Halloween 3 (2015)

Halloween 3
Directed by	Patrick Lussier
Starring	Joey King Dani Thorne Tom Hardy Michael Caine Michael Ironside
Music by	Steve Jablonsky
Preceeded by	Halloween 2
Followed by	Halloween 4

Halloween 3 is a 2015 horror film, the second sequel to Halloween 3D after Halloween 2. The film was directed by Patrick Lussier, taking over from Marcus Nispel and stars Joey King, Dani Thorne and Tom Hardy. It was followed by Halloween 4.

Plot

On October 30, Dr Hoffman (Ed Harris) oversees the transfer of the comatose patient, serial killer Michael Myers (Tom Hardy), from Ridgemont Federal Sanitarium to Smith's Grove. Two ambulance attendants arrive and are led to Michael by a security guard, who explains his history to them. It is revealed that six years have passed since the events of the previous two films, when Michael escaped and went on a murderous rampage through his hometown of Haddonfield, in search of his sister, Laurie Strode (Emma Stone). His doctor, Sam Loomis (Idris Elba), blew up both himself and Michael, plunging Michael into a coma and killing Loomis. Shortly thereafter, Laurie and her boyfriend Jimmy Lloyd (Armie Hammer) died in a car accident. 

The attendants move Michael into an ambulance and drive off into the rainy night, along with Hoffman. Michael suddenly wakes up and kills the attendants before forcing the ambulance off the road, where it crashes into a river. A wounded Hoffman wakes up in the wreckage to find Michael standing over him. Michael then cuts Hoffman's head with a shard of glass and walks off into the night.

The following day, Loomis' old friend Terrence Wynn (Michael Caine), who became Michael's "guardian" after the doctor's death, is informed of the incident and visits the scene of the crash. Morgan Walker (William Sadler), another administrator at Ridgemont, also arrives and tries to convince Wynn that Michael's body was probably thrown several yards from the ambulance, but Wynn refuses to listen, knowing what Michael is capable of. Wynn knows that Michael will be headed for Haddonfield and is determined to pursue him, not wishing for Loomis' death to have been in vain. Fearing that Wynn may be getting in over his head, Walker decides to accompany him.

In Haddonfield, we meet a grown-up Lindsay Wallace (Dani Thorne), the girl who Laurie babysat in the first film, and her family; consisting of her parents and little sister Jamie (Joey King). Lindsay has plans to spend the night with her boyfriend, Brady Jensen (Taylor Lautner), but her parents want her to babysit Jamie. A reluctant Lindsay agrees to take Jamie to the store after school to get her a Halloween costume.

Wynn and Walker arrive at a gas station. While Walker fills up the car, Wynn goes into the garage to see if there's anyone around. He happens upon the chained and gagged body of a mechanic, who's clothes have been stolen. Wynn realises Michael was there and runs outside to tell Walker. Suddenly, Michael crashes through the garage door driving a massive tow truck and runs Walker over. The gas dispensers, as well as Wynn's car, catch fire and explode. Wynn retrieves a gun from Walker's corpse and then starts to hitch hike.

Lindsay and her friend Donna (Lucy Hale) pick Jamie up after school and Donna drops them at the Vincent Drug Discount Mart. While Jamie searches for a costume, Lindsay talks to Brady, who works at the store, and they start making out. Jamie finds a clown costume which looks eerily similar to the one worn by Michael on the night he killed his sister Judith twenty-one years earlier. Behind her, a disembodied hand grabs a white mask off the rack. Michael appears behind Jamie in the mirror, pulling the mask on over his scarred face. Jamie screams and knocks the mirror over, shattering it. Lindsay runs over and Jamie tells her that she saw the boogeyman, but Lindsay brushes it off. They buy the clown costume and go home. Later, Donna is seen coming out of the supermarket and getting into her car, when Michael sits up in the back seat and kills her.

As night falls and people go out trick or treating, Wynn arrives in town and goes to the police station where he meets the sheriff, Ben Meeker (Michael Ironside), the successor to Tom Brackett (Bryan Cranston). He warns Meeker that Michael has returned to Haddonfield and will kill again. The two then depart to search the town for Michael. 

In a redneck bar, a news bulletin comes on which informs the citizens of Haddonfield of Michael's return and tells them to stay indoors. As concerned parents take their children home, a gang of drunkards led by Earl Ford (Michael Bowen) decide to go out and hunt for Michael themselves. 

