Children with creepy masks and witch outfits walk across the screen as the sunset looms over the orange tinted hills. A man in a suit commits murder and suicide by self-immolation. Halloween is coming to fictional town of Santa Mira, California.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is the much maligned entry of the Halloween franchise. The movie is set aside from the rest of the series to much chagrin because it’s the only entry without the renowned horror villain Michael Myers. It was initially brushed off as a negative spot on the slasher franchise following the body count of Myers, a dark void of a human being who lacked total empathy, stopping at nothing to kill everyone in his path.

The director and creator of the original Halloween, legendary horror director John Carpenter, initially pitched the series as a horror anthology with new original Halloween stories being released every year. Due to the lack of connection to previous installments, it was criminally ignored and suffered both critically and financially in regards to the original. Though it would still be treated kinder than the majority of Halloween sequels that followed.

It’s not as chilling as the original film but there was never going to be any chance at matching that unique slasher quality – even the first sequel couldn’t match it. Season of the Witch decides if you can’t beat it, do something else entirely. It ends up having more in common with Invasion of the Body Snatchers or a sickly version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. There’s even a creepy song in the mix to go along with the creepy Chocolate Factory vibe.

There is no singular villain at the head of this particular snake but rather the ideas are broader this time around. Instead of a man with a knife at the end of the hallway there are themes of witchcraft, corporate corruption, and science fiction all wrapped up in a 98 minute motion picture. Most movies nowadays wouldn’t even attempt that level of ludicrous style genre blending.

The plot is shaky at best when over-analyzed to a logical degree but horror as a genre always comes within those trappings. One thing you must understand is a sort of “fun house” logic in the sense of movies as rollercoaster rides – or rather, a haunted house attraction at an amusement park. It’s the ultimate version of those ideas with iconography and cinematography specific to the Halloween holiday.

With countless entries and re-entries in this franchise which for some reason are doomed to repeat a formula gone stale two decades ago, one can’t help but wonder if an anthology type horror franchise would be welcomed with open arms now. There are only so many times Michael Myers can attack someone with a kitchen knife and have us be scared of his shapeless evil. The genre defining franchise has now fallen into the menagerie of schlock and rinse/repeat attempts at reviving what was once a beloved series of films.

Time seems to have forgotten this hidden Halloween gem. Maybe it’s time we brought it back.