Trick 'r Treat
Reviewed by Edward Larsen Terkelsen

Canada/USA, R, 82 m, 2008
Directed by Michael Dougherty. Stars Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Quinn Lord, et al.

First-time director Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat is a horror anthology in the spirit of Creepshow or Dead of Night, but the segments here aren’t entirely self-contained—they sometimes intersect in a manner that evokes Go or Pulp Fiction or the “Trilogy of Error” episode of “The Simpsons.” In terms of quality, most anthologies are mixed bags, especially when visionaries and hacks share directorial responsibilities. I’m thinking of Twilight Zone—The Movie: George Miller managed to show up Master of the Universe Steven Spielberg with his superb re-imagining of Richard Matheson’s “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” whereas all John Landis did was prove himself incapable of writing something even one-hundred-thousandth as inventive or challenging as what the Nielsens used to enjoy every week they tuned into Rod Serling’s classic TV show. Landis’s piece about a bigot who’s forced to endure the past persecutions of the ethnic groups he disses in a bar (that’ll learn the jerk for making use of the First Amendment in an uppity PC culture) was not only trite and preachy, but it was nigh on oblivious to why “The Twilight Zone” was such a culturally relevant series back in its day. Spielberg had initially commissioned Matheson to pen the movie’s one original installment, but budgetary constraints wouldn’t allow for the ambitious special effects that were called for in Matheson’s script. In the October 1983 issue of the now-defunct Twilight Zone Magazine, Matheson spoke of his concept for the episode: “(It was) a Halloween story about a not-nice young man who went out and tormented these kids while they were trick-or-treating. Then all the things that were make-believe began to become real and turn against him as a sort of cosmic punishment. It ended up like a painting by Hieronymous Bosch.” The obviousness of that idea notwithstanding, I’m sure it would’ve been a helluva lot more fun than watching Vic Morrow spend his last moments on the silver screen trying to outrun noose-wielding Klansmen and trigger-happy Nazis. Trick ‘r Treat, which was written by Dougherty, gives us an idea of how Matheson’s yarn might’ve played had it been given a green light: Steven Wilkins (Dylan Baker), a buttoned-up principal and single dad (we’re told his wife died; we can only speculate how), spends All Hallows Eve drugging and then carving up trick-or-treaters who defy the “Help yourself to ONE piece!” sign that’s taped to the bowl of nummy nums on his porch. Thankfully, he’s not committing to the ground those adorable little ghosts and goblins for whom the holiday is such a happy and magical experience (if he was, you can be sure I’d be lobbing rotten eggs at this picture like the nastiest of tricksters), but rather the neighborhood’s naughty-heads, in particular a red-haired, pumpkin-smashing fatso (Brett Kelly) whose costume consists only of a grubby T-shirt that reads “This IS my costume!” Still, putting a beating on a jack-o’-lantern or filching an extra Kit Kat or two hardly warrants getting your head chopped off, so rest assured that Wilkins will get his comeuppance. Unfortunately, it’s in a rather indirect way: Disguised as a vampire, the sick prick hits a street party so he can suck face with some inebriated babes and then use his extra-pointy fangs to drain them of their life blood (few in the throng of merrymakers are lucid enough to make out what he’s doing, and those who are think he’s pulling just another Halloween prank), but he snookers himself when he tries to pick up an Ugly Betty (Anna Paquin) who’s dressed like Little Red Riding Hood. It turns out that she’s a “virgin” werewolf, and come hell or high water, tonight’s the night she’s going to score her first pound of human flesh. Well, nobody’s going to shed a tear when Wilkins gets his hide ripped apart like so much monkey bread, but since the wolf girl is unaware that he’s a child killer, it doesn’t really feel as if he’s getting his just desserts (unless you’re one of those New Agers who think Karma should tend to such matters). I was reminded of when Death Proof’s Stuntman Mike, who had a thing for offing hotties with his hot rod, met his Waterloo at the hands of some psychotic sluts who knew nothing of his previous crimes. (In the end, you almost felt sorry for the twisted puke.) But Death Proof offered precious little in the way of edifying its audience; it was, at best, a masturbatory diversion. Trick ‘r Treat, on the other hand, is a collection of morality plays, never mind that the punishments being meted out to the immoral often don’t fit their crimes. Nowhere is this truer than in the segment “The School Bus Massacre Revisited,” in which a group of little monsters play a mean joke on an idiot savant known around the hood as “Rhonda the Retard” (Sam Todd).  One of the kids, Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), is genuinely remorseful and apologizes profusely to Rhonda for giving her such a fright, but Rhonda forsakes him and his crew when she’s in a position to save them from a bunch of half-grown zombies. Rhonda ceases to be a sympathetic character after that, much like Poe’s Hop-Frog ceased to be a sympathetic character after he suited up his tormenters in orangutan costumes and burned them alive.

It seems nobody is worthy of salvation in Trick ‘r Treat, especially those Scrooges who refuse to honor the holiday’s traditions. When one of the movie’s many attractive female characters decides to take down her Halloween decorations well before the witching hour, she’s paid a visit by Sam (Quinn Lord), a horrible little fiend with an outsized pumpkin head that he hides beneath a burlap sack. Sam made his first appearance in Dougherty’s 1996 animated short, Season’s Greetings, and the seemingly ubiquitous character makes his way in one fashion or another through every segment of this flick. When the principal’s reclusive neighbor, Mr. Kreeg (an unrecognizable Brian Cox), chases off some trick-or-treaters with his dog (which he’s outfitted with a skeleton costume and glowing, green eyes), Sam stops by to set things right. This leads to a knock-down, drag-out fight with lots of blood and pumpkin seeds flying this way and that. It’s just one of many amusing sequences in what is by and large a very amusing picture (though I found its prologue banal, if not a tad vicious), which is why I don’t understand the execs at Warner Bros. holding it back for as long as they did. Though it was slated for a wide theatrical release in October 2007, Trick ‘r Treat went straight to DVD in October of this year. I don’t think that’ll keep it from becoming popular; these days, more and more perfectly good films are sidestepping the multiplex and cleaning up in the home video market. Actually, I expect Trick ‘r Treat to become a staple at Halloween parties for many years to come. 

October 31, 2009

© Copyright 2009 by Edward Larsen Terkelsen. All rights reserved.