TMT: Season of the…

This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time, a series that was begun here. The sole reason this memory popped into my head came care of christian from Technicolor Dreams. His blog post displaying memorabilia from a certain horror sequel that temporarily broke the mold in a franchise was enough to do it.

“It’s a blast. Take Michael Myers out of your head and it’s a fun Hammer-esque sic-fi [sic] trick and treat.”

So much so, I’ll give this entire week of posts over to Halloween-friendly films and recollections. How’s that for seasonal dedication, or dysfunction?

Theatre

The Baldwin Theatre:

Movie

Time

October 27, 1982: Marking time via Halloween was a strange way to wait. Like now, the foliage has only just begun to hit the pavement. At least here in sunny L.A., that is. Compared to other parts, we’re still in late summer by those living elsewhere. Warm, dry Santa Ana Winds still sweep the basin. Enough for the dwellers to break out vivid-colored shorts during the bright daylight hours around here. Though, they’re quickly grabbing a jacket or sweater when the sun sets, as the thermometer drops. We can be downright Jekyll and Hyde when autumn’s burnt orange leavings start striding down the season’s runway.

Been that way for as long as I can remember.

Our fourth Halloween approached. Me and the first girlfriend I ever ‘lived with’. No mother-figures around to feel scandalized, however. This might even have been old hat by now, but it wasn’t. Would never be, I guess. The time I found myself in always had its own set of merry and mayhem. She-whose-name-must-not-be-mentioned helped inaugurate the season a year before, in fact. No doubt, we’d head out to something when the 31st arrived. Not this Wednesday, though. She was at her usual evening shift at a nearby hospital, a R.N. in demand.

Me? Just marking time after work in the Crenshaw Jungle apartment now known as home — when I managed to convinced myself of that. Looking back on the initial slasher movie sequel the previous year got me thinking. What did the new one have to offer this horror film junkie? This keeper of Halloween’s past. The nearby Baldwin Theatre, one of the few neighborhood venues still hanging on, barely, at the base of the Baldwin Hills, had Halloween III: Season of the Witch playing. Why not head to an evening showing, I thought? Wasn’t much on television that night, anyway.

After sitting in that distinctly designed, though nearly empty, theater, thinking about what a TV signal could bring, I’d be hard-pressed to get that movie, let alone that damn jingle, or the situation I found myself in, out of my head.

“The world’s going to change tonight, doctor, I’m glad you’ll be able to watch it. And… happy Halloween.”

The entire TMT series can be found here. If you’re interested how it’s put together, click here.

Related articles

• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) (thecinemaid.net)