Usually, when you ask someone what their go-to Halloween viewing is, chances are you’ll get something of a varied answer that lies somewhere between John Carpenter’s Halloween (naturally) and Disney’s Bette Midler’ led romp Hocus Pocus. However, among the Nightmare Before Christmases, Terrifiers and rewatches of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps, sits Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat, a scrappy little flick that, despite being ignored on it’s original run, has slowly grown to become compulsory Halloween viewing to become something of a cult favorite.
Mixing old school spooks with layered storytelling, this little movie-that-could proved to be something of a endearing gem that not only has a surprisingly recognizable cast, but handed us a bona fide, minor horror icon in the form of the bedraggled Sam, a sack-headed enforcer of Halloween’s traditions who carries out punishment with razor sharp candy.
It’s Halloween in the town of Warren Valley, Ohio and as the night progresses, we cast our eye over a seemingly disparate cast of characters as they go about their various businesses as jack ‘o lanterns and billowing ghosts line the streets. As Halloween-loving Henry and his season-hating wife Emma come home from the festivities occuring in town, Emma finds that blowing out lanterns before the night is out comes with a hefty punishment, but while her bloody retribution is carried out, we dart around, back and forth on the timeline to keep up with four other stories that unfurl over the evening.
The first recipient of our attentions is that of Steven Wilkins, the principal of the local school who also partakes in his hobby of murdering people after he poisons a local child vandal for smashing pumpkins – however, disposing of a couple of bodies proves to be a little bit tougher than he expected due to his cantankerous, nosy, neighbour Mr. Kreeg (more on him later) and his loud mouthed son, Billy.
Elswhere, Macy, Chip, Schrader and Sara are travelling around town, collecting jack ‘o lanterns for a fiendish prank that involves the, vunerable, autistic Rhonda and a local legend that involved the murder of a bus full of mentally handicapped after its driver was paid by their parents to drive it into a flooded quarry. Meanwhile, self conscious 22 year-old, city girl, Laurie is on a trip with her sister and her friends to fulfill a yearly tradition to dress as slutty as promiscuously as they can and score some one night stands – however, Laurie is still a virgin and is unsure if she wants to join in. Of course, the fanged killer stalking her has different ideas, but he’ll soon find out that the girl’s tradition is a little more hairy than he’d figured. Finally, we focus fully on miserable old cuss, Mr. Kreeg, who’s anti-season leanings earn him a vicious visit from little Sam himself… Talk about your busy nights.
If there’s a common, fatal flaw with anthology movies, it’s that not only are you forced to restart your investment every time a new segment starts, but its also extraordinarily difficult to guarantee any sort of continuity with the quality of the piece with other anthology movie being all over the place in terms of enjoyment. However, Dougherty seems to have found an ingenious way to circumvent the stop/start nature of this particular type of story telling by essentially merging the tongue-in-cheek, comic book stylings of George Romero’s Creepshow (always a good start) with Pulp Fiction’s back for intertwining multiple story threads in a non-linear fashion. As a result, the four different stories merge into one, big story that seamlessly merge into one another as they come to their various, messed up climaxes.
The result is probably the most satisfying string of enjoyably creepy happenings since the aforementioned Creepshow and as a result, its subsequent rise to beloved cultdom feels utterly deserved.
Led by the (literally) pumpkin-headed Sam as he shuffles around in footie pyjamas, glaring at transgressors with his button eyes, the only ones who seem more enthused than Dougherty’s obviously gleeful direction is his cast, who are obviously having the time of their lives. Dylan Baker relishes his role as a murderous principal who, when he isn’t causing cascades of bloody vomit to erupt from the children he poisons with cyanide or using severed heads to teach his son how to carve Halloween lanterns, is lurking about town in fangs and a mask and killing young women while dressed as a vampire. Elsewhere, Anna Paquin, amusingly clad in a little red riding hood costume plays against her sexually liberated character from True Blood as she’s stalked by Baker’s killer – or so you think as the movie’s most outlandish payoff goes all Company Of Wolves as the true nature of her sister’s tradition is revealed. Finally, Brian Cox is in top, raggedy-bastard mode as he fights for his life in slippers and a dressing gown as the box-cutter wielding Sam attempts to make him regret all those years of being a prick and you can tell that Cox is positively giddy to be fighting an impish, Halloween humunculi to the death.
Aside from the cool, comic booky stories that score that perfect balance between camp and creepy (horror short stories usually perform better the more they leave backstory and logic in its rear view), the director infuses a magnificent layer of detail into the movie that rewards multiple viewings. Be it the fact that Laurie’s friends are all dressed as busty Disney princess, or the spectacular array of halloween costumes seen throughout the film (love the paper bag with a photo of teeth stuck to it), to Dougherty’s mischievous desicion to give the nasty events a sense of childlike wonder, even when its children who are getting ripped apart.
In fact the only real negative about the movie is that Trick ‘r Treat never got a sequel, although Dougherty has been teasing one for years as I genuinely believe that the world could truly benefit from more of little Sam as he drags his sack of treats around with him while witnessing more intermingled tales of werewolves, murderers and things that have crawled out of their watery graves to claim a belated revenge. Wonderfully old school in a warm, snuggly faction while still being meticulously plotted and nefariously intelligent, this is one Samhain outing that is definitely more treat than trick.
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