Trick 'r Treat
Rating: 4/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
Halloween is one of the most popular holidays in America, with millions of people celebrating this holiday months before the night of All Hallow's Eve. With this holiday being so popular and beloved, it brings with it numerous traditions, ones that almost everyone knows to follow before the end of Halloween. However, some people don't believe in superstitions or traditions, causing their lack of Halloween spirit to ruin it for others. This is the point of Michael Dougherty's directorial debut in 2007, titled Trick 'r Treat. This completely absurd and hilariously dark horror film perfectly captures the Halloween spirit and how we should never let these traditions die.
This movie concerns itself with four different Halloween stories, all four centered around a person breaking a Halloween tradition and have a certain, trick-or-treating demon in orange footie pajamas named Sam (Quinn Lord) involved in all of them one way or another. We follow a child-murdering principal, a group of kids trying to investigate a bus crash that killed the children on board, a group of young women who are trying to have a fun Halloween night, and a cranky old man who doesn't feel the need to hand out candy to the children trick-or-treating. These four stories all intertwine to tell a spooky Halloween story that works on nearly every level.
While looking at this film in a broad scope, this movie is honestly quite a lot of fun, and really immerses the viewer into this Halloween setting and vibe. Especially if you love the holiday already, you are going to love feeling fully immersed in this movie. This movie truly does a great job of making it feel so immersive and spooky that it makes the viewer crave for that Halloween season and the terrifying thrills it brings. You are able to easily tell that these filmmakers have such a love and appreciation for the holiday, and I think they were able to perfectly translate that to the silver screen.
In terms of the stories that the movie presents, I feel like they have their pluses and minuses. The stories seem a little short (besides the one concerning the bus crash), and end very quickly. I wish each single one had a little more substance to it, and I think it needed that as well to flesh out these characters a little more. Yes, I get that it is just showing these Halloween traditions being broken on Halloween night, but I would love to see a little glimpse into what makes the principal tick, or in this case, murder children and prey on young women at night. However, these stories are a lot of fun due to the uniqueness of them. Who would've thought there would be a Halloween-centered movie where there is a running joke segment of a principal trying to stomp a kid to death in the grave he buried for him so his neighbor wouldn't be so suspicious?
Out of the four here, I would say the Party with the twenty-year olds is perhaps the weakest here. They set it up nicely and the execution is done quite well, but I feel like this was simply just a filler story that the filmmakers added to fill room in the runtime. On the contrary, I would say that the School Bus story is the best here, with this one being the most fleshed-out and engaging story of them all. I think the children in this segment (Britt McKillip, Isabelle Deluce, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Alberto Ghisi, and Samm Todd) all do such a great job and really sort of embody the spirit of children on Halloween. Sure, they were assholes to poor Rhonda, but I really think this showed the Halloween spirit more than the other three segments.
All of the acting here is quite good. In addition to the children mentioned and the talented Lord playing Sam, we also have Dylan Baker as the murdering principal, Anna Paquin as Laurie, who turns into a werwolf and eats a party of people, and Brain Cox as the principal's neighbor Mr. Kreeg, to name a few. They are all great in their own performances, and it is easy to tell they are having a good time with these roles. It's obvious this was a fun shoot to work on for them, and you can feel their energy and excitement ooze off the screen. Like I mentioned, this is a group of artists making a Halloween picture for those who have the same amount of love and appreciation for the holiday. If anything, I wish we got a lot more of Sam and got to see him in action more. I think he is a great little villain, and I would love to see them make a sequel and give him some more screen time and action.
This is a very bizarre and, at-times, shocking Spooky Season movie, and I honestly enjoyed spending time in this world with this crazy cast of characters. There is no wonder why Trick 'r Treat is such a cult classic, and I agree that this movie needs more appreciation and love than it is given. This is simply a Halloween movie made for those who love the holiday, and they did a damn good job from beginning to end.
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