Trick 'r Treat

Plot synopsis:
The movie includes four interwoven tales:Opening: A couple dressed as a robot and Flash Gordon return to their home, the front lawn decorated with numerous 'ghost-crows' (scarecrow-style ghosts) and lit pumpkins. The robot, Emma (Leslie Bibb), takes a jack-o'-lantern to blow out the light but her boyfriend, Henry (Tahmoh Penikett), tells her that it's against tradition to un-decorate before midnight. Emma asserts that she wants all the decorations gone before her mother visits the next morning, saying that the yard looks like a crime scene, and blows out the candle. Henry, a true fan of the holiday, promises to remove everything early the next morning and convinces Emma to meet him inside for some "alone time". While he goes in to "put on the tape", Emma starts to take down some of the decorations down, uttering the unforgivable "I hate Halloween". As she removes the sheets off one of the ghost-crows, it lunges at her, covering her in the white cloth. In the ensuing struggle, Emma tumbles onto the sidewalk where passing trick-or-treaters stop to investigate. Under the sheets, a figure takes a bitten pumpkin-shaped sucker and slits Emma's throat. Her blood stains through the sheets and the children run away. The hidden assailant drags Emma's body back to the yard as Henry lies upstairs, passed out and with the TV on high volume. Some time later, he notices Emma has not come up and goes down to the yard where he notices that one of the ghost-crows now has lights attached to it. He removes the sheet and screams at the sight of Emma's disembodied head on a stake, the pumpkin sucker lodged in her mouth.Meanwhile, the Halloween festivities and parties continue throughout the town and a parade marches down the main street while the silhouette of a short figure walks through the crowd, dragging a burlap bag with a dark stain at the bottom.1. The Principal - A portly boy walks through the neighborhood knocking over jack-o'-lanterns. He stops at one house and walks up to the porch where it appears no one is home. A bucket full of candy is set out with a sign saying 'please take one!' The boy begins to put the entire contents of the bucket in his bag when someone startles him from behind. The boy recognizes the man as Principal Steven Wilkins (Dylan Baker) who addresses the boy as Charlie (Brett Kelly). Wilkins sits down on his porch, inviting Charlie to sit and talk with him as he offers him a chocolate bar. Wilkins explains rules of etiquette and how to properly respect Halloween. When Charlie begins to cough, Wilkins explains the most important rule of Halloween; "always check your candy". Charlie violently vomits blood and chocolate and passes out. Wilkins drags Charlie into the house, the blood and chocolate mixture oozing onto his shirt, just as his doorbell rings. Struggling with the body, he answers and sees three teenagers who ask if they can take his jack-o'-lantern. He agrees and gives them all some candy, including a small boy wearing orange, footed pajamas and a burlap hood with buttons for eyes and stitching for a mouth (known hereafter as Sam, Quinn Lord). Wilkins then dumps Charlie's body in a large hole dug in his back yard where another child's body already lies. As he tries to bury the bodies his small son, Billy (Connor Christopher Levins), appears in the upstairs window and shouts down to him repeatedly, asking for help on his jack-o'-lantern and if they'll hand out candy. Wilkins, frustrated, tells him each time to be quiet and wait for him inside. Meanwhile, the neighbor's dog (Zip) approaches the fence and starts barking as the first child in the grave begins to moan, reaching out from under dirty sheets with a clown-costumed arm. Wilkins stabs the boy's arm with his shovel and severs one of his fingers, throwing it over the fence and distracting the dog. However, its surly owner, Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox) comes into the yard and peeks through a hole in the fence to speak to Wilkins, still struggling with the clown child. Wilkins passes off his activity and the smell as a septic tank leak and Mr. Kreeg goes back into his house, shouting back to Wilkins to "get his kid out of his yard". Wilkins finishes the clown child off with a blow from his shovel and completes burying the bodies. As he walks back into his house, he notices a frantic Kreeg motioning to him from his window across the way. Bitter Wilkins ignores him and goes into the house as Kreeg is tackled by something. In the kitchen, Billy jumps out from behind a counter, scaring Wilkins and asking for help on his jack-'o-lantern. Seemingly annoyed, Wilkins takes a butcher knife from the knife block and follows Billy to the basement. Billy runs ahead to a table covered in