some clever bits and good aspects but way overdone, cluttered and kinda hideous

Rating: 4/10 (10 October 2009)

I was really put off by the trying too hardedness of this movie. the images were really ugly throughout almost the whole thing cause too much damn crap was in each shot. I mean half the shots in the movie have about 165 pumpkins in the frame. & there are too many extras in the film running around trick or treating. it's supposed to be a small town it looks more like manhattan or tokyo for the crowding. it's like the writer kept going back saying "I have another idea!" and extras casting was going, "oh look here's another person we can put in the movie!" and the set designer "I found another pumpkin!"
also, there are about 10 villains oncscreen at any given time! it's all bit much!
what bothered even more was stuff that characters did on screen to fake out the audience that made no sense within the scene. the sequences that offended most mightily were the backyard burial and subsequent pumpkin carving set up, the first of which was also a protracted instance of something played for laughs which prove unfortunately not to be forthcoming. (I also really didn't care for the sort of "fat ass" humor of the scene with the red haired kid that preceded these). Also the story with rhonda and the bitch and gang and quarry certainly contains the best material in the movie. it's too bad that you end up asking yourself what they would have done for a victim if rhonda hadn't ended up accidentally in their group. the one story that actually had no holes and made sense from start to finish was the one with the clearly somewhat "off" women. as for the ending... focusing on that guy and his vaugely iterated backstory didn't exactly make for a glorious finish.
I do appreciate the attempt to make an integrated "omnibus" type film, but. . . this wasn't quite the way to do it...