Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Halloween #3

by Jack Martin

Vintage movie tie-in paperback

Genres: Horror, Halloween, Fiction, Media Tie In, Witches, Science Fiction, Suspense

228 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1982

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Jack Martin is a life-long Californian; he never set foot outside the Golden State until his 30th year, but has traveled extensively - in his imagination.

Trained in the prosaic fields of economics and law, and earning his living in the corporate bowels of an enormous aerospace company, in his spare time he stretched his mind by studying the wonders of astronomy on the one hand, and the glories of American history on the other. Sonia, his wife of twenty-seven years, was possessed of a brilliant practical business mind; yet she greatly enjoyed Jack's stories of the American past, and encouraged him to write them professionally.

She especially enjoyed his speculation about a "secret history of the United States:" incidents and turning points so vital to our future yet so potentially terrible that knowledge of them was withheld from the American public. With her prodding, he has created a series of novels involving the character of Alphonso Brutus Clay: a Civil War Union officer who will find himself deeply involved in several such incidents that will never find their way into the history books.

Sonia passed away on Christmas Eve 2009 after a brave four-year fight against ovarian cancer, and therefore did not live to see the first of the books that she inspired. However, Jack is convinced that somewhere, she knows.

- Source

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though I thought it was stupid when I was young to call this Halloween III without Michael Myers, I still enjoyed the movie and own it. The book was pretty good 😉





Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cover and title. This is the quintessential preparation for Halloween. Inside you'll learn about Conal Cochran's evil plans and the secret of the Silver Shamrock masks. What is the perfect age for victims? What about Horrorthon and greysuits? Can Dan Challis and Ellie stop the murder madness? The writing is okay but the idea behind the book far better and very sinister, even after so many years (the novel is from 1982). I really enjoyed this classic blast from the past (even without Michael Myers) and can also recommend watching the movie. This is proper Halloween stuff. Really recommended!

[Benji's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has always been a favorite of mine to watch around this time of year. I really wish we could have gone the intended route for the Halloween franchise that John Carpenter and Debra Hill wanted and turned it into an anthology--each film focusing on something spooky...

Alas, it just wasn't meant to be.

Anyway, the book was good. Not too different from the film it's based on, as I could see practically every scene play out in my head as I read along, but it was still a good read.

Recommended.

[Steve Banes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Martin does a better job here than with his book adaptation of John Carpenter's The Fog, (writing as Dennis Etchison), which lacks the spooky descriptive atmosphere that wonderfully saturates H3, example: "...Challis divided the curtains and saw a jury of black crows disarranging the yellow-green creepers of a pumpkin bed that had been neglected in the harvesting, the largest of the melons were cracked open like fiery skulls with shriveled features pecked into their faces to reveal decay within...." and if you're a fan of the unique and under appreciated film starring Tom Atkins, you'll most definitely appreciate his efforts in this book. It's a quick suspenseful read, and follows the movie pretty much exactly, with a few minor changes and additions, most thankfully/notably more character development on Challis and Ellie. I would've loved more background on Cochran since he's a fascinatingly evil character with the most sinister, ingenious holiday trick ever conceived. Maybe someone someday will give us a bit more on him and his terrifying wind-up army. Happy Halloween...

[Ga.selle (Semi-hiatus) Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

"That’s the trouble with evil, Cochran, he thought. It plays no favorites. And it respects no one."


3.5✨


Ok...watching the film adaptation of this now...see if I'd like it better...💀🎃🧙‍♀️

[Unsolved ☕︎ Mystery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved this movie and now, I can love the book.
Neither feature Michael Myers, but they are part of The Halloween Franchise made famous by John Carpenter.

Thank you so much, Mr. Carpenter. You are truly one of the greats.

Like the movie, this book does not disappoint. They capture that Halloween/Fall spirit that is inside you.

If you love the movie or the holiday, you'll LOVE this book.

Happy Halloween!

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better written than most film adaptations, and Etchison seems keen to dig into the background of the protagonist more than the film does, though he remains a bitter and self-pitying drunk, even as he resolves to solve the central mystery presented to him. There isn't a great deal of depth in Wallace's script, and Etchison fails to add much of his own to improve it; I would love to have seen the author work with Nigel Kneale's original treatment. (He also plays down the awkward generationally-challenged sex scene, which is a blessing.)

