Halloween 3 - “Where the Hell is Michael Myers?”: A definitive history of horror’s most misunderstood film

by Tommy Lee Wallace, Tom Atkins (Foreword)

THE LITTLE SEQUEL THAT WASN’T

OK so first off, the movie was never, ever going to be a true sequel, yet the title was Halloween III from the start. Makes no sense, yet there it is, a baked-in paradox. See, H3 didn’t get made because the backers wanted something different, it got made because they wanted John and Debra, wanted them badly enough to accept the fact that our two were all done with babysitters, Michael Myers, the mask, and the knife, and if they were to be involved, it would hafta be something completely different on the subject of Halloween. That’s the whole story, and therein lies the contradiction. Looking back, it seems clear to me that had fans of Halloween I & 2 been fully aware of this simple fact, they might’ve gone along with the new direction, might’ve even enjoyed what they saw, and we might’ve made it through OK. Who knows? Without the backlash — “Where the hell’s Michael Myers?” — and given H3’s late-blooming but evergreen popularity, we might still be cranking out new movies on the “spooky season” year after year, even after all this time.

But that’s not what happened...

282 pages, Paperback

First published February 14, 2023

Reviews

[Raymond Schwetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans have been complaining about the quality of pics in the book and the length/use of page space. I guess if I paid $85 for a hardcover, I might feel differently. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Tommy Lee Wallace’s account of the making of Halloween 3 includes engaging stories, cool lesser known facts, and rare pics. This is a must for true fans like me.

[nicholas rocks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never forget the first time I saw time I saw "Halloween 3: Season Of The Witch", it was another one of those late night movies I saw when I first got a TV in my room. The picture was all fuzzy, I had to hold the aerial the whole time and like most people I was a tad confused by the title. But none of it mattered because I was gripped by the story and by the end the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end.

Director Tommy Lee Wallace, goes into behind the scenes detail about the sequel that never got the respect it deserved. But thanks to fans and the horror community it has found a whole new audience. Expect broad strokes of how TLW came up in the business with Carpenter, his work on the latter's films and how he came to turn down H2, accept H3 and some tales from the production. 

In some alternative universe H3SOTW became a huge success and spawned a whole series of different anthology Halloween films (sounds more interesting to me than the many cash grab sequels, remakes, reboots and premakes, that we have gotten instead). Also while I can understand why Nigel Kneale's original draft was extensively rewritten (in his version Dr. Dan Challis was so unlikeable you would have wished him dead within the first few moments of meeting him). That being said considering how much of Kneale's work during the 60s and 70s was rewritten or just planned dropped, it's no wonder why he was so bitter by the whole experience. A very entertaining analysis of one of my favourite horror films.

[Jason M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny book about a misunderstood and criminally underrated horror sequel. I spent decades having not seen HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH but secure in the knowledge that it was terrible. But then I watched it in 2023 (after it was covered on "The 250" movies podcast)... and it was exactly the opposite of terrible! Basically a remake of the original INVASION OF THE BODY-SNATCHERS, with a super-catchy jingle that plays several times in the film, and a great villain in Dan O'Herlihy (a year or two before he played a friendly space reptile in THE LAST STARFIGHTER) as an Irish businessman with a sinister lab in the basement of his Halloween-mask factory.

Written nearly 40 years after production on the film wrapped, by director (and vocalist of said jingle) Tommy Lee Wallace, the book is a great tribute. Wallace in very quick but funny and wry prose, takes us from his childhood friendship with John Carpenter, to his accidental Hollywood career, how H3 came together, was made by a dedicated and efficient cast and crew... and bombed at the box office, only to find a new life as a cult classic over the ensuing decades.

This is not a 500-page epic with literary prose, and on Kindle the appendices (Wallace's storyboards from the movie's key sequences, and excerpts from British horror-master Nigel Kneale's original script) are virtually unreadable, but those are my only notes. Oh, and Wallace forgets that Jamie Lee Curtis IS in the movie, as the uncredited voice of Santa Mira and its telephone operator.

[Horror DNA · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an insightful and highly entertaining book that opens in the best possible way, with a foreword by the silver fox himself, actor Tom Atkins. Tommy Lee Wallace is every bit as engaging and is a master storyteller who makes no apologies for his film and insists it does not need defending. His goal is to simply lay out the thought process behind the concept and execution of a misunderstood movie that was never meant to be a sequel to a hit franchise. Had the title simply dropped that infernal III, audiences would likely have been much more receptive.

You can read Robert's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Irwin Fletcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining little read. It's not a hugely detailed behind-the-scenes type of book that breaks down every day of shooting or anything like that. From the sound of things the shoot went pretty smoothly and with a minimum of drama so a more detailed book would probably just be boring. You get the broad strokes of how TLW came up in the business with Carpenter, his work on the latter's films and how he came to turn down H2, accept H3 and some tales from the production. You won't come away an H3 expert probably but it's entertaining and interesting.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satiated my curiosity regarding the Nigel Kneale draft