Halloween Countdown – 31 Scary Moments – Oct. 20

October officially marks the beginning of Scary Season. With this in mind, the Pepper Bough is celebrating with a daily dose of creepy moments sure to make your hairs stand on end. Come celebrate with us . . . if you dare.

John Carpenter’s “Halloween” in 1978 was never intended to become a series about Michael Myers, the masked bogeyman who returns to Haddonfield on the anniversary of the night he murdered his sister. Carpenter intended for it to be an anthology series, with each installment featuring a new horror story set on Halloween.

Fate had other ideas, and Michael Myers became a box office sensation, and “Halloween’s” producers immediately set to turn the supernatural killer into the star of a franchise.

While “Halloween” was a major hit, “Halloween II” paled by comparison, which opened the door for the filmmakers to attempt a return to the anthology idea. Thus, we got “Halloween III: Season of the Witch,” a completely separate story from the Michael Myers/Laurie Strode universe about a corrupt corporation manufacturing killer Halloween masks combining a little witchcraft with a lot of science fiction.

“Halloween III” is an ambitious film, and features unnerving sequences, like the one in which the Kupfers (Ralph Strait, Jadeen Barbor, and Brad Schacter) find themselves test subjects for the Silver Shamrock masks. Trapped in a bunker room under the belief they are going to be a test audience for a commercial, their son, Buddy Jr. hears the strains of the “Silver Shamrock” jingle and is compelled to immediately don his pumpkin mask. As the mesmerizing commercial plays, Buddy Jr.’s face caves in and snakes, roaches, and all sorts of critters spill out to attack his parents. While nowhere near as violent as Michael Myers with a butcher knife, it’s a memorable moment of terror.