carving materials and Wilkins approaches behind him. Billy says "let's make a scary face this time" as Wilkins puts his hand on Billy's head and brings the knife down, blood glistening on the blade as he draws it back. But Billy smiles and says "don't forget to help me with the eyes" as they look together at the severed head of Charlie on a wooden turntable.2. Surprise Party - Laurie (Anna Paquin) is a 22-year-old 'virgin' who is shy and self-conscious. Her older sister, Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith), tries to boost her confidence by taking her to a Halloween party with two of her friends (Moneca Delain and Rochelle Aytes). The girls all dress in fairy tale costumes while Laurie is stuck as Little Red Riding Hood, a choice she despises though her sister tells her "it's tradition". They walk through town on the way to the party picking up dates but Laurie is discouraged. She opts to meet the girls at the party later.Meanwhile, a young woman makes out with a masked man in an alley. He affectionately kisses her neck but, when she looks down, she sees blood running down her body. The man smiles, revealing blood on his fangs. The woman screams and makes her way to the street where the people are gathered for the parade. Emma and Henry walk by in costume, but ignore her, thinking she's just another drunk party-goer covered in make-up blood. The woman turns around to see the vampire standing behind her and screams as he swings his cloak around her. He leaves her dead body on the sidewalk leaning against a building, as if she's merely passed out, and walks away.At the bonfire party in the woods, Danielle stands alone worrying about Laurie. The others assure her that Laurie's fine but Danielle wonders, saying that their mother "always said Laurie was the runt of the litter". As Laurie walks down a dimly lit path in the woods, she senses someone is following her and shouts out that she's not in the mood and they'd better come out. When no one responds, she turns and comes face to face with the vampire. He grabs her by the neck and holds her against a tree, saying, "My, my, what big eyes you have", before biting her neck. At the party, the girls are startled when a cloaked body falls out of a tree near the fire. Danielle nervously approaches the body and removes the cloak to see the vampire, bleeding and begging for help. His mask is removed and Principal Wilkins blinks in the fire light, whimpering. Laurie appears and assures everyone she's ok, despite the blood oozing from her neck. She approaches Wilkins and straddles him, telling him to bear with her since it's her first time. The other girls start to dance as Wilkins looks around in shock to see that all of their dates are dead. Laurie removes his fake fangs as the girls rip off their skin, revealing coarse fur and lupine fangs. Laurie begins to change herself and leans down to Wilkins to whisper "My, my, what big eyes you have" before lunging into Wilkins' neck. The other werewolves finish the remains of their dates, howling at the moon, as Sam looks on from a nearby log.3. The Halloween School Bus Massacre Four costumed teenagers scour the neighborhood for jack-o-lanterns and stop at the home of a peer named Rhonda (Samm Todd), dressed as a witch, whose yard is decorated with dozens of them. Despite the fact that she's considered an idiot savant and nicknamed Rhonda the Retard by the leader of the group, Macy (Britt McKillip), dressed as an angel, Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) asks politely for one of her pumpkins and invites her to come with them, complimenting her on her costume. Macy leads them onward while Rhonda talks briefly with Chip (Alberto Ghisi), a pirate, about the origins of Halloween. They arrive at an abandoned rock quarry and Sara (Isabelle Deluce), an alien, asks why they're there and what the purpose of the jack-o-lanterns is. Macy explains that the quarry is the site of a fatal bus crash thirty years prior that has become the stuff of legend.The bus was carrying eight mentally disturbed children, clad in freakish Halloween costumes and so troubled that they had to be chained to their seats. That fateful day, the driver (Gerald Paetz) deviated from his normal route while taking the kids home. Their parents, no longer able to stand the strain and humiliation of caring for them, paid the driver to put them out of their misery by driving the bus into the lake at the bottom of the rock quarry, intending to make it look like a horrible accident. However, while double checking the restraints on the kids, one of them, a masked vampire (Richard Harmon), is able to free himself and hijack the bus, repeating that he wants to go home. Disturbed and confused as he is, the boy accidentally puts the bus