Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. Or else!
Before Viewing: Trick ‘r Treat (2007) was recommended by a co-worker, and actually bumped another film off the list. I was going to be watching The Belko Experiment (2016) here, but this film sounds little more apropos.
The trailer appears to be a series of interconnected stories that all take place on Halloween night. I recognize Anna Paquin and Dylan Baker in the preview, and am looking forward to how creepy this could be. The trailer seems to give away several potential scares, but I’ll let that slide, as once I’m into the film, I probably won’t remember that I saw those scenes already.
Presented below is the Trailer for the film.
After Viewing: This is a great throwback to anthology horror films I watched growing up, such as Trilogy of Terror, Creepshow & The Twilight Zone. It’s made up of four interconnected stories, with a 5th prologue story. The interconnectivity of the stories and characters wandering in and out of the tales makes this a really strong anthology.
“All these traditions, jack-o’-lanterns, putting on costumes, handing out treats, they were started to protect us, but nowadays… No one really cares.” – Steven
The stories covered in the film are as follows:
- Prologue: A couple comes home from the Halloween festivities. The wife cleans up the holiday decorations in the front yard and is attacked by an unseen assailant.
- A young boy learns that smashing pumpkins and taking more candy that allowed is bad for his health when he meets the local school principal.
- Five young kids visit a local quarry, the site of the Halloween school bus massacre, in order to scare their friend.
- Four young women tramp around town, picking up local men for a party out at Sheep’s Meadow, while a mysterious individual follows them.
- An old man, and the neighbor of the principal, is attacked in his home by the spirit of Halloween, Samhain.
Each story builds on the one before it, creating a nice picture of what happens on this particular Halloween night. The first two stories have their share of frights, but tease the viewer a bit with bait and switch tactics. The kind where you think characters are in trouble but it’s a fake out. Each segment gets progressively more shocking.
The third segment with the girls switches things up and has a great payoff. Plenty of misdirection but you may probably won’t be able to guess what happens. It actually reminded of the prologue from Twilight Zone: The Movie (1985) just in terms of the payoff to the misdirection.
The final segment with Brian Cox brings the entire story full circle and provides some of the creepiest moments of all. There’s a great homage to Pet Semetary in this segment as well. Many anthology films don’t try to connect their segments and those that do usually feel stilted. Trick ‘r Treat does a great job and makes quite a scary film in the process. I recommend this title to anyone wanting to watch something scary this Halloween.
31 Days of Horror 