Trick 'R Treat

Review by Jason Donner

 

It never fails to amazing me how utterly clueless studio executives are.  When I first heard of Trick 'R Treat during the Summer of 2008, I was taken surprise by how original and fun the entire project sounded.  It had big-name stars, obviously a one of a kind approach to it, and a story style that was one part Creepshow and one part Pulp Fiction.  Trick 'R Treat was destined to become a smash hit!

Halloween came and Halloween went.   Hmm.. no Trick 'R Treat? 

 No problem, they probably just delayed it so that it could be given more special effects or perhaps a 3-D treatment. 

I can live with that.

A year goes by.  No Trick R' Treat. 

Sure, we get two Saw movies and the Halloween sequel that no one demanded, and yet no Trick 'R Treat!?  What was happening here?  Had I just imagined that trailer I watched all those moons ago?  Was this movie even real?

And then... Then, following the box office disappointments of Saw VI and Halloween II, Trick 'R Treat finally arrives, not in theaters but with a very low-key home video release which is a shame because if it had gone to theaters, I seriously believe that it would have dominated.

Trick 'R Treat is a movie that is both inventive, scary, and unlike most of the Halloween holiday fair that is crapped into theaters every year, it has a genuine sense of fun that never fades as it unfolds.

I fully believe that what we are witnessing with the release of this movie is the honest-to-God birth of a cult classic: shockingly underestimated by studios and embraced by the public.

Trick 'R Treat tells several interwoven stories that intersect, collide, and create this wonderful tapestry of horror and humor.  There is the story of the principal who is actually a serial killer, the tale of the haunted quarry and the bus full of vengeful special kids, the story of several girls trying to get some men on Halloween night, and the story of the central figure, a strange little kid in footie pajamas and a burlap mask who just might actually be the very spirit of Halloween itself.

This movie is just so amazingly fun - yes, fun.  Every tale in this wonderful film is told with a wink and a nod and yet each has that satisfying crunch and squirt of blood that all of us closeted horror fiends find so satisfying.

It's films like this that remind us all that Christmas shouldn't have a monopoly on movies with that holiday spirit.  This raucous and entertainingly wonderful throwback to the 80's puts a new spin on the old Halloween flick and should be enjoyed year after year, side by side with the original Halloween and Night of the Living Dead on All Hallow's Eve.

Trick 'R Treat is not only a celebration of horror and the entire genre, but also just a reminder of everything that makes Halloween so dark, so dangerous, and so much damn fun.