Review: Trick r Treat
The history of Trick r Treat is almost as interesting as the film itself, it was filmed, then shelved for two years, then released basically straight to video where word of mouth slowly but surely got people’s attention to the point where it’s now regarded as one of the best Halloween movies of all-time. And it’s not hard to see why, using an anthology approach to tell a number of short and scary story, Trick r Treat manages to touch upon all manner of horror movie tropes whilst also capturing that very essence about what makes Halloween so special.
It’s Halloween in a quant little town in Nowhere, Ohio, and all types of strange shit is happening; psychotic principle Steven Wilkins is poisoning children with candy and trying to hide the bodies in his garden, while his own son Billy comes home early and fucks up his plans. Children Macy, Sara, Chip and Schrader meet up with neighbourhood weirdo Rhonda to seek out the folktale of the school bus massacre where eight mentally challenged children drowned in the quarry when their bus was pushed over the cliff. Young woman Laurie is looking for ‘That special someone’ to take to her sister’s campfire party in the hopes of being her first and getting over the stigma of her more experienced friends, only to have a run-in with a possible vampire killer using the costumes to hide his kills in plain sight. And crotchety old fart Mr Kreeg has his night interrupted by a vicious little shit who wants Kreeg punished for not embracing the Halloween spirit.
All the while, a burlap sack wearing boy called Sam is wandering the streets, peeking his head into each and every story to make sure everyone is following the rules.
With the movie being as short as it is – the runtime is only 79 minutes – there’s not a lot of depth to the stories but each of them are given enough time to get their point across about the Halloween spirit and have a neat little twist that just embraces that spirit even more. Be it serial killers with Wilkins, zombies with the school bus, demons Kreeg or something else with Laurie that I won’t spoil because it’s too good to ruin, every story touches upon one horror element and goes about it in a great manner, sometimes funny, sometimes blood soaked, often both at the same time. And that’s not even mentioning the timeline which isn’t as linear as you might think, leading to a great little game of piecing everything together in your head and using multiple viewings to see clues and call-backs peppered throughout the film.
Acting likewise wasn’t Awards worthy but everybody was in on what this film was and all were game for the mania. Dylan Baker made Stephen Wilkins into a real sick fuck, poisoning children in an effort to butcher them for no reason other than shits and giggles. Baker is a standout for the film, he has moments of being funny and charming, but at all times he’s dealing with the corpse of a child in his back garden and the mix of cool but cruel works really well.
The school bus storyline wasn’t my favourite simply because the kids aren’t given a lot to work with, oddball Rhoda stands out since she’s hinted at being a savant with a good knowledge of the occult, which sadly makes her prime candidate for bullying. None of the kids were bad, in fact as a unit they played into the uncaring but unthinking nature of how cruel kids can be, especially around Halloween.
Laurie’s storyline is primarily focussed on her, played by Anna Paquin. While her sister and her friends all played well into the confident, sex positive manner that college girls can be, especially during the time of year where they can be anyone they wanted to be, Paquin stood out for her little girl lost look, too annoyed to be alone, too timid to find anyone. It’s a simple but good performance made even better during her turn towards the end, which again I’m not spoiling because the pay-off comes out of nowhere and is brilliant.
Brian Cox took on Mr Kreeg, the town’s resident old bastard who hated children and wanted none of them near his door for candy or whatnot. Cox is clearly having fun with the role, he plays into the crankiness, always ready with something rude or un-PC to say, plus once he finds himself at the mercy of the demonic Sam, his terror and confusion are brought out in full force.
Sam round out the cast with the smallest role but also the most memorable, he’s the most adorable little murderer around, dressed in an orange onesie with a burlap sack head, he appears whenever he needs to in order to keep the Halloween spirit alive. You don’t know who he really is, you don’t know what he really is, but he’s always there and always happy to watch the blood and guts fly.
The film is directed by Michael Dougherty who clearly revels in the holidays – he did the Christmas horror Krampus a few years back which is worth checking out for something a little different - and good thing he does because his handling of all the different stories whilst keeping a consistent tone is impressive work. It’s keeping that same tone which is key to making the film so great, across all four stories the film maintains a streak of black comedy running throughout, each new shocking or violent turn leaving you wondering if you should be laughing or not, it’s gruesome stuff with vomiting blood, ripping skin, tearing limbs and other assortment of violence and death happening, often to the young but that shock value does work quite well.
It helps of course that Dougherty utilises as much practical effects as he can, it really makes the violence feel that little bit more authentic when you can actually seen the imperfections in the gore, how the blood splashes in all directions when it’s spilt across the floor, how the skin holds on in the most random places when it’s ripped from the skin. The effort put into the film, most notable in the Sweet Dreams campfire scene which has so much going on that you can’t take everything in at once, is immense and you have to applaud Dougherty for going through with it all.
Mostly though, it’s Dougherty’s love of the season that permeates most through the screen, this is a love letter to Halloween and it shows, how most scenes have this low orange hue to match the pumpkin skin, how everyone treats the day differently, be it spending time with the kids, scaring a friend or just using it as an excuse to get laid. And despite all the child murder and dark humour, the film just reminds you how fun Halloween is, it’s a time where everything has this morbidly fantastically element to it, no other time of the year celebrates the true blue release of being scared and embracing that fear to have fun is why so many people love the season and still celebrate it whenever they can.
I can honestly say that anyone even remotely interested in Halloween so check out Trick r Treat, it’s a short but effective anthology akin to Tales From The Crypt or Creepshow but utilising a connected narrative to tie everything together, it’s got a host of actors all willing and game for whatever the film throws at them and a director at the helm whose love of gore, shocks and surprises adds on to the sheer fun of it all. An absolutely classic of the season and a must watch for all who want to remember the fun of being afraid.
9/10