Sunday, November 22, 2015

Halloween III: Season of The Witch (1982)






The bastard child of the Halloween franchise.  I avoided this movie for years simply because I knew Michael Myers wasn’t in it.  It ended up being my loss because it is a good movie in its own right.  Had it just been called Season of the Witch, I think would’ve received a lot more love.  Though it seems more and more people are discovering this movie after all these years.  And for those you saw it back in 1982, I'm sure they can't get that commercial jingle out of their heads after all these years.  Halloween III was filmed in Los Angeles and Loleta, CA, or as I like to call it, The Town that Dreaded Progress.  Not much has changed since 1982 and the town is just as creepy as it appeared in the film.


Location: Chasing Grimbridge
Address: San Fernando Rd, under 5 bypass, Sylmar, CA






Location: The Junkyard
Address: 14838 San Fernando Rd, Sylmar, CA







Location: The Gas Station
Address: 22124 Sierra Highway, Sylmar, CA


2013





2023














Location: The Bar
Address: 70 W Sierra Madre Blvd, Sierra Madre, CA    The Buccaneer






The portraits still remain but have been reversed...











Location: The Hospital
Address: 11600 Eldridge Avenue, Sylmar, CA

The building is no longer there, but the one seen when the car explodes is still standing.  Thanks to Mr. H from the halloweenmovies.com message board for finding yet another location.







Location: Town Square/TV Shop
Address: 17 Kersting Ct, Sierra Madre, CA

This is the same location as the Town Square from Halloween II (1981)...
















Location: Driving to Santa Mira
Address: Hookton Road Overpass, Loleta, CA

If you take the Loleta exit off the 101 heading north, you need to cross this overpass to get to Loleta.





Location: Welcome to Santa Mira
Address: Eel River Dr. and Copenhagen Road, Loleta, CA




Location: Main Street 
Address: Main Street, Loleta CA

Shamrock Savings, Santa Mira grocery, Church, former Dublin Inn location.



A suit watches Challis and Ellie drive into town.


The alley is right next to the Halloween mask store.





Shamrock Savings...

Shamrock Grocery...








Location: Rafferty's Gas Station/Rose of Shannon Motel
Address: 2457 Eel River Dr, Loleta, CA







Challis and Elli's motel room...



Marge Guttman's motel room...


The motel office...







Location: Silver Shamrock Factory
Address: 281 Loleta Drive, Loleta, CA

Loleta Cheese Factory is across the street, where Challis and Ellie park before heading into the factory.



























Final processing, now boarded up...





Location: Santa Mira Alley
Address: Behind 24318 Walnut Street, Santa Clarita, CA






This alleyway is directly behind where Vera's house from Friday the 13th Part III (1982) was located.



Location: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Address: 101 S Plymouth Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA

Thanks to Robert at Set-jetter.com for finding this location and Ohama, Nebraska.









Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Address: 159 Larchmont Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA





Location: Dayton, Ohio
Address: 4431 Ben Avenue, Studio City, CA

Thanks to Mr. H at the halloweenmovies.com message board for finding this location and the ones that follow.





Location: New York, New York
Address: 22700 Lyons Avenue, Santa Clarita, CA









Location: Los Angeles, California
Address: near 2810 Thomas Street, Montecito Heights, CA





Location: Seattle, Washington
Address: Vista Ridge Drive, turning onto Wiley Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA






Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Address: Thomas Street looking toward Two Tree Avenue, Montecito Heights, CA






Location: Challis Crashes The Car
Address: 25600 Pico Canyon Road, Stevenson Ranch, CA

This area of Pico Canyon Park is just west of the parking area...












Locations Visited: November 2013, November 2015, March 2016, October 2016, August 2023


Over the years, I met a few of the cast attending some horror conventions...


Tom Atkins (Daniel)



Stacey Nelkin (Ellie)

12 comments:

  1. Awesome stuff! This movie is way too underrated!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yes, Halloween III is definitely too underrated. 1 more day til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...

      Delete
    2. We watch this every Halloween. Love to see all these places then and now...

      Delete
  2. I just ordered some cheese from the Loleta Cheese factory. As close as I will get until my Loleta/Ferndale trip to see the H3 and Salems Lot filming locations. So ironic that those two towns are only about 5 minutes from one another.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's awesome, Sam Hain! If you're on the Halloween Message Board, be sure to post pics!

      Delete
  3. Very cool pictures! I've visited a lot of the locations, but my family and I are going to Loleta later this month to see the sites at night and during the day time. Did you have to contact someone to see the backside of the factory, or did you just walk down there to check it out? We'd love to see the "Final Processing" area, but don't want to get in an trouble by going somewhere we're not supposed to be. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Josh. I didn't contact anyone ahead of time about the factory. I just took a chance and hoped for the best :-)

      Delete
  4. This will probably be a very unpopular opinion, but this is my favourite movie...of all time. So much so, that when the hotel was up for sale several months ago, maybe a bit longer, I got into a bidding war. I wanted it badly and literally only because of this film. I had no idea what I would do with it except maybe turn it back to how it looked. I live in Europe now well most of the time, so it was a huge problem whilst trying to purchase it. I lost, but I am sure it will come up for sale sometime in the future. I will see if I can find the old information regarding the sale. Thanks again for all of your work, xo Tonya

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really? All time favorite? I have grown to love it more and more over the years. Cool story about the motel. That would've been a filming location hotspot if it looked like it did in the film. Thanks for visiting!

      Delete
  5. The "Town Square / TV Shop" location (corner of N Baldwin Ave and W Sierra Madre Blvd.) was also the town square in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). At 55 minutes in, Kevin McCarthy's character is watching, from his office, seed pods being unloaded from trucks in the same town square.

    ReplyDelete