In the meantime, Lindsay and Jamie go trick or treating and knock at the Meeker house, where they are greeted by the sheriff's daughter Kelly (Ashley Tisdale). Brady comes down the stairs buttoning his shirt and Lindsay sees that he is cheating on her. She storms off, accidentally leaving Jamie alone. While they search for each other, Michael emerges from the mist and chases Lindsay down an alley way. She escapes by climbing over a fence and finds Jamie. Meeker and Wynn then arrive and ask them why they are still outside. Lindsay tells them that Michael came after her and fearing they are in danger, Meeker decides to take them to the police station.

At the station, Wynn and Meeker go inside to find the place ransacked with all of the police officers murdered. Outside, Earl's gang arrive and demand to know what is going on. Meeker tells them to go home, but they drive off into the night in search of Michael. Elsewhere, Michael shows up at the local power station and throws an electrician named Bucky onto the main power transformer, killing him and causing a power cut across the town.

With the police station no longer safe, Meeker decides to take the girls to his house and keep them there. At the Meeker house, Brady and Kelly are having sex when they spot the headlights from the car and managed to get dressed before they are caught. Meeker locks all the doors and bolts the windows, sending Brady upstairs to board the windows in the attic shut. Wynn takes off to try and stop Michael himself, much to Meeker's chargin. 

Earl and his mob are driving through Haddonfield when they see someone resembling Michael wandering around. They open fire and blast him away with a hail of shotgun fire. Earl then unmasks their victim to recognize them as local teenager Ted Hollister, who was drunk and stumbling around in a daze while wearing a Halloween mask. When word reaches Meeker of the killing, he decides to leave the house to try and apprehend the men responsible. This makes Deputy Logan (Ted Levine) as the only police officer in the house.

Lindsay comes up into the attic to talk to Brady, and she tells him how betrayed she feels. Jamie falls asleep in the master bedroom, and Kelly decides to make some coffee. Logan goes outside to get a blanket from the back of his squad car, when Michael appears and slams the car door shut on his head, killing him. This enable Michael to enter the house, where he meets Kelly. Kelly screams as Michael grabs a red hot fire poker and impales her with it, pinning her body to the wall. Hearing Kelly's cries, Brady and Lindsay race downstairs and find her body. 

Brady tries to escape by shooting the lock with a rifle, but it fails when he finds it is made of metal, meaning that he, Lindsay and Jamie are trapped in the Meeker house with Michael. They run back upstairs to get Jamie, when Michael appears and chases them. Brady forces Lindsay and Jamie to flee into the attic, leaving him to face Michael. He fights valiantly, but loses the gun and eventually the fight, when Michael throws him from the landing and he breaks his neck.

Michael then follows Lindsay and Jamie into the attic, stealing a knife the process. Lindsay and Jamie climb onto the roof, but Michael is relentless. Jamie manages to climb down via the drainpipe, but Michael takes Lindsay and they both fall off the roof. Jamie weeps over Lindsay's corpse until Michael gets back up and continues to chase her.

Jamie runs into Wynn, and they flee into the schoolhouse. Michael appears and Wynn tries to shoot him, only for the gun to jam, allowing Michael to stab him and throw him through a window. Jamie hides under a table in a classroom, but Michael enters and starts flipping tables over. Jamie manages to get out of the classroom but is cornered at the top of the stairs. Lindsay, having survived her fall, then arrives and retrieves Wynn's gun, using it to shoot Michael, who then tumbles down the stairs. She and Jamie then leave the school.

They run into Earl and his vigilante gang, who offer to drive them out of Haddonfield. As they exit the town, they pass by the police cavalry, who have finally arrived to take care of Michael. Meeker learns that Earl has taken off with the girls and decides to pursue him, while the police find that Michael's body is not in the school.

It turns out that Michael had been hanging onto the bottom of Earl's truck and he climbs onto the back, single handedly wiping out the gun toting mob. He then pulls Earl out of the truck and sends him rolling down a hill, where he slams into a tree and breaks his neck. Lindsay manages to slam on the brakes, launching Michael off the roof of the truck. He crashes into a fence at the side of the road and is knocked out.

The police arrive and Lindsay gets out to talk to them, leaving Jamie in the truck. However Jamie gets out and goes over to Michael's body, even touching his hand. Suddenly, Michael sits up. Jamie falls to the ground and Meeker shoots Michael and is soon joined by the other police, who mercilessly blast the killer. Michael eventually stumbles back and falls down a mineshaft, which collapses on top of him. Meeker then lights a stick of dynamite and drops it down the hole, telling Michael to rot in Hell.

