Panic Fest 2026 Coverage
The Barn Part III review
Practical effects rule the day in The Barn Part III.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Barn Part III
Directed by Justin M. Seaman
Written by Zane Hershberger and Justin M. Seaman
Starring Courtney Gaines, Kelli Maroney, Kansas Bowling, Jessa Jupiter Flux, Felissa Rose, William Ragsdale and John Kassir
The Barn Part III Review
It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since The Barn first debuted on the festival circuit. The throwback horror film, and it’s 2022 sequel, scratched that practical effects/Halloween season horror itch. Ten years later, The Barn Part III made its way to Panic Fest. It’s another celebration of the gory, gooey side of horror…this time with enough internal lore to sustain a bigger scope full of answers to questions you’ll be forgiven for forgetting to ask. The whole series, full of roles for familiar horror faces, has felt like a love letter to the genre. The Barn Part III retains that…while also becoming a bit of a love letter to itself.
The first two movies, as best I can recall, centered around the character of Michelle. The Barn Part III begins with that character, now jumping ahead a bit to 1998, on Halloween night. I don’t feel like you can spoil something that happens in the first five minutes of a movie…so I’ll just tell you that Michelle will not be the lead of The Barn Part III and let you infer what happens from there. We learn that the entire town, save for those who were involved with the last “barn incident”, has forgotten everything demonic that took place.
The story then jumps ahead again…this time to modern day. It’s been about thirty years since the last time Halloween ended in bloody demonic chaos…and the town remains none the wiser. Setting the third (and final?) chapter of the story in modern times is a bit of a risk. The throwback aspects of the first two films were a big part of what made them fan favorites. I’m happy to report that fans of the series have nothing to worry about. While it may take place in a current era…The Barn Part III’s heart and mind still remain very much in the past.
The Barn Part III is a showcase for practical effects and fun, quick kills. There’s a sequence that takes place at a 3D movie screening that features a nonstop cavalcade of fun kills. Faces are sliced off, parts are dismembered, the body count rises quickly in The Barn Part III. Any fan of 80s practical effect based horror will enjoy the way this sequel embraces the absurd fun of the kill. Honestly, there are so many strong effects and costumes on display…The Barn Part III would have been a success without doing much else at all.
Josh (Courtney Gaines), a character from all three films…now recast due to the time jump, is one of the few to remember what happens in barns around this town on Halloween Night. For the last three decades, Josh has been working to keep the dark forces at bay. His sister Heather (Kelli Maroney…also a returning character recast due to the time jump) suggest that he should move on with his life. Let Halloween pass and see if the trouble has moved on for good. This turns out to be a mistake, of course.
Interestingly, evil’s return ends up being accidentally caused by Josh himself. His nephew Kyle (Tristan Olsen) has been investigating the secret history of the town that his uncle has been protecting. When Uncle Josh gives Kyle advice for dealing with bullies at school…Kyle ends up bringing the demons back to town. The trio of main killer demon things is back. There’s pumpkinhead guy and the corncob head scarecrow and the miner. Kyle sends them to scare his bullies without understanding what they would do next. Cue a montage of murders at this year’s Halloween festival.
The Barn Part III has a lot of internal lore to offer. Fans of the series will be excited to see a deepening of that lore…as well as the return and payoff to characters from the series’ past. Even if you aren’t familiar with the history of the franchise…The Barn Part III nails the feeling of something nostalgic for itself. Not in a self-indulgent way…in a way that fans will appreciate. A series that began as a way to rekindle the feeling of watching some gory 80s horror has grown into a franchise capable of not only sustaining its own narrative…but drawing on the nostalgia for it.
But, even if you don’t care about any of that, the practical effects are what you’re going to enjoy the most. It’s an impressive display of lovingly crafted gags. You’ll also get to see genre legends like Maroney, Felissa Rose, William Ragsdale, Ari Lehman and (appropriately) the voice of John Kassir do their thing. The Barn Part III is still a love letter to the genre. It just also happens to be a love letter to this surprisingly enduring series itself.
Scare Value
Above all else, The Barn Part III knows what you want from it. If you enjoyed the first two installments of the series…this movie was made, with love, for you. If this is the final chapter of the franchise, it goes out on a high note. It takes its practical effects smorgasbord all the way to Hell to meet the Devil himself. With a lot of lore and just as many familiar faces popping up along the way, The Barn Part III is independent throwback horror done right. Even when it moves its story to the present.
