Trick R Treat (2007)
Now I am a huge fan of anthology films of the past. Films like Creepshow, Cat’s Eye, Tales From The Crypt & Even Tales From The Darkside all made me happy to watch them. It reminded me of myself and my friends being around a campfire, trying to scare the holy hell out of one another with a creepy story. In 1996 an unknown film director by the name of Michael Dougherty came up with a creepy short film called Season’s Greetings. This film centered around a small boy in orange pajamas and a burlap sack covering his head and face.
The small boy’s name is Sam, he is being stalked by a dark figure following him on a cold dark night. The viewer watches as the small boy goes down a long dark alleyway, in the shadows you see an assault go down. When it’s over you see Sam come out the alley with a body in his candy sack. Now this short film was a major success but nothing came of it, until 2007. In 2007 it was announced that the short film was being released as a feature film, when that was said the horror community immediately was happy. This short left a huge story they could dive in to, to explain who Sam is and what this world was about. The feature film was split into 6 parts, all giving you a full glimpse of the world that Michael Dougherty came up with. These parts are as followed…The Opening, The Principal, The School Bus Massacre Revisited, Surprise Party, Meet Sam & Conclusion. This movie also has a number of big time actors and actresses. Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox & Leslie Bibb. Now I am gonna review each part to give everyone an idea of the madness this movie is. So lets start with the rules of this movie, A core set of rules that Sam makes sure everyone follows… or else! this is gonna be a longer one so I can review each part.
1. Wear a costume
2. Hand out treats
3. Never blow out a Jack O’ Lantern
4. Always check your candy
So we start with the first part, The opening!
Emma (Leslie Bibb) & her Halloween obsessed boyfriend henry have come home from a Halloween party, Emma hates Halloween and goes to blow out one of the jack o’ lanterns. Henry tells her no because it’s against tradition to do so on Halloween, Emma does it anyway because she doesn’t care about traditions or Halloween at all. While Henry is falling asleep in his favorite chair, Emma takes it upon herself to take down the Halloween decorations without telling Henry. She is soon murdered by a mysterious person, whose weapon is in the shape of a pumpkin sucker. When Henry wakes up, he realizes Emma is missing so he goes to search for her. I wont spoil the end, the end is amazing and the way you start off a Halloween themed horror movie.
Our next segment is called The Principal.
Steven Wilkins(Dylan Baker) the town principal notices his younger neighbor Charlie, Charlie is stealing candy from the other neighbor’s houses and destroying their jack o’ lanterns. Steven calls Charlie over to have a small chat with him, he informs Charlie of the rules of Halloween and respect of other people’s property. While he is having this chat with Charlie, Steve gives him a chocolate bar which Charlie starts to devour. Well the chocolate bar was laced with cyanide… We get a grewsome scene of Charlie throwing up large amounts of chocolate and blood before dying horribly. In Charlie’s last breath, Steve tells him remember the rules…Always check your candy, Charlie then falls down dead. Steve then drags the body into his back yard to bury, He drops Charlies body next to another body already in the hole. While he is covering the bodies, Steve sees his next door neighbor Mr. Kreeg(Brian Cox) screaming for help. Steven ignores him and goes into the house, While an unknown person goes after Mr. Kreeg. Steven goes down into the basement to carve a jack o’ lantern with his younger son, which the pumpkin ends up being Charlie’s severed head. Now this story is sooo well down and keeps the whole story going, furthering the whole picture you are seeing before your eyes.
Next part is The School Bus Massacre Revisited, This is by far my favorite segment of the whole movie.
Macy, Sam, Sarah, Chip & Rhonda; after trick or treating they decide to take a walk to the abandoned rock quarry. Rhonda tells the others, The traditions of Halloween. Sarah asks why they are at the quarry and what the whole purpose of the pumpkins are? Macy starts to tell them the urbane legend of the school bus massacre, Where a bus full of mentally handicapped children were murdered. The parents of the children, no longer wanting to take care of their special needs, pays a driver to run the bus off the cliff of the quarry. The parents tell the driver to make it look like an accident, so it doesn’t lead back to them. The bus driver however survived but was never found again, no one sent cops or anyone to find out who the driver was. The 8 jack o lanterns were ment to symbolize the 8 souls that were lost that day. So the kids 3 by 3 take their jack o lanterns to a rickety elevator so they can go down by the water to leave the pumpkins there, to show respect for the dead that were lost. Well as you can imagine, the dead kids come back to life. They dismember in full awesome detail the living kids except Rhonda. She walks back to the rickety elevator, on her way there she sees a small boy with orange pajamas and she nods to him. He nods back, while the screams of the other kids are heard in the background. What I love about this segment is how creepy it is. The tone is dark, you have a killing kids angle and then the dead gets the ones that deserve it.
