"Watch the magic pumpkin!"

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Stars: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy
Plot: Conal Cochran uses his Silver Shamrock mask making company to try to kill children by the masses on Halloween.


The Silver Shamrock Novelties company mass-produces three Halloween masks--a witch, skull, and pumpkin--for children to wear as they watch a special Silver Shamrock show on Halloween. The idea is that, as the show flashes an image of a pumpkin to extremely annoying music, the children are suddenly killed by bugs and snakes coming out of the mask. Here's an example:

This is possible thanks to a piece of rock from Stonehenge that the company has inserted into the mask.

You may be wondering, "Why isn't Michael Myers mentioned here? What does Michael have to do with this story?" Luckily, I can answer these questions. Michael Myers isn't in this film whatsoever. Halloween III was an attempt to spawn a series of movies centered around Halloween--without Michael Myers. The first two Halloween movies were slashers, this one deals with witchcraft, and apparently the fourth one would have involved ghosts. I've heard about many Halloween fans being pretty upset with this, which is understandable; however, if this movie is viewed as its own entity, separate from the famous franchise, it really is a good Halloween movie. Personally, I would have preferred the series take that route over beating the Michael Myers story to death. But, if you're going to miss Michael, good news! I found him for you in this tree:

Hooray!

"Whoever wears it becomes a demon, and an instrument of evil!"

Demons (1985)
Director: Lamberto Bava
Stars: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento
Plot: A large group of people become trapped in a movie theater as demons prey on them.

This film is produced, presented, and partially written by Dario Argento. Therefore, I consider this to be a Dario Argento film (which is a good thing). Argento is more widely known for his witchy film Suspiria (1977), and more recently for The Mother of Tears (2007). He also did an episode in the first season of Masters of Horror entitled "Jenifer." I'm saying all of this because, if you like horror--and Italian things--then you should check out Dario Argento's films. I would start with either this one (more of a fun movie) or Suspiria (more serious).

Anyway. This basically being an Argento film, it is pretty good. A group of people go to a theater for a free horror movie showing. The movie they see features a mask that turns one of the kids in the movie into a demon. What the moviegoers are unaware of is that the demons in the movie are real; the same mask was on display in the theater lobby. As the movie plays, a woman who tried on the mask earlier and had been scratched by it becomes possessed and starts infecting the others through biting and scratching (kind of like a zombie). Of course panic and chaos ensue as the people try to escape the theater, which has been locked up by the movie attendants. It was a setup!

This clip is about seven minutes long and shows the part when the woman, Rosemary, becomes possessed. There's some ooze and puss involved so you might not want to be eating anything while watching this.

This is the second Italian horror movie I've talked about (the first was Cemetery Man). Do you think these movies sound better or worse than American horror movies?