Fangoria magazine reported that Debra Hill almost fainted when approached with the idea for a third Halloween film. The only circumstance under which Carpenter and Hill would create a third entry is if it were not a direct sequel. “This is a ‘pod’ movie, not a ‘knife’ movie,” she said. Tommy Lee Wallace, who served as director on the film, can be heard during the Silver Shamrock commercials, as an announcer. “It is our [Carpenter, Hill, Wallace] intention to create an anthology out of the series, sort of along the lines of Night Gallery, or The Twilight Zone, only on a much larger scale, of course,” he said.
The movie was written originally by Nigel Kneale, but he requested to have his name dropped from the credits. The budget for the film was set at $2.5 million. Producer Debra Hill, associate producer Barry Bernardi, and Wallace settled on a remote California coastal town, Lolita, to film the movie. The mask factory was actually a milk bottling plant. Due to health standards, no explosions or smoke could take place inside the factory, so the crew moved to Don Post’s studio, the legendary mask maker who created the masks for the film. “The effects in this aren’t bloody. They’re more bizarre than gross,” said star Tom Atkins. Also in the cast was actor Dan O’Herlihy, who Debra Hill referred to as “Mr. Halloween.”
This non-Michael Myers sequel was released to theaters in October, 1982 in the US. Universal Pictures distributed this, just the same as Halloween II. Like its predecessors, Halloween III was filmed at 2.35:1 widescreen ratio. The film made just under $15 million.
Halloween III – © 1982 Universal Studios