The next segment is called Surprise Party
Laurie(Anna Paquin) is a 22-year-old virgin. She is getting ready to go to a Halloween party with her friends Danielle, Maria & Janet. Their costume theme is fairy tales, Laurie is stuck being red riding hood. Laurie doesn’t like being red riding hood but Maria tells her its tradition. While they are heading into town for the party, The girls pick up dates to party with. Laurie isn’t interested in picking up a date, She informs her friends she will meet up with them later and stay back for a bit. We then shift over to a masked man making out with a beautiful woman. While in the middle of the make out session, she notices blood coming her body. He informs her that he is a vampire and attacks her again. She screams and runs into the parade that is going on, But the mysterious man swings his cloak around her and finishes her off, He leaves her body sitting up against a building looking like a passed out party goer. Later Laurie is walking to find her friends and senses someone is watching her. The vampire catches Laurie and tells her what big eyes she has, then bites her. While this is going on, Laurie’s friends are partying it up. Danielle starts to worry about Laurie and Maria says she is fine. Danielle tells her friends that mama always said Laurie was the runt of the litter, But Laurie shows up with the vampire hurt. Laurie says she is fine but the guy tried to bite her, do you believe that?. The vampire is revealed to be principal Wilkins and he is begging for help. Laurie reveals her virginity is that she has never killed before and Wilkins will be her first. Then we get to see if I say so myself, one of the best werewolf transformations I have ever witnessed in a long time. We do have some great ones from American Werewolf In London & The Howling, But this takes the cake in my opinion. We then see Sam, the boy in the orange pajamas watching the slaughter go down. This segment rocks esp the Marilyn Manson song playing during the transformations, It makes it more wicked.
The next segment is Meet Sam
Mr Kreeg, he’s an old man who sits alone with his dog. He hates Halloween with a passion, despises everything about it. He hates the traditions, the rules, the kids coming trick or treating…everything. He sits in his chair while he burns old pictures and turns his tv off because there are Halloween related shows on. He hears an egg hit his window and goes outside to investigate, He sees a bunch of jack o lanterns places on his porch that weren’t there before. He proceeds to go back into his house and realizes someone wrote “trick r treat, give me something good to eat” being repeated over and over again all over his walls. He is then attacked by little Sam, who has been in every segment of the movie so far. He is the one thing so far that ties all these stories together and its awesome. Mr. Kreeg gets the upper hand and removes the sack on Sam’s head. Now I am not gonna reveal what he looks like, You have to see it.. Its one of the most awesome special effects make ups I have every seen, with how much they made this movie for, I am overly impressed. This movie looks amazing and feels like a true Halloween movie. As Sam goes to take the killing blow on Mr Kreeg, Sam actually stabs a piece of candy. Satisfied that Mr Kreeg gave into a tradition of Halloween, Sam leaves Mr Kreeg bloody and hurting. We pan the camera over to the pictures that are burning in the fire-place, It is revealed that Mr Kreeg is the bus driver from The School Bus Massacre.
The Conclusion…
Now bandaged and hurt from the assault from Sam, Mr Kreeg is heading to the door to give candy to trick or treaters. He spots Sam heading over to Emma’s house from the beginning(It Comes Full Circle). He sees Rhonda pulling jack o lanterns in a cart to meet up with her friends, He sees the werewolf girls back in human form laughing in their car, he also sees Mr. Wilkins son handing out candy not knowing his father is now dead. Mr Kreeg then goes back into his house when he hears a knock on his door, He opens the door and its the kids from the school bus massacre. he recognizes them and screams, it is then switched over to a comic book panel and we see the grewsome demise of Mr Kreeg while the credits roll. Now after that long review I will say this, this has got to be one of my favorite Halloween related movies in a long time. It was beautifully shot, the kills were awesome and the story was great. I love how it all came full circle and Sam was the one keeping traditions alive & in every story. This is definitely a film you should watch every Halloween, It has since officially become a cult film. I give this film 5 out of 5 skulls for being soooo damn good.
