To celebrate Halloween Live for Films is having a horror movie review each night in the 31 Days of Horror. You can see last years 31 days here. You can be involved by sending me your review of a horror film – new, old, good, bad, depressing, funny, disgusting, psychological. As long as it can be classed as a horror then you can send it over to me at phil@liveforfilms.com
Click here to see all the reviews for 2011′s 31 Days of Horror.
Today Phil Hunter reviews the prequel to Trick ‘r’ Treat.
It’s impossible to think of this movie without getting equal parts angry and confused at the poor treatment it received. Despite multiple festival screenings where it received the highest praise and rave reviews, Trick r Treat was never given a cinematic release.
The cast features Oscar winner Anna Paquin, Bafta/Golden Globe Winner Brian Cox and Leslie Bibb (who was once nominated for a Teen Choice award but I mention here because she’s really hot). As well as a few other familar faces as Dylan Baker, Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett and Reaper’s Christine Willes.
Yet in spite of all of these credentials, the studio didn’t have enough faith to give this a release. Maybe the studio weren’t prepared to go up against Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake or to try and break the Halloween stranglehold the Saw movies have at the box office (it was Saw IV that year).
Writer/Director Mike Dougherty has brought four stories together that feature everything from serial killers through to werewolves and a particularly creepy tale involving a bus load of dead schoolchildren (I think every town has a legend like this).
But this isn’t some compendium movie like Creepshow or Tales From the Darkside with a bunch of directors putting stories with no connection together under one name. Trick r Treat takes place over the course of a single Halloween night and characters who are the focus of one segment make cameos in others allowing you to thread together a single timeline by the end of the movie. Which brings me to one character in particular. Sam.
Sam is the guardian of Halloween. When the opening of the movie warns us that Halloween has rules, it’s Sam who makes sure that we stick to them. He makes an appearance in all of the stories, getting his hands bloody more than once. The rules are simple:
1. Wear a costume
2. Hand out treats
3. Never blow out a Jack O’ Lantern before midnight
4. Always check your candy
These films are presented early on like one of those old public service announcements American High School kids get shown on a classroom projector. The kind that are so old and outdated the kids pay no attention to. Even when reminded of them, nay warned! They will still blow out a Jack O’Lantern whilst Sam watches, waiting to do his work.
And then there is the music. The perfect accompaniment by Douglas Pipes who had previously worked on Monster House. This isn’t a sparse electronic soundtrack out of a John Carpenter film, but a full orchestral score more like something you’d find in a Hitchcock film.
Trick r Treat is such a good movie. I can’t stress this so much. I’m leaving out so many details because I want you to go out there and see it for yourself. I want you to buy it on DVD or Blu Ray, just to make the chances of a sequel, that Mike Dougherty has been hinting at for a while, more likely to actually happen.
Also don’t forget to check out the FEARnet shorts Mike Dougherty has produced featuring Trick r Treat’s Sam.
Trick r Treat is my number 1 recommendation for a film to watch at Halloween, it’s exactly how the holiday should be. Fun and scary.
And remember, ALWAYS check your candy.
