Trick 'r Treat

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Horrorphile - November 2009

Trick 'r Treat

November 5th 2009 03:18

I got to this release a little too late (it got to my local video store only this week). As it turns out Trick 'r Treat (2008) has suffered its own belated troubles. Originally slated for release Stateside way back in October 2007, but Warner Bros. pulled it at the last minute, perhaps for fear of Saw IV chewing up its box office. It was moved to an October 2008 release, and then postponed again ‘til early 2009, but still no official release. After numerous appearances at horror festivals around the world from late 2008 into 2009, it finally went straight-to-DVD for Halloween just passed.

It must be strange for filmmakers and actors having a “current” release of work they completed two or three years earlier. It’s the nature of the beast, but movies with this kind of high calibre production values and quality cast don’t usually get shelved for so long, especially when there’s nothing actually wrong with the movie. Trick ‘r Treat is an anthology movie; four (well five actually, if you count the flashback-yarn within one of the stories) tales set in a modest festive town where All Hallow’s Eve and the age-old American tradition of donning a costume and trick-or-treating is embraced with exuberance.

Ann Paquin as Laurie

The four main tales are interwoven which keeps the pacing tight and swift, rather than anthologies of past where each tale is told in turn, sometimes with the most tenuous of links. The movie kicks off with a young couple returning home in costume. He wants a little hanky panky in the bedroom, but she would rather the whole night be over. She accepts his request, but she never makes it upstairs. An unseen killer turns her into a scarecrow. The movie eventually does full circle and bookends with the beginning of this incident.

The pranksters invite poor Rhonda into their game

The other stories involve a small group of precocious, slightly obnoxious young teenagers who play an elaborate practical joke on a poor unsuspecting idiot savant girl that turns ironically nasty on the pranksters, a group of buxom older teen girls who are hungry for a little partying in the nearby woods, and are keen for sister Little Red Riding Hood to lose her virginity. There’s the local principal, a widower with impressionable son, who is leading a duplicitous life as a serial killing vampire, and last, but not least, there’s the principal’s next-door neighbour, the cantankerous old codger who is visited by the demonic link between all tales; lil’ mischievous Sam (read: Samhain, the pagan origin of Halloween).

The wicked principal (Dylan Baker) loves his knife

It’s not an especially frightening or shocking movie. In fact I thought it might even be rated PG-13, until the word “fuck” was mentioned a couple of times and later on a pair of tits were flashed. It’s what the MPAA refers to as a soft-R. There is very little graphic violence, but there’s a solid atmosphere. It’s a pity writer/director Michael Dougherty (whose debut feature this is, although he wrote the screenplays to X2 and Superman Returns) didn’t go for the hard-R rating, since there are some elements in the stories that would most certainly have benefited from having a more adult attention to detail.

Macy tells the scary tale of the Halloween Schoolbus Massacre ...

The cast is great, most notably Anna Paquin (I have yet to see any episodes of True Blood, but my, my hasn’t she grown up) as Laurie, Little Red Riding Hood, but also Dylan Baker (always keen to play a misfit) as the unhinged principal, young Brit McKilip as troublesome teen Macy, and Samm Todd as fragile young Rhonda. Certainly director Bryan Singer on board as producer helped immensely in the casting arena.

... where the shortbus kids fell foul of the nasty driver

Trick ‘r Treat is laced with a dark sense of humour, and packed full of horror movie references, too many to name here, but including Scream (1996), The Orphanage (2006), A Nightmare on Elm Street: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), Trilogy of Terror (1972), The Thing (1982), Evil Dead II (1986), Pet Sematary (1989), Creepshow (1982), Tales of the Crypt series, The Howling (1981), The Addams Family (1991), Donnie Darko (2001), Strangers (2008), The Exorcist III (1990), and of course, Halloween (1978), and Pumpkinhead (1988). There's also numerous references to the good and bad side of this pop culture ritual (ie, cutting up a pumpkin to make your jack o' lantern and razorblades hidden in fruit and candy). I enjoyed the linking of the tales, the way characters from one story appeared peripherally in another, and the narrative shifted back every now and again, then moved forward with the next story, but a part of a previous story featured briefly in the background.

Sam, the lil' demon o' Hallowe'en

As a Halloween flick it’s not excellent, but it's very good (nothing holds the torch to John Carpenter’s seminal “Boo!” machine). As an anthology movie it’s also very good, and probably the best in a long time, maybe even since Creepshow (1982).

Here's the rather self-congratulatory trailer:

And here's Michael Dougherty's neat lil' original short, Season's Greetings (1996), which inspired the character of Sam for the feature, and is a bonus on the DVD:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Matt Shea

November 5th 2009 04:32

20/20 Filmsight

Nice one Bryn. A bunch of friends and I were discussing the lack of the anthology movie. Creep Show freaked me out as a youngster and I've dug them ever since. This sounds promising indeed.

And Paquin certainly has grown up! Re: True Blood - it starts off sluggishly but stick with it: Season 2 in particular is good stuff.

Comment by Jason King

November 5th 2009 20:31

Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness

Looks great - I love the poster!!

And that pic of the kids on the shortbus looks really creepy. You MUST watch some Trueblood - you would enjoy it I think!

Thanks for bringing to my attention!

Comment by Bryn

November 5th 2009 22:51

Horrorphile

Jason, yeah, cool poster, and yeah, the kids do look creepy, I like that pic, and yes, I must get on to watching True Blood, I bought the first season DVD, but haven't had a chance to indulge yet.

Comment by JohnDoe

November 5th 2009 23:21

Film & TV on DVD

Hi Bryn,

I actually tried to get this one before Halloween over here but ofcourse it is listed under "very Long Wait" on Netflix at the moment.

You liking it just adds to the varied degrees of love I have heard from several horrorphites.

Comment by Bryn

November 6th 2009 02:10

Horrorphile

JD, there's definitely enough material and tone to enjoy with a few beers, a pizza and crisps, and a nice pipe ...

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