I'm a bit obsessive-compulsive when it comes to my DVD's. Everything is in strict alphabetical order, none are left off the shelf for more than a few hours, and all of my series are in numerical order (Friday The 13th 1, 2, etc.). Thankfully, Universal has helped out my little quirk by releasing Halloween III to DVD, so I can fill in that frustrating gap between 2 and 4. While it may not be a "true" Halloween movie (no Michael Myers at all) which has gained it glowering looks from many fans, it stands on its own as a pretty creepy little mystery.

"...Two more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween! Two more days to Halloween, Sil-ver Shamrock!" Perhaps the most annoying commercial EVER is the sinister catalyst in a dastardly plot against the children of the world. Harry Grimbridge (Al Berry) has found out the truth about Silver Shamrock Novelties, and is on the run from mysteriously strong chaps in suits who want nothing more than to give him a trouncing. He finally winds up in a hospital under the care of Dr. Challis (frequent Carpenter collaborator Tom Atkins), who doesn't seem to notice the Silver Shamrock mask that Harry has in a death grip. Later that night, a man in a suit breaks into the hospital and smooshes the patient's head (Fun Fact: Al Berry also played Dr. Gruber in Re-Animator, who suffered a similarly yucky fate), then douses himself with gasoline and lights himself up. Understandably curious, Dr. Challis teams up with Harry's daughter Ellie to figure out what the hell happened. Their trail leads to the Silver Shamrock factory, where they confront its founder, Conal Cochran, and discover his eee-vil, and incredibly far-fetched plot.

Indeed, Halloween III is VERY far fetched. The story, which involves not only computer chips in masks that react to television commercials, but robots, Stonehenge, pagans, and lasers is almost ridiculous in its flight of fancy. It's all pretty hard to swallow, even for a horror flick. However, it somehow manages to be quite effective despite the goofy plot. The movie unfolds at a perfect pace, keeping the viewer's attention all the way through. There are some pretty gross deaths in there too, including a genuinely willies-inducing killing of a kid via his mask. Creepiness abounds, not only in the obvious "horror" moments, but in the Stepford Wives-ish behavior of the townspeople, having nothing but great things to say about Cochran and his company (the most successful mask maker in spite of the fact that their ads make me want to die, and that they only make three varieties of mask...go figure). The only real issue is its Halloween titling: the only reference to the previous films is a brief ad for a television showing of the first movie. It's unfortunate, because had it stood on its own as a movie, it would have fared much better, and been more widely accepted. Horror kids are notoriously fussy about these things, yet Hollywood keeps doing 'em.

Presentation is really nice on this one. Universal has released a near-flawless print of the movie, with well saturated colors, deep blacks without grain or artifacts, and only a teensy bit of print damage. I was pleasantly stunned, given the "outlaw" status of the movie, that Universal has done such a nice job on the picture quality. Audio is equally great, with a well-defined mono track that is a pleasure to the ears. My only beef is the lack of extras except for Universal's lame-ass "Recommendations" header. Even a trailer would've been nice, but no luck.

Having never seen this Halloween before, I was pleasantly surprised by how effective it was. If you can get over the hurdle of it not deserving the "Halloween" title, you may be pleasantly surprised. Hey, at least it's better than Resurrection, right?