in gear and drives it over the edge of the cliffside into the lake before the driver can stop him. Macy says that the driver survived but was never heard from again and the bus was never recovered, possibly because the rest of the town just didn't want to bother.The eight jack-o-lanterns collected represent the eight souls lost that day and are meant to be left at the lakeside as an offering. They walk to a rickety elevator and Macy, Sara, and Schrader get in with their pumpkins to go down to the lake. Since the elevator will only hold three at a time, Chip and Rhonda wait for it to come back for them. On their way down, they hear the panicked cries and screams of the other three and watch as the lights of their jack-o-lanterns go out in the mist. Rhonda tells Chip to stay in the elevator with the remaining pumpkins, saying that they will protect him, as she goes to investigate. Walking through the mist, she eventually comes to the wreckage of the half submerged school bus and sees the masks of the others floating in the water. She is suddenly attacked by two water-drenched figures covered in chains and runs to see a third disemboweling Chip. As they chase her, Rhonda drops and steps on her glasses before tripping and hitting her head on a rock, blacking out. When she comes to, she sees the figures standing over her and screams in fear but one of them, actually Schrader in disguise, explains that it was just a cruel prank played by all of them and tries to apologize. Macy is unremorseful and kicks a still lit jack-o-lantern into the lake as whispers and giggles suddenly echo out of the mist. Schrader leads Rhonda to the elevator and, when he hears the others screaming, tells her to stay put while he goes to see what's wrong, though he suspects another ruse. But when he meets up with the others they all see the figures of the eight dead children rise out of the lake, still tied in their chains. They run for the elevator though Sara is caught by a strand of chains and dragged away. The other three make it to the elevator to see Rhonda locked inside with the rest of the jack-o-lanterns, looking sullen but calm. They beg her to open the door but Rhonda, seemingly in a daze, presses the button to go up and leaves the others to their fate as the ghost children surround them. Rhonda exits the elevator and leaves the quarry, towing her pumpkins in her red wagon. She briefly looks at and passes Sam, sitting inside a cement pipe, as Macy, Schrader, and Chip scream and are ripped apart.4. Meet Sam Three trick-or-treaters walk up the porch of a dark, old house with no Halloween decorations and nervously knock on the door. It opens to pitch darkness and they nervously hold out their bags, saying trick or treat. Two glowing eyes appear and growling is heard. The children run away as the monster chases them across the yard and Mr. Kreeg appears in the doorway. He calls out to his dog, Spite, and picks him up to remove the monster costume and glowing head piece. He collects the children's dropped candy bags and retreats inside where he proceeds to burn old pictures in his fireplace before settling in his chair to watch TV. He takes a bite out of a candy bar but, disgusted with it, swaps it for a bottle of liquor. Since there is nothing on TV that doesnt have anything to do with Halloween, Kreeg turns it off and hears Spite barking outside before seeing an egg hit his window. He runs to the front door and opens it to see that his entire yard is decorated with dozens of jack-o-lanterns. Spite continues to bark in the back yard and Kreeg goes to investigate where he has his conversation with Wilkins. After finishing the finger that Wilkins threw over to him, Spite runs back inside and begins to bark upstairs. Kreeg follows him up and walks cautiously into his bedroom where he notices something moving under the covers. He pulls back the blanket to see a mechanized hand before a pumpkin, set on a table in the corner, suddenly starts spewing flames, bathing the room in orange light and revealing words scribbled all over the walls and ceiling: trick r treat, give me something good to eat. Kreeg then screams as something stabs him from under the bed. He falls to the ground and looks up to see Sam appear from the other side of the bed. Sam shows him a candy bar and peels back the wrapping to reveal a razor blade inside before attacking. Kreeg screams and manages to escape down the hallway but trips on the landing to the stairs and falls to the bottom. The staircase is covered in small pieces of candy and razor blades and Kreeg winces at his hands, covered in bloody cuts. Struggling as Sam attacks again, Kreeg makes it to the far window where he calls out to Wilkins just before being tackled. He tries to fight off Sam and