Etchison's great strength was in the short story form, though if this paid the bills for a while and left him to focus more on his other work, all power to him.

[Daniel Lorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone obsessed with the film as a child, I was ridiculously excited when I discovered there was a novelisation.
I’m unsure how much I would have enjoyed reading this without having seen the movie first (around 100 times), but it turned out to be the perfect Halloween-season read.
Highly recommended for fans of the movie who seek a deeper, more impactful take on what is a wonderfully creepy concept.
Please be aware: The paperback is outrageously priced on Amazon, but you should be able to find an e-book quite easily.

[BRNTerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!!!!! SPOILERS BELOW, NOVEL VS. FILM !!!!!!!

I'd like to point out something funny, that the author dedicated this book to himself using his real name. I don't like the synopsis the book was given as it doesn't tell you anything about the plot and instead wants you to believe this is a typical slasher novel, which is isn't.

What's not in the film at all: The book's entire prologue isn't. It's Challis sleeping in the lounge room at the hospital, being woken by nurse Agnes, who's complaining about him working double shifts. She's massaging his shoulders. The Agnes in the movie doesn't match with the one in the book.

The novel has him at a convenience store buying cheap masks for his two kids, nine-year-old Bella and seven-year-old Willie. A man and his young son are there and he buys his son a Silver Shamrock Novelties witch mask. As he's going into the store he sees an "uncommonly large person" near the parking lot but lost sight of him. As he pulls away from the store he sees a "tall stiff figure" come out of the shadows and walk past the store. He drives to his ex-wife Linda's house and sees near her front door a "shape." Those sighting are confusing to me. I don't understand why those Silver Shamrock Novelties men in gray suits would be watching him or anyone else in public, especially in a different town than where the mask factory is and where the action takes place later, in a town called Santa Mira.

The scene where Ellie and Challis are traveling to the Silver Shamrock Novelties factory in Santa Mira, CA, she tells him of a time when she was six years old and her father bought her a bird. She let the bird out of its cage and her father beat her for it. She said a child never forgives something like that.

Right after that, still in the car, Challis falls asleep and has a very odd dream. He dreamed that he's in another town and there are crying children who are dressed oddly in colorful old fashioned clothes, and a boy with a large head is in a tunnel-like passage with red glowing walls. There's a priest at the end of it. Children came out of wherever they were hiding and followed him. He gathered them into a circle made of rocks. The sun rose up out of it. The priest had a featureless face. He raised a knife, the children screamed, the sky turned red.... and the dream ended. I can see why this was not put in the film because it had nothing to do with anything that I can think of.

Challis meets Marge, the woman staying at the motel, in the parking lot. She's talking about the Silver Shamrock mask and showed him how the round emblem came off when her four-year-old threw it against the wall. She sees the microchip on the back of it, says it looks like the inside of her transister radio, that it must be electronic and asks him to bring her batteries for her to put into her radio to see if she can get the emblem to light up "or whatever it's supposed to do." He also notices the emblem's the size of a U.S. quarter and is made from ceramic. Later on in the book but not the film, Cochran tells Challis that each Silver Shamrock Novelties emblem has a piece of Stonehenge on it.

The film doesn't have Challis and Ellie going to Marge's room right after hearing a lot of noise and finding her dead. In the film they acknowledge a loud sound but that's it. The book's version of this is so much better than the film's.

The lab worker, Teddy, whom Challis is keeping up with about the case of the gray-suited man who burned himself up in the car at the beginning, she's only in the book once, I think, and her death scene's not in the book.

There's a scene in the book where Challis is caught and put in the room at the factory, hands tied with tape and a skeleton mask on and made to watch on a monitor Ellie in another room. Cochran goes into the room with Ellie, she calls him "Daddy" and he gives her a witches mask, comes back into the room with Challis, tells him Ellie is now six years old mentally and that that's a good age to be a victim. He tells Challis that he's bought two minutes of airtime on all three networks (which would be NBC, CBS, ABC) and they're going to air the special commerical at 9 PM.

