10/31 PART III {2022}

 SCREAM TEAM RELEASING RELEASES THE THIRD MOVIE IN ITS 10/31 TRILOGY JUST IN TIME FOR . . . . WELL . . . . 10/31.

  Malvolia, the Queen of Screams offers us another Halloween Monster Marathon.  In my Countdown to Halloween 2020, I talked about 10/31 PART II which I found to be more entertaining than PART I.  So is PART III better than PART II???  Well, I can't rightly say as I don't remember PART II that clearly.  But I'll put it to you this way:  PART III is at least as good.  We start off with another near-half-a-dozen fake horror movie trailers which is always appreciated. 

They were a lot of fun.  Then Malvolia sets us up for a quartet of horror tales starting with "HOUSE OF THE MUMMY".  This first story is definitely my favourite.  It plays very much like an episode of TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE to me for some reason.  A doofus whose wife has left him for another man and is threatening to take his house away in a divorce settlement finds a life-size Mummy figure in a store that's going out of business.  The store owner calls the mummy 'sire' and, after consulting with it, agrees to let the doofus have the mummy for his 'House of Horrors' Home Halloween Haunt.  I'm not sure but I think this mummy must've been part of Lot No. 249, if you get my (Egyptian sand dune) drift.  The next story is probably my third fave:  "THE LOCKSMITH".  This one is, to me, something of a giallo homage.  The killer dude (named 'The Locksmith' for reasons shown in the film) is someone in a long black coat with a black slouch hat and black leather gloves; his face is almost completely covered in a mask with no eye holes -- only a small hole revealing the mouth to be something akin to the Chatterer Cenobite in HELLRAISER.  The soundtrack also features a driving rock 'n' roll score during the chase scenes much like any number of Argento movies scored by Goblin.  This one was entertaining enough to be . . . . er . . . entertaining.  So while nothing particularly new, it's fun. 

The next story, "OLD MAN GROSS", is my least favourite as it seems to me just kinda a TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE retread that goes on much longer than it needs to as it brings nothing new at all to the situation. Some teenagers (pushing 30) decide to go to the house of a weird old man and pull some tricks; of course the weird old man turns out to be a serial killer/maniac.  The end.  Nothing at all interesting going on here.  The final story is my second favourite entitled "HACK IN THE BOX" and, while being quite incoherent is purposely so.  Suffice it to say 4 women find a cursed Jack-in-the-Box and conduct a seancey-type session to open it.  Also suffice it to say bonzo crazy batshit stuff happens.  This one was very good and has good kills and lots of style going for it.  So the entire 10/31 PART III, while again no masterpiece, is probably my favourite of the trilogy with only one outright clunker story in the trick-or-treat bag.  Of all 3, this is probably the one I'd rewatch around Halloweeny time.  Since PART II was better than PART I and PART III is at least slightly better than PART II, I'd say Scream Team Releasing is showing good progress with these films.  So let's hope for a PART IV in a year or two that's even better.