manages to rip off his burlap mask. Instead of finding a human child's face underneath, Sam's face is a horribly deformed pumpkin with beady eyes and sharp teeth. Kreeg gains the upper hand and gets hold of his shotgun, shooting Sam across the room where he slumps against the front door. Kreeg shoots him again at close range, severing Sams hand, before dialing 9-1-1. But the line goes dead and Kreeg is stabbed in the leg again by Sam's severed hand. It crawls back to Sam and reattaches itself to the stump. Sam gets up and puts his mask back on as Kreeg backs up against the wall, knocking a table and its contents to the floor. Sam removes a pumpkin sucker from his pocket and takes a bite out of it, showing the sharp-edged bite marks. He approaches Kreeg, arm raised to stab him and bring the sucker down on Kreegs chest. Instead of stabbing him, however, Sam lodges the sucker in the discarded candy bar Kreeg had opened earlier, which had landed on his chest after he knocked the table over. Sam proceeds to chew on the candy bar and leaves the room, appearing satisfied. He looks back at Kreeg, who watches in puzzlement, before leaving the house. The door slams shut of its own accord. We then see one of the pictures that Kreeg had thrown into the fire. It shows the eight kids from the bus massacre, revealing that Kreeg was the driver.Later, a heavily bandaged Kreeg answers the doorbell to give candy to some trick-or-treaters. From his porch, he sees Sam go towards Emma and Henrys house across the way just as she is blowing out the candle to one of her jack-o-lanterns. Rhonda then walks by along the street, pulling her wagon absent-mindedly, and is almost hit by a car carrying the werewolf girls, laughing in human form. Billy Wilkins sits on his porch handing out candy, wearing a costume to mimic his fathers appearance complete with glasses and bloody shirt, unaware that his father is dead. Kreeg walks back inside and the bell rings again. He opens it to see the children from the bus massacre standing on his porch. The boy with the vampire mask says trick r treat and extends his bag before the children leap forward and begin to rip Kreeg apart.

Tags: comedy, murder, bleak, violence, cult, horror, suspenseful, home movie

Review:
Dougherty's film is the celluloid embodiment of that je ne sais quoi that has made Halloween such an alluring holiday for generations of kids (and adults) alike.As I said, Trick 'r Treat is a horror anthology which interweaves tales that all take place on Halloween night, similar to such genre classics as Creepshow and Tales from the Darkside.
A costumed couple learns to respect tradition the hard way, a group of girls head out into the woods for a "howling" good party, the local school principal has a (literal) taste for blood, four kids attempting to pull off a holiday "trick" end up becoming "treats", and a cantankerous old man gets a visit from a holiday visitor looking to settle a decades-old grudge.To say anymore than that would spoil the fun in watching the film, as these stories are best digested when viewed on an empty mind.
I know that we never bothered getting a serious stash of lollies ready until around three years ago, but this year our house got door-knocked at least 20 times.What has been true for many years is that horror movies are more popular around this time of year, as many are made for US release to coincide with the holiday.The plot of Trick R Treat is actually hard to describe, it is more a series of initially random events involving the same group of characters than a linear storyline.
They all take place on Halloween (natch) in a small US town that obviously takes the night seriously.The main combatants of the film include: A young couple arriving home from the night's festivities, with the young woman knocking back a kind offer of intercourse in favour of cleaning up the Halloween decorations in the yard.The local school principal and his dealings with a trick or treater (played by the doofy kid from Bad Santa), which is interrupted by his son and a grumpy neighbour.Four nubile young skanks prepping for a night where they are all hoping to "pull", including two absolute hotties and a pair of sisters, one of whom is Anna Paquin as a somewhat reluctant trollop dressed as Red Riding Hood.A group of kids who attempt to pay respect to the victims of a past local tragedy involving a crashed school bus, and who rope in an unpopular young woman for the ceremony.And The afore-mentioned grumpy neighbour of the School Principal - obviously not a fan of Halloween - and his dealings with celebrating kids.Early on there are a few more fake scares than I would have liked, you know where the camera lingers, the music builds, the character's hand hovers and nothing happens.
