Next year will mark the 35th anniversary of John Carpenter's immortal "Halloween"; The definitive film on the holiday. Aside from being recognized as one of the most successful independent films ever made, "Halloween" has the honor and distinction of birthing the slasher. Hardcore horror buffs will debate that "Halloween" is not the first in its family tree, but a descendent of other genre pictures such as "Peeping Tom," "Psycho," "Black Christmas," and any number of Italian Giallos. But if "Halloween" didn't invent the formula, it certainty did perfect it.
As has been extensively and exhaustively documented, "Halloween" facilitated filmmaker's attack on every other holiday from April Fool's Day to Valentines. "Halloween" itself spawned 7 sequels and 2 remakes. Yet despite the holiday's seemingly infinite profit potential, few have ventured outside the confines of that franchise to explore it, and even fewer of those have succeeded.
Well it took nearly 30 years, but in 2007 someone finally made a movie worthy of being a companion to "Halloween" on this night of scary movie viewing. That someone is Michael Dougherty (whose previous credits include scripting several superhero flicks) and the movie is "Trick 'r Treat."
In five short years "Trick 'r Treat" has already achieved cult status. In spite of its lack of a formal theatrical release, it has found a home in most horror geek's libraries with its DVD and Blu-ray releases (I double-dipped and bought both). But on the off chance you haven't been introduced to this beauty...
Scary movie lovers, I give to you...
Trick 'r Treat
Release Date: 2007
Rating: * * * *
By John Engell October 31, 2012
I'm going to keep this short and sweeter than a pillowcase of Halloween candy. "Trick 'r Treat" is an anthology film, in the tradition of "Creepshow." Four interwoven tales with a wraparound story. The chronicles concern a school principal who takes his love for the holiday too far, a lonely young lady looking for the right man, a clique of adolescent pranksters whose latest stunt results in tragedy, and an old man whose checkered past has finally come back to haunt him. The tales all take place on Halloween night and are brilliantly atmospheric. The animations, the cinematography, the music, are all tops and the talented Anna Paquin ("True Blood" and "Scream 4") is featured prominently in one of the story arcs. It is hard to review a film you consider a masterpiece and it would be a disservice to anyone who hasn't yet had the pleasure of seeing "Trick 'r Treat" to reveal anymore. So suffice to say "Trick 'r Treat" should be on your short list of essential holiday viewing. After watching it countless times myself, my only complaint... at only 82 minutes long, it's over too soon.
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