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Halloween III DIRECTED BY TOMMY LEE WALLACE RELEASED: 1982 Why's it so good? John Carpenter and director Tommy Lee Wallace will always deserve praise for daring to move the Halloween series away from hack'n'slash territory, as an evil Irish toymaker (Dan O'Herlihy) plans to trigger a Pagan apocalypse through a series of very special Halloween masks, and the most unsettling ditty in movie history. Altogether now: "Three more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween..."

How does it stack up to the original? Carpenter's original is one of the five greatest horror films of all time. Wallace's movie might scrape into the top 30. But it's on this list because it dares to be so different. It's a bonkers film: masks dissolving and fomenting snakes and spiders and 'orrible fings, robotic henchmen dispatching nurses with power drills. But when it works, largely thanks to a morbid atmosphere that calls to mind Carpenter's The Fog, it's deeply unsettling. And that ending... Glaring error: Going back to the Michael Myers yawnathon for the next Halloween picture. And the next. And the next. And the� GAP BETWEEN SEQUEL AND ORIGINAL: 36 MONTHS 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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