This third entry in the lucrative Halloween series almost derailed the entire franchise. Instead of following the exploits of slasher Michael Myers, the third film spins a completely different tale. There is no "season of the witch" and for series purists, this wasn't a real Halloween film, though original Halloween director John Carpenter produced it and added a moody electronic score.
There has been some speculation that it was never the original intent of the filmmakers to call the movie Halloween III; rather, the decision was made by Universal Pictures after the film was completed, and, seeing that they had a decisive bomb on their hands, added the Halloween title principally to ensure a strong box office opening and secure as much of a return on their investment as possible.
Instead of the usual bloody antics from Myers, the story focuses on a toy company named Silver Shamrock that is manufacturing three types of latex Halloween masks — a pumpkin-head, a witch, and a skull — to children with implausibly phenomenal success. Atkins' character is a doctor who learns that the masks are part of an elaborate plot to murder children by the millions on Halloween night. An annoying television commercial somehow triggers a device in the mask that fires a laser into the back of the wearer's skull; in a process the script declines to explain, this causes snakes and insects to erupt from your body after you've been killed.
The film takes liberally from the plots of The Hand and Invasion of the Body Snatchers with unintentionally funny results. Today it is generally only enjoyed as a guilty pleasure, one of those "so bad it's good" movies in the vein of the works of Ed Wood or Showgirls.
After the critical and commercial failure of the film, it was thought that the franchise had died altogether. Yet when Halloween 4 was released some years later, it was pointedly subtitled "The Return of Michael Myers" so there would be no confusion.