In the book when Little Buddy was in the room with his parents, watching the Silver Shamrock commerical, it activated the emblem on the mask, making it glow red, which it didn't do in the film. A black spider the size of a hand came out of Little Buddy's mouth then jumped onto his mother's face.

Challis is tied to a chair with black tape or something and he kicks the television screen in, gets a piece of the glass and cuts the tape on his bindings, and escapes. In the book I don't think he's tied to a chair. He gets a Silver Shamrock emblem out of his pocket, the one he took from Marge's room after she died, throws it at the television screen, causing it to explode.

In the book he escapes the room, finds Ellie, they're on a catwalk above all the workers, she spots Cochran and yells out "Daddy!", they all see her, she asks him if she can let the bird fly, she takes out some Silver Shamrock emblems, throws them as if they're birds, they hit the television screens, causing them to explode and the workers to short-circuit, "Their bodies instantly short-circuited and split open in fountains of squirting silicone." The scene in the film is much better because I like how Challis set all the televisions in the room to the Halloween commerical, which caused the emblems to explode when they hit the screens.

The ending is exactly the same except in the book when Challis is calling television stations to get them to not air the 9 PM commercial, he claims he's going to set off a bomb but in the film, he just told the person on the phone to tell whomever's in charge that a bomb's going to go off if it airs.

Other differences: The film's entire opening scene, with the old man running from a car that's following him and clutching a Silver Shamrock Novelties pumpkimask, and the gray-suited man getting crushed between two cars, isn't in the book at all. This scene is far superior to the book's and a suspenseful scene was an excellent way to open the film.

The scene in the film where Challis leaves the liquor store and runs into a man who wants a drink of his liquor then gets killed by two gray-suited men, the man's death scene isn't in the book. In place of that, later, after Marge is killed and put in the car on a stretcher by the men in white coats, in the book Challis sees a headless man in the back of it, dressed like the man from outside the liquor store and assumes it's the same man.

The scene where Challis escapes the motel room through the bathroom window and finds a phone booth down the street, in the book he calls his ex-wife to tell her to get rid of the masks. She misunderstands him as saying to get rid of the masks she'd already bought the kids, Silver Shamrock ones, yells at him, he calls her a "fucking bitch", and she hangs up on him. He leaves the receiver hanging when he leaves the booth and a suited man hangs it up. In the film, the call doesn't go through to her and he hangs the receiver up after the call. Later in the movie when he escapes the room he was held in, he finds a telephone in the building, calls his ex-wife to tell her to get rid of the masks, she misunderstands what he's saying and hangs up on him without him calling her a "fucking bitch."

What's not explained in either book or film is what lead Ellie to wonder if the old man who went to the hospital clutching a Silver Shamrock Novelties pumpkin mask is her father in the first place. I suppose she couldn't get hold of her father and wondered if the dead man, who I assume was mentioned on the news, was her father.

MY THOUGHTS:There's not much to dislike about this film. The opening credits are are best, the theme song with the synthesizer, and the ending, which is the greatest one yet, as it's so damn unexpected. I love the gray-suited men lurking about everywhere showing no facial expressions. I don't understand the dislike for this film.

There are things in the book I wish had been in the film but the film's opening scene is so good that I'll have to say I like the film better than the novel.

A friend bought me a movie poster and I framed it, here .

[Justin Gerber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting changes from earlier drafts to the finished product (ex. we exclusively follow Challis here).

Martin a.k.a. Etchison really was the best at this.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dennis Etchison writes the hell out of this very silly but endlessly charming Halloween One-off.

There is a lot of great atmosphere and it goes into some interesting territory for how the main character views the world which fits in very well thematically. Dude drinks SO MUCH and having him removed from the endlessly likable Tom Atkins makes his character seem unhinged.

Adds some fun bits, cuts out some of my other fave scenes (we don't get the implication that our hero has a relationship with the coroner for example), but all in all this is well worth tracking down if you can. (listened to the Slashtrax audiobook for this one)

[Sara Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Wayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another case of the movie being better than the book. I know the movie came first. The first part of this deals with the lead character, Dr. Challis. After reading for abit all I could say was "O.K. he drinks already." When we get to Santa Mira it dose get better. But in the end it just did not work for me. It does not deviate to much from the movie.

