Horror fans love nothing more than an ill-treated outcast to champion. Digging through piles of neglected, dusty tapes in the search for something misunderstood in its time – a genuine classic misunderstood and mistreated by the critics and audiences of the time.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is perfectly primed for such reappraisal. A poorly-received follow-up to Carpenter’s classic (and Rick Rosenthal’s lumpy sequel), the right kind of horror fan would have you believe that this film’s poor reputation is entirely due to its unpopular omission of Mr Michael Myers, unceremoniously dumped from the franchise in an ill-conceived attempt to spin off a Halloween-themed horror anthology series.

Said right kind of horror is, unfortunately, dead wrong. Season of the Witch is a debacle, a poorly-acted, poorly-directed, (well-lensed) mess. Its plot is a mish-mash of witchcraft, Stonehenge, ‘80s computers, Halloween masks and infuriating advertising jingles, without a scare in sight. There are a couple of decently gory moments, granted, but the film’s only redeeming feature – a creepy small town lorded over a madman walking the world towards oblivion – is executed much more successfully in Carpenter’s own In the Mouth of Madness. Leave this one in the dusty pile where it belongs.