Flashback! Bad Movies That Haunt Me: Halloween III: Season Of The Witch

Through 1983, nearly every movie I saw was watched at Groves Theater, in Summersville, West Virginia. Sure, I saw a flick now and again in nearby Beckley or at the Craigsville Drive-In, but Groves' was the place against which I measured all other silver screens.

It felt like home. 

My movie-going experience then was as much about the social experience as it was about the movie I paid to see. There were no ads or commercials in those days -- can you believe that, kids?!?-- so we spent pre-trailer time going seat-to-seat talking with friends or flirting. Or, we'd hang out at the small concession corner before buying a bucket of buttered popcorn. 

And Groves Theater sold the biggest, hottest, butteriest bucket of popcorn around. 

As soon as the trailers started we settled in, hoping to be entertained. Sometimes we were, sometimes we weren't. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) was, for me, a weren't. 

It wasn't just that this sans-Mike Myers installment was poorly produced, even though it was. (Seriously, how is a movie that combines Halloween, Stonehenge, androids, and a plan to sacrifice children supposed to make any cash at the box office?) No, what made this film a horrible experience for me is the scene where insects and snakes come out of the pumpkin-head mask worn by Buddy Junior as he died watching TV.  

It was horrifying. I clutched my girlfriend's hand tighter and closed my eyes. 

Years later I can't get the music from that scene out of my head. Nor can I exorcise the poor script and terrible acting witnessed that night, too. 

I loved the popcorn. But that damn movie still haunts me.