Season of the Witch has always been a curious outlier. Intended as a standalone flick that would reinvent the Halloween franchise as a horror anthology series, instead it was a disappointment to fans at the time who were looking for another night of terror with Michael.
But while the subsequent Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers would signal a revival of the old ways, the red-headed stepchild of the series has over the years garnered its own cult following to the point that many would regard the third film as the best of the sequels.
Apparently, the fanbase of Halloween III includes a few people involved in Blumhouse’s upcoming pic, as they’ve thrown in a little nod to it that pops up in Halloween’s first trailer. If you pause at roughly the 2:06 mark, you can see Laurie Strode walking past a group of children with the Silver Shamrock witch and skull masks from the third movie, which were designed to kill whoever wears them when activated.
Director David Gordon Green has indicated that this won’t be the only fun throwback to previous, non-canonical installments in the franchise, either, saying:
Anyone who’s a fan of any of these films will find nice little easter eggs acknowledging our salute to the filmmakers that have preceded us, in the stories and mythologies as they’ve unfolded. For us, it was a clean slate type of opportunity. Where if there was a little inspiration or mirror image of something, it’s very subtle in the movie.
Though the Season of the Witch nod is certainly pretty subtle, it may still be enough to get that devilishly catchy Silver Shamrock theme song stuck in the heads of some viewers for the rest of the movie. In any case, we’ll have a chance to spot more of these references when Halloween drops on October 19th.