[Nate Dawg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halloween 3 Season of the Witch is a completely different story from the original films. I was disappointed that Michael Myers didn’t show up when I first saw the movie as a kid. As a standalone movie it is a good story. Dennis Echtison does a great job for this novelization including a couple nods to the original film.
3.5 🧙🏼‍♀️’s

[Lou Mayle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although there are a few minor typos. This book was excellent. Especially for fans of the movies. Has a great Halloween atmosphere and has very minor changes from the movie. 5/5 for sure!

[David Veith · Rating 3 out of 5]

1st of all, this is not a "Halloween" book. Michael Myers is not in it! Overall it was ok. Writer seemed a bit pompous (which is pompous of me to say I guess). Story was fast paced and good, just sort of felt it was lacking though. No real meat and potatoes.

[Jake Kasten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as fun to read as it is to watch. Just as many plot holes. Still rocks.

[christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halloween III is often regarded as the bastard child of the Halloween franchise. I personally like it, and it seems to have accumulated a cult following over the years (and rightfully so). So I was very excited to finally read the novelization, thanks to a digital copy I found online, as I was not about to spend hundreds of dollars for a copy on eBay.

And I'm very pleasantly surprised with the quality all of the novelizations for the Halloween franchise. I've loved all of them, even with Halloween IV's endless grammatical errors.

I think my favorite part of this novelization was that it gave us a definite ending. The ending of the film is iconic, ending on a shot of Tom Atkins yelling "STOP IT!" into a phone before cutting to black. But here, we're given a definite answer. Does the third channel get taken off? Or does it cause the death of millions? That's up to you to find out when you read this wonderful novelization!

[Negan88 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Adaptation!

Jack Martin (aka Dennis Etchison) did a fabulous job with this Novelization of Halloween III Season of the Witch! He also was amazing in writing the novelization of the second film as well. I really felt that this novelization was superb with minor flaws.
There were some segments that were altered from the film. Some segments in the film were missing in the book, and I felt some were done better than the film as well as some worse.
Two specific segments I felt would have been so amazing on screen was the way the Marge Guttman scene was portrayed in the book in comparison to the film. It was a bit more drawn out, and Challis learns more at this point. I also felt that the segment with the boy in the jack-o-lantern mask was much more brutal in the book than the film. I would have loved to see it happen on screen!
One aspect that was missing was I felt Challis was portrayed as a martyr, and in the film he is kind of a skeeze. The scene in the film where the redhead gets the drill is completely missing. That was a bummer.
Overall, a pretty great novelization.

[kesseljunkie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 but adjusting for the limits of Goodreads ratings scale.

The sort of good, pulpy fun that the movie promised but didn’t quite deliver. Glad I dug through the electronic stacks to find a copy in the archives now that it seems out of print. Desperately wish they’d take this book and the original script and “reboot” this properly for the modern age. Just a great concept and fun horror sci fi story. Sort of like Omega Man with Charlton Heston — just such a fun idea and effortless romp that you see it for its charms and not its shortcomings.

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually an enjoyable read, it's a great Halloween story it makes me wish they'd remake the movie with decent acting and budget.

[⭐️Ellen⭐️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the movie. Loved the book.

[Andreas Schriefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as the movie with some more details about the marriage of Dr. Chalies

[S. Policar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Halloween III: Season of the Witch, though lacking the franchise mascot that is Michael Meyers, is still worthy of the franchise itself. Meyers was replaced by an Irish run company called Silver Shamrock; which sells, you guessed it, Halloween masks. Through a little digging I did into the lore behind the movie franchise, the company is in fact canon and it's speculated that Michael's infamous mask was made by that very same company; which would make sense.
Anyway, the book is narrated from Dr. Challis' point of view. It's a lot more in depth than the movie because Challis has a lot of internal monologue that the movie lacks. I honestly didn't like him as the main character. He complains about not seeing his kids and how overbearing his ex wife is when the reality is it's his own fault he never sees them. In the week this book spans he cancelled every plan he made with the kids then acted like Linda had no right to be furious with him.
The story as a whole is solid. If you're looking for a HEA, look elsewhere. There isn't much in the way of deaths and only just enough detailing to give readers an idea of what happened. It wasn't horrible given when it was written, but it wasn't great either. I did like the storyline though and that's pretty much the only reason I finished it.
I give this book 4 of 5 paws.