I started to worry that the release of the film was delayed with cause but thankfully that feeling was short lived.The plot interweaves "Pulp Fiction" style between the seemingly random events, and we gradually see how all these events are practically related, and often impact other character's stories later on, (or at times earlier on, there are a few flashbacks).There is also a little character in a sack over a pumpkin-head outfit who pops up in the periphery of all stories, he finally has his own scene near the very end in a scene that is worth the wait.How this wasn't released to cinemas is beyond me.
Somehow, it succeeds in being both terrifying and charming, like a dark old painting that still reminds you of home.TRICK 'R TREAT's story unfolds unlike a traditional anthology picture, with all of the movie's separate plots taking place together.
In its five overlapping stories, a couple discovers what happens when they blow out a jack o' lantern before midnight, a bullying child learns to check his candy before eating it, a young woman is stalked by a hooded stranger at a harvest festival, a group of pranksters uncover the ghoulish truth about a local urban legend, and an elderly Scrooge is visited by a pint-sized hellion who is far more interested in tricks than treats.Buffeted by wonderful performances from Oscar winner Anna Paquin, Emmy winner Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, Leslie Bibb, and Battlestar Galactica's Tahmoh Penikett, TRICK 'R TREAT is the one and only genre film to have been released in the past decade that is already one of my all-time favorites.When its done, you'll feel sorry for the works of Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino, because TRICK 'R TREAT has taken the best of these auteurs, blended them with ten pounds of candy corn and razor blades, and shoveled the whole mess down your throat.TRICK 'R TREAT may not just be the best Halloween-themed movie ever made, but the finest example of horror cinema in decades..
From the acting to the effects to the direction - the whole thing is just masterful.The film itself basically is set on Halloween, and a bunch of stories interweave into one in a very clever way, it is sort of like the CREEPSHOW films but each story is'nt standalone, they are all going on at the same time and come together at the end.
Just when it looked like the anthology movie was dead, along comes Director/Writer Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat to not only breathe new life into this overlooked format, but also firmly establish itself as one of the best films to keep on the shelf and revisit each Halloween – if the folks at Warner Bros.
ever decide to release it, either in theaters or to DVD.Selected to close out Montreal's 2009 Fantasia film fest, Trick 'r Treat spins five intertwined tales featuring an assortment of classic critters and creeps, with each interlocking story carrying its own "Twilight Zone"-type twist.
The single constant throughout is Sam (Quinn Lord), a mysterious diminutive munchkin dressed in a pajama jumper and sporting a burlap sack for a head with buttons for eyes, who appears briefly in each segment and takes center stage in the final story.Borrowing a visual style from the classic EC horror comics, Dougherty deploys vintage on-screen graphic call-outs like "Later" or "Meanwhile" to let the audience know which scenes are running in order, concurrently, or previously in the film's timeline, which comes full circle at its conclusion, ending where it began.With exquisite art direction by Tony Wohlgemuth and lush visuals by cinematographer Glenn MacPherson (2008's Rambo, Final Destination) the segments tell the tales of a young wife who can't wait to ditch the trappings of Halloween, even though the film's mythology says it's taboo to blow out a pumpkin before midnight; a sinister school principal and single dad with a nefarious agenda planned for trick-or-treaters; a young virgin nervously seeking her first time with her pack of girlfriends; a group of kids in quest of the truth behind a local urban legend; and an aging recluse with a tortured soul who finds his quiet Halloween night rudely interrupted by Sam.Dougherty, whose last major credit was as co-screenwriter of Superman Returns, invokes a spirit of childhood fun borne from hours spent burrowing through editions of EC Comics, Warren Publishing's Eerie and Creepy, and DC's House of Mystery to create a fun, rollicking ride that is rare in movies today.The sad aspect of this is that while Trick 'r Treat has been enjoying a positive response from the festival circuit, it's still a guess as to when this gem will be released.
But considering what could be lacking from such a film, I ventured to the heart of the story and finally realized that Trick R' Treat is, simply put, devoid of any scares.Don't get me wrong: this movie is anything but boring.
