Halloween III (1982) - The Visitor and the Department Store Dad

So I got what I felt was my final major review covering the high points of the film, what I felt hit me well or didn’t so that I could focus on certain aspects I rarely discuss much. I wouldn’t say it is an anatomical dissection as much as just giving a “shoutout” to some of the “good stuff” that certain left an indelible mark with me. One of those is early in the film.

Before Ellie enters the film, her father, Harry (Al Berry) is trying to tell anyone who will listen that “they are coming”, obviously referring to Cochran and his children-executing masks. Harry had a department store where he sold the big three masks (created by the great Don Post), later realizing (before the film starts) that those masks are death incarnate. But how on earth do you tell adults willing to accept such a warning? So he flees to a car lot (seems to be where towers bring crashed vehicles) where the guy in the main building rushes him eventually to the hospital where Challis works. This is story already quite memorized in many of those who have seen this over and over. 

The scene and how it is laid out that I consider quite strong in its intensity belongs almost primarily to the score. Harry is sedated and sleeping somewhat peacefully considering the strain of the previous hours prior to his arrival at the hospital. He was telling Challis and the staff that “they are coming, death is coming” to the point that Challis was taken aback and impacted. When one of Cochran’s [robot] henchmen intrudes into the public hospital unawares, without much difficulty, the camera follows mostly his legs. The score is very reminiscent in my mind to “The Thing” (1982) in that there is this overlapping feeling of impending doom. 

Like The Thing is near and moving towards its next victim and the score really paints that picture with subtle, stinging tone. Poor Harry is on the bed with nary a chance to survive. The moment he found out about Cochran’s plans, he was damned. I think most viewers, even I did when I was a kid, knew Harry would not make it out of the first half of the film alive. His death brings Ellie to the hospital looking for answers and some part of Challis’ own desire to get at the truth is his attraction to her, the other part being her father’s prophetic forewarning of horror. I just think that music, the way the camera shoots this suited personality-stripped automaton in the guise of a businessman, on legs and from the back, with no real reason to shoot much of its face sets up just what Challis and Ellie are up against. Cochran has been planning this a while and no department store salesman, that store owner’s daughter, nor some boozing middle-aged doc will get in his way.

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And some might consider it a nice little tie-in piece (not connective tissue, per se, but a reminder) to the previous Halloween film in that Halloween III features some story in the hospital. Much like Myers, this automaton is on a mission to kill a particular target. While Myers doesn’t quite achieve his mission, the automaton, who moves very much like Myers (perhaps on purpose, I do not know), does in startling Harry and crushing his nose, thrusting bone into brain. What I think adds to the scene is the scream of the nurse after finding the automaton, cleaning off his black-gloved hand on a curtain close by, is Atkins’ Challis hearing her, rising from his couch, interrupted nap and all, as the music picks up while the camera follows him to the entrance of the hospital. Before anything else can happen, the automaton, who completed its mission, douses itself with petrol and flicks the lighter to flame, blowing up the car with it in the vehicle. Seeing all that, Challis is driven to anxiety. What the fuck is going on?

And that will connect to another horrifying death, a friend of Challis’ requested to help study the “remains” of the automaton, again a no-no to Cochran who sends another mechanized killer in man-guise and suit to “silence” her. All the parts left in the charred rubble, no human body parts or bone, leave the doctor puzzled at the findings but she’ll never be able to clue Challis in. Challis will find that out on his own.