The Third Saturday in October part I wasn’t just another movie that I loved but one that increased my appreciation of the previous movie. This gave me Halloween vibes, which makes sense with the opening crawl of Part V. The way it was shot feels like it was made in the late 70s and that feel only increases with every aspect of the film.
Jay Burleson knocked it out of the park with this movie as well. The way he has been able to channel the two different styles in both of the Third Saturday movies shows a love for the genre. This offers a one two punch when paired the way its supposed to, though I do think it could fit when paired with a classic slasher. That’s how good I think this movie is. Part I is anchored by performances from Darius Willis and K.J. Baker. I got strong Dr. Loomis vibes from Willis’s character Ricky Dean Logan with how focused he was on his task. Baker’s Vicki Newton doesn’t have a readily available parallel that I can think of, which helps the movie standout. The pair is also so great, which continued the tradition of having a lovable duo to follow. Allison Shrum, Lew Temple, Casey Aud, Kate Edmonds, Veanna Black, Dre Bravo, Richard Garner, and Libby Blake all make their wonderfully bizarre character memorable.
Antonio Woodruff as Harding the killer is much more of a presence in this movie than he was in Part V, which is fitting with how the franchises usually went. The practical effects for Harding’s scarring look amazing. The effects for the kills in this movie were able to lean into how the effects were done when it was set. They still looked amazing, but they didn’t try to hide some of the wonkier bits, which I loved a lot. Kelvin Wooten did the music for this movie too. He did another bang up job, channeling all the right moods.
The Third Saturday in October part I as a fantastic slasher that channels the original movies in the genre perfectly. I don’t know of any specific plans for this series to continue but I want them to be able to make all of the other sequels between the two that they’ve made. We need more movies in the slasher subgenre. I want to reiterate that you should double feature this with Part V being the first movie. I give The Third Saturday in October part I 9.5 pairs of shears out of 10.