History YMMV / HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch

* VindicatedByHistory: Arguably the biggest example in the whole franchise. While the film performed adequately at the box office, it was absolutely savaged by both fans and critics primarily due to not having anything to do with the Michael Myers story, and its gross paled in comparison to the first two films and some that followed (such as ''The Return of Michael Myers'' and ''[=H20=]''). It has since picked up a fairly significant [[CultClassic cult following]] for its unique plot, fantastic score and atmosphere, and SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome. Many have admitted that after thirty years of [[{{Sequelitis}} increasingly disappointing sequels]] and no less than ''three'' {{Continuity Reboot}}s, the franchise may well have been better off as an anthology series like Carpenter intended, and that, had it not been called ''Halloween III'' (or had the producers of the series not forced the second film to be another Myers story rather than beginning the anthology idea with ''Halloween II''), it would've gotten its due much earlier. Consider the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' franchise's attempts to pump out a movie every year for Halloween, and the {{Sequelitis}} that rapidly set in.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Not just the famous Silver Shamrock jingle but the general musical themes. You could tell this was a Creator/JohnCarpenter movie from the first seconds.

* BizarroEpisode: For the franchise, being much more fantastical and having nothing to do with Myers. That, and none of the events in the ones before it are mentioned in it, nor are any of its own events mentioned in the ones after it. Although, if the original plans for an anthology movie series had continued, this could've been averted, depending on what the other films would've been like.

* ContestedSequel: While this film has gained a cult following, it still tends to be polarizing to fans of other ''Halloween'' films. Rankings of the series tend to have this film either in second position (behind [[Film/Halloween1978 the original]]) or near the bottom, and that's only the fans who will actually even ''watch'' the film. Many self-proclaimed die-hard Halloween fans refuse to even watch it out of principle due to it not including Michael Myers.

* VindicatedByHistory: Arguably the biggest example in the whole franchise. While the film performed adequately at the box office, it was absolutely savaged by both fans and critics primarily due to not having anything to do with the Michael Myers story, and its gross paled in comparison to the first two films and some that followed (such as ''The Return of Michael Myers'' and ''[=H20=]''). It has since picked up a fairly significant [[CultClassic cult following]] for its unique plot, fantastic score and atmosphere, and SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome. Many have admitted that after thirty years of [[{{Sequelitis}} increasingly disappointing sequels]] and no less than ''three'' {{Continuity Reboot}}s, the franchise may well have been better off as an anthology series like Carpenter intended, and that, had it not been called ''Halloween III'' (or had the producers of the series not forced the second film to be another Myers story rather than beginning the anthology idea with ''Halloween II''), it would've gotten its due much earlier. Consider the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' franchise's attempts to pump out a movie every year for Halloween, and the {{Sequelitis}} that rapidly set in. Now picture a ''Halloween'' anthology film series coming out every year, perhaps able to maintain a higher level of quality in each film due to the anthology approach instead of having build upon the continuity of the previous film. ''Now'' imagine if ''[=H20=]'' had come out after twenty years of these anthology films, the excitement to see Laurie Strode and Michael Meyers after both had been absent for twenty years.

* ReplacementScrappy: Conal Cochran and the film itself, to many fans at the time.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Conal Cochran, because of him being a ReplacementScrappy for the iconic Michael Myers many viewers despise him for not being Myers and also find him far less interesting as an antagonist, however since III became more popular in recent years, much of the fanbase has come around regarding Cochran liking how different he is from Myers, his AffablyEvil tendencies,[[spoiler: him accepting his defeat rather gracefully and potentially even winning in the end despite his defeat.]] In addition, the performance of Creator/DanOHerlihy is very well regarded as he does a good job at portraying Cochran as charsmatic and likeable yet deeply malicious beneath the surface.

** "Stop it, stop it, STOP IT! '''STOP IIIIIIT!!!!!'''"

** The scene where a woman toying with the tag from one of the masks is blasted in the mouth and dies has become notorious. It's completely out of place, as so far the film has been a fairly serious (and realistic, since the ridiculous robots and druids haven't shown up yet) horror film, and then, in the middle of a fairly normal scene BAM! Laser to the mouth.