8. Halloween III: Season Of The Witch Is The Runt Of The Litter
The title now makes little sense. A Halloween without Michael Myers is like a Bourne film without Bourne; nobody wants it. Before the series became the all out mess it was destined to be, Season Of The Witch attempted to turn Halloween into a horror anthology. Michael Myers was dead, so why not set sights on another target? Why not indeed. Halloween III is a surprisingly striking standalone film. An on-the-nose look at the commercialisation of Halloween, it has a corporation attempt to return the holiday to its sacrificial roots; using the power of Stonehenge (I didn't say it was perfect), Halloween masks are set to kill all the children wearing them on October 31st. Quite daring and with some skin creeping moments, the sight of a child trapped in a bug spouting jack-o-lantern had the potential to be as iconic as an inside out William Shatner mask. Unfortunately, audiences weren't enthused by a Halloween without Myers and few turned out to see it. Thus, the series went back to its roots and never really left, turning Season Of The Witch into the black sheep of the lot. This wasn't the last time Halloween would ignore its past; H20 was essentially a reboot, dropping anything that happened after the second movie.