[Amit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually this time about this series "Halloween III" didn't match my expectations. I find there's some lacking in it. Couldn't dive in to the story if you know what I want to say...

Dr. Challis working a in a hospital he was the prime character of the book. Got a nurse who was by profession vety active. He got his ex wife Linda, two daughter Bella, Willie. Having a relationship with that girl named Ellie. It all started when he went to that convenience store to buy musks for his childrens. In there at that time A man was buying his son a Silver Shamrock Novelties witch mask. That mask actually the main twist about that book. There's some crime scene of murder and something happened here and there. Nothing much and then Cochran came in to view. He got some issue with himself. Dr. Challis and Ellie found themselves in a danger situation. It's up to now on Challis responsibility about how to rid off that danger and free Ellie. That is how the tale goes as a matter of fact. There's nothing much to say. The ending was ok. That's all. Didn't like much...

[Darren Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this a 3 based on a 'Halloween book' curve. The 3 stars I am giving this does not mean that this is as good as other books that I have given 3 stars. I probably should give this 2 stars and I might go back at a later time and do so.

There is nothing inherently bad about this book, which is probably the biggest reason that I am not giving it 2 stars. There just isn't anything in this book worthy of anything greater. It is a quick read and follows most of the plot points from the movie (from what I remember) except for the ending; I am a little fuzzy on that. I started reading the Halloween novelizations because I had read an article that mentioned that the books had a little extra in them that makes them worth reading. That is true about the first book and the second had just enough to barely qualify for that distinction but it was awfully written. This book is written better but there is nothing special about it that makes me appreciate that I read it.

I am still hopeful that the next book more resembles the first and not the second.

[Ronald Weston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an okay novelization of Halloween III: Season of the Witch by Dennis Etchison under his Jack Martin pseudonym. He does expand the Challis character with quite a bit of introspection. There are a few deviations from the film, probably due to use of an earlier version of the screenplay. Ellie isn't quite as forward as in the movie and the sex scene is non-existent in the novel. Timing at the end is a problem in the novel as in the film, at least to me. Earlier, it seemed to take quite a while to drive to Santa Mira; the return trip, especially under the time constraint, seemed to be a little over an hour. Actually, the ending of Halloween III seems to be very reminiscent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Also, I think limiting the perspective of the novel to Challis takes away from the suspense, and drama, of the film. Perhaps I would have been more receptive to the novelization had I not recently watched the movie, which I still enjoy.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like 'Halloween II' and 'The Fog,' this novelization of yet another of John Carpenter's films was also written by Dennis Etchison under a pen name. I quite enjoyed the author's decision to include many amusing easter egg references to the first two movies (as well as 'The Fog') - cheekily suggesting that these events may occur in the same universe.

The writing is just as strong as his last effort but the differences between book and film are greater this time around. It's unclear if this is due to artistic license or the author not having access to a completed film to reference or having to rely on earlier drafts of scripts.

[Lex (Dreams_in_a_rose_creek_wood) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prefacing this, prefacing as always, with the first disclaimer that I don't think this really fits into the Halloween series (their only similarities is halloween and murders, which fits a variety of books)

But, that being said, that's exactly why I liked it.

I feel that Jack Martin's writing really shows through much more through this one and it's much more festive, in my opinion, than the others where the holiday was only in the first chapter, where you could really feel the holiday seeping in through tealight candles and kids running around with masks, getting into mayhem.

[Shea Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy Happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
Happy Happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock
Happy Happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
Happy Happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock

[It's almost time, kids. The clock is ticking. Be in front of your TV sets for the Horrorthon, followed by the Big Giveaway. Don't miss it. And don't forget to wear your masks. The clock is ticking. It's almost time.]

Happy Happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
Happy Happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock
Happy Happy Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
Happy Happy Halloween, Silver Shamrock