Review - Trick 'r Treat (2007)

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After years of anticipation I finally saw the movie that I was waiting for, for two years… Trick r’ Treat, and I finally got to see it while I was at the Portage theater, along with The Evil Dead and My Bloody Valentine. I cannot begin to describe to you how amazing this movie was and how beautifully shot, acting and haunting this movie was but I will try to explain the majority of it to you. I STRONGLY recommend that you seen this movie since it is an amazing movie and original nonetheless. Dougherty did a phenomenal job crafting the film as well as the story outline.

From Blogger Pictures

The movie is broken up into several different stories that happen all in the same night that interconnect in the most bizarre and subtle way. The stories include: a young couple find out what happens when you disrespect the traditions of Halloween, a school teacher who happens to be a serial killer, a young girl is stalked by a mysterious man, a group of