Not only that, but each of the separate story lines (there are 4 total) are woven together so slickly that there are bundles of shocks you won't see coming.But none of this can make up for the fact that Trick R' Treat is, at its best, only creepy; a movie that used the same layout and attained the same tone as "The Twilight Zone Movie." I was eagerly awaiting the moment when it would break off from creepy and truly get scary, like John Carpenter's "Halloween." But sadly, Trick R' Treat's clever story never dishes out the scares..
Very soon boredom sets in, as the uninspired nonlinear story-lines progress.I had been led to believe that this would be an exceptional horror movie, judging by the numerous positive reviews and very high rating on IMDb. I was misled.The real problem is that the stories in themselves are weak and the scares are non-existent.I did enjoy parts of Dylan Baker's performance and it was good to see Brett Kelly on screen again but other than that the cast were pretty forgettable.This film reminded me of Neil Jordan's Company Of Wolves (1984) which is equally as boring and disjointed.I am left to wonder why this film is so highly rated.......
The film is an anthology of four stories occurring over Halloween night, with a introduction featuring the beautiful Leslie Bibb demonstrating what happens when you disrespect the spirits on All Hallows' Eve. The movie is R-rated, a pleasant surprise in a time where most horror movies soften their punches for the more popular PG-13 in an attempt to widen their audience.
In my favorite mini-story from the film, the ever-awesome Brian Cox is a curmudgeonly hermit who hates Halloween with a passion and comes face-to-face with a sack-masked little demon that I wish had been given the chance to become an horror icon in future anthology installments.
i just got done watching trick r treat and after reading tons of great reviews.well being a halloween/horror movie buff myself i thought this could be the one.
Each story revolves around characters who break these rules and are punished by the child-like, pumpkin-headed "spirit of Halloween." This is a fine setup for a horror film, and indeed, Dougherty had great ideas, but they are not fully developed in the final product thanks to the film's length.
I was so displeased with this movie i cant believe i actually finished it probably because the was a good looking girl or two in the film it ended up being a lame pumpkin head rip off its completely fictional with terrible acting if your a horror fan and even consider picking this up think twice and grab something else...
Separate these elements, and you've robbed the story of its power.On a more positive note, Dougherty does succeed in conjuring up some lovely Halloween themed imagery, making the most of his beautifully detailed set design and delivering a strong Autumnal atmosphere; his cast all give credible performances, doing the best they possibly can with the material; and seasoned horror fans will at least have fun spotting the many sly tributes to genre classics scattered throughout the film.But those who have heard that this is a modern masterpiece, destined to become a Halloween classic, should be prepared to be very disappointed.
Trick r Treat (directed by Michael Dougherty) is set in the small suburb of Warren Valley, Ohio and over the course of one Halloween night a series of sinister events occur from the different viewpoints of the local neighbourhood.The great aspect of the film is the way the story has been shot and told to the audience.
As a result, we have a straight to DVD movie, which in turn will possibly lead to it developing a cult following through fans of 'Halloween history' and as far as genre classing goes, i would call this as a light horror rather than a full blown one, which in essence is enjoyable for all to watch.Overall all the credit must go to Michael Dougherty for producing a slick Halloween treat.
There is a werewolf transformation scene late in the movie so frighteningly realistic that it alone makes the movie worth seeing.Trick 'r Treat takes place over the course of one Halloween night, in a small Ohio town that is practically obsessed with the season.A cross between Creepshow and Pulp Fiction, the movie tells five different stories that are connected in one way or the other.The first story involves a Halloween hating young wife (Leslie Bibb) who makes a big mistake in saying "I hate Halloween!" out loud; the second follows a school principal (Dylan Baker) who moonlights as a serial killer and plans to play a really nasty trick on the local trick or treaters; the third (and most haunting) tale follows five kids (Britt McKillip, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Samm Todd, Alberto Ghisi, Isabelle Deluce) as they go investigate an old town legend involving a school bus massacre; the fourth is a delightfully wicked tale of a young woman named Laurie (Anna Paquin) who ventures to the town parade with her sister (Lauren Lee Smith) and her two sexy friends to find some decent men (that's all I'm gong to say about that); and the final tale involves a cantankerous old hermit (Brian Cox) who is being stalked by a small child with a burlap sack over his head.Said child is identified in the press notes as Sam (played Quinn Lord), and he makes an appearance in every story, often times acting like the Angel of Death to anyone who doesn't uphold the traditions of All Hallows Eve.Michael Dougherty's screenplay is absolutely superb.
