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Review

Trick ‘r Treat – Movie Review

  • Directed by Michael Dougherty
  • Starring Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Britt McKillip, Leslie Bibb and Tahmoh Penikett

I’m so happy to have finally seen this film.

This was meant to be out theatrically what feels like years ago, but has finally limped onto the video market just in time for Halloween this year. The film is an anthology, but instead of it being comprised of the typical ‘that’s one story, here’s another’ approach, it deftly intertwines the characters from each tale into one another, as we see people walk past in the backgrounds, they briefly bump into one another or you glimpse curious things in the background that aren’t paid off until much later; it was a fun approach.

The film opens with a couple on their way home from a Halloween celebration, the grousing killjoy girlfriend Emma (Bibb) giving her boyfriend Henry (Penikett) a ton of shit about immediately taking down the Halloween decorations, in spite of Henry’s protests about it being tradition to leave the Jack-o-Lantern lit, and things decorated until the next day. She insists on taking things down herself, and is stalked by an unseen force that lurks in the nearby bushes, the reveals of which I won’t spoil for you here, and then we launch into the first story proper, that of a kid out smashing pumpkins and generally being unpleasant, who gets a surprising comeuppance when he visits Steven’s (Baker) house, who just so happens to be the local principal. This sequence is darkly comedic at turns, and grows slightly more disturbing as Steven’s trying to dispose of a child’s body is played pretty openly for laughs! We’re also introduced to Steven’s neighbor Mr. Kreeg (Cox), the local grouchy, non-Halloween celebratin’ curmudgeon during this segment, as he asks nosy questions from his nearby yard, but more on him later.

After some interstitial stuff that hints at the other stories, we find ourselves following Marcy (McKillip) as she leads her friends and the local outcast girl Donna to the local quarry, where she relates the tale of an unfortunate group of children drug to a watery grave by am unscrupulous bus driver. This particular tale plays out in EC comics fashion, as what starts out as harmless fun turns serious very quickly, and it’s not too long before we’re off on another story entirely, following some college cuties we met earlier in a costume shop.

Laurie (Paquin) is under pressure from her girlfriends to meet a guy for the evening, as they have a party planned in the woods, rather fitting for her Little Red Riding Hood last minute costuming choice. She is menaced by a vampire we’ve seen lurking about (seriously, this film hits virtually all the monster movie bases), but then manages to turn the tables in him in a manner you might expect, but it’s still a fun ride. This sequence is possibly the most predictable, but amusing nonetheless.

The final tale draws us back into town to re-visit grouchy-ass old Mr. Kreeg, who does battle with the little burlap sack costumed child we’ve seen lurking about throughout the film, a character named Sam, though I don’t think he’s ever named in the film itself. This is a great segment, which has been similarly played out in an episode of Tales From The Darkside, but this is a great segment in its own right.

I loved this flick, it’s a terrific pastiche of all the things that are fun about Halloween, from the costuming, to the excitement of a few scares, to the dark gallows humor that one finds associated with the holiday. The whole film takes place in a magical small town where everyone turns out in costume and decorates their houses to the nines, unlike real life where one person on the block throws a shitty blow-up pumpkin on their lawn and calls it good.

The film has already started getting the typical ‘meh’, or ‘it’s okay, but I don’t see the big deal’ dismissive reviews from the jaded interweb now that it’s widely available, but I really enjoyed this, it has all the earmarks of a fun film to throw on each year and could easily become one of my favorite films for the season.

Highly recommended.

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About The Author

Kingmob

Kingmob has been spending his time writing online reviews for the better part of two years and has nothing but the ability to speak about himself in the 3rd person to show for it. This review and others like it can be found at Big Suck Loser and you can read about the daily minutiae that drives him slowly mad and informs his useless opinions of pop culture at his blog, Dear Bastards.

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Article Information

  • Posted: Friday, November 13th, 2009
  • Author: Kingmob
  • Filed Under: Film, Review
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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