lifetime of seriously messed-up, misplaced guilt and truly horrific nightmares, assuming they even survive the torrent of venomous snakes and bugs that emerge from their children's decaying heads.