Jamie and Lindsay are taken home by Meeker, where they are reunited with their worried parents. Mrs Wallace decides to take Jamie upstairs to give her bath, while Meeker comforts Lindsay. A scream is suddenly heard upstairs and everybody runs into the hall to see what has happened. They all look on in horror as Jamie appears, holding a scissors and covered in blood, while her mother's body floats in the bath tub.

Cast

• Joey King - Jamie Wallace

• Dani Thorne - Lindsay Wallace

• Bella Thorne - Lindsay Wallace (Young)

• Michael Caine - Terrence Wynn

• Michael Ironside - Ben Meeker

• Taylor Lautner - Brady Jensen

• Ashley Tisdale - Kelly Meeker

• Michael Bowen - Earl Ford

• Ted Levine - Deputy Logan

• Lucy Hale - Donna Chang

• William Sadler - Morgan Walker

• Ed Harris - Dr Hoffman

• Idris Elba - Sam Loomis

• Emma Stone - Laurie Strode

• Armie Hammer - Jimmy Lloyd

• Tom Hardy - Michael Myers

• Ty Simpkins - Michael Myers (Young)

Deaths

• J. Black - Head bashed against wall

• L. Evans - Neck twister

• Amblance drivers - Killed in crash

• Dr Hoffman - Decapitated

• Mechanic - Strangled with chains

• Morgan Walker - Run down with truck

• Donna Chang - Throat slashed

• Bucky - Electrocuted

• Ted Hollister - Shot to death

• Deputy Logan - Head crushed by car door

• Kelly Meeker - Impaled with fire poker

• Brady Jensen - Thrown from landing

• Terrence Wynn - Stabbed and thrown through window

• Orrin - Stabbed in the back and thrown from truck

• Big Al - Stabbed in the stomach and thrown from truck

• Unger - Thrown from truck

• Earl Ford - Thrown against tree, neck broken

• Edith Wallace - Stabbed with scissors

Production

Development

Both Halloween 3D and Halloween 2 were successful both commerically and critically, with the latter leaving Michael alive so as to keep the option of a sequel open. Due to the success of the first two films, a sequel was commissioned.

Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer returned to write the script, but Marcus Nispel, the director, chose not to. Lussier then signed on to also direct. Steve Jablosnky, who scored the first two films, returned to score Halloween 3. This was the final film he scored in the franchise before he decided to move onto other projects.

The basic storyline was based on the original 1988 Halloween 4 but with different characters. In the original film, Michael is pursuing Jamie Lloyd, the daughter of Laurie Strode, and therefore Michael's niece. Jamie's protector is her foster sister Rachel Carruthers, who mentions that Laurie used to babysit her when she was Jamie's age. Lussier and Farmer took this idea but decided to replace Rachel with Lindsay Wallace, the girl Laurie babysat in Halloween 3D. Jamie is of no relation to Michael; he has no clear motive other than rage in this film.

The character of Sam Loomis returned in the original Halloween 4, but Loomis had been confirmed dead after the events of Halloween 2. Lussier and Farmer decided to bring back another character from the first film; Dr Terrence Wynn, the former head of Smith's Grove. As a favour to his deceased friend, Wynn took on the responsibility of watching over Michael, and as such he is the one who must hunt him down when he escapes.

Casting

Tom Hardy reprises his role as Michael Myers in this sequel, with Michael Caine also returning as Terrence Wynn. Idris Elba, Krysten Ritter, Emma Stone, Armie Hammer, Bella Thorne and Ty Simpkins also reappear, but only through archive footage from the previous films. The rest of the cast is made up of newcomers.

Although Bella Thorne's character Lindsay Wallace returns, Bella was too young to play the character again, so her older sister Dani took over. Joey King was cast as Jamie Wallace, Lindsay's younger sister. Michael Ironside appears as Ben Meeker, the Haddonfield sheriff who took over from Tom Brackett, Bryan Cranston's character in the first two films. Ted Levine appears as a police deputy, Logan, and Michael Bowen plays Earl Ford, the leader of a redneck posse. The role of Meeker's daughter Kelly was taken by Ashley Tisdale, and Taylor Lautner joined the cast as Brady Jensen, Lindsay's boyfriend who is secretly sleeping with Kelly. 

The film features additional appearances by William Sadler, playing sanitarium administrator Morgan Walker, Ed Harris as Walker's colleague, and Lucy Hale as Lindsay' friend Donna Chang, who is killed by Michael.

Reception

Halloween 3 received mixed reviews from critics. Many felt that it was a step down from the Marcus Nispel helmed efforts, but the performances of King, Caine and Thorne were praised. Fans gave a warmer response, but agreed that it was not as good as the first two films. Despite the mixed reviews, the film was another financial success.