He brilliantly ties each of the five stories together's with a number of surprising plot twists, and he manages to keep the audience fully involved by writing up characters and dialogue that are surprisingly authentic.The terrific cast manages to bring the material all the more to life, with special mention to Dead Like Me's Britt McKillip, who brings humanity and depth to the role of the insufferable snob Marcy; Anna Paquin, who turns her character into a sweet yet somewhat sinister figure; and newcomer Samm Todd lights up the screen as the socially awkward Rhonda, who has a monologue about the history of Halloween that is actually quite amusing.Visually speaking, Trick 'r Treat is one of the most lush horror movies I've ever seen.
The musical score by Douglas Pipes is as original as it is chilling and atmospheric.One would be hard pressed to find anything to complain about with this wonderful movie, although the faint of heart should be warned: While the movie isn't as graphic as Saw or Hostel, there are numerous scenes of child endangerment and even a few instances where kids are killed.Thankfully, Dougherty films most of the graphic stuff off screen, but even still, there are instances where he makes you use your imagination, and sometimes the impact can be greater with that approach (there is one scene in particular that disturbed me greatly without ever showing an ounce of gore).Casting that aside, Trick 'r Treat is an absolute joy to watch.
The connections are so strong that in reviews, people talk about four stories, but I count at least six: the couple returning home from the Hallowe'en parade, the school principal (Dylan Baker) with a ghoulish secret, the virgin (Anna Paquin) looking for a Hallowe'en date, the kids playing a prank on an autistic girl, the story of the school bus crash told by the pranksters and the grouchy old man (Brian Cox) dealing with a home invasion.Because all of the characters intertwine with one story or another, the film ends up quite accidentally dealing with one of the favourite themes of Tales From The Crypt: the hierarchy of monsters.
It seemed like an interesting way to tell some scary stories.What I found, however, was that "Trick 'r Treat" is a lame excuse of a "horror flick", offering nothing new to the genre and completely underwhelming in what it did bring to the table.
This is a movie that pretends to be smarter than it really is by weaving together 5 or something different stories into one movie, which I don't mind usually, in fact "GO!" and "CRASH" are 2 of my favorite movies.But where those differs from this is that those have characters that you actually find interesting and care about where as in this one the characters does not feel like they exist outside of the movie and their sole purpose is getting killed with ZERO character development or any layers to any of the characters.Plenty of homages to better horror-movies that will surely entertain some but personally I didn't care for it.One thing it does have going for it is the soundtrack and the atmosphere, it also has a nice look to it BUT I prefer substance over style myself so yeah it doesn't really attract me much still.There are 2 and a half scenes that I thought were pretty good but that's really about it, as a whole it really doesn't have much of a plot.Overall this movie didn't scare me or make me laugh and most times I was just wondering where this was going to cause it seemingly wasn't going anywhere for the most part so no this was not a treat for me..
This movie must look beautiful on the big screen, and I hope that some of our local theaters which specialize in the offbeat bookings schedule this one for Halloween in the future.I was somewhat disappointed that my DVD didn't contain some of the extras found on the blue ray edition, but it does come with the cool short "Seasons Greetings." I am more than satisfied with my purchase, and would recommend buying to my friends.Is "Trick 'r Treat" scary like "Paranormal Activity?" Nope.
Trick 'R Treat has all the elements of any horror film,it has vampire and werewolves,killers,creepy story,great scares,some laughs and lots of fun.
I could really see several Trick 'r Treat sequels involving different stories each time (kinda like what Halloween 3 failed to do).Another pro, since Trick 'r Treat was supposed to be a theatrical release, what you end up with is a very GOOD LOOKING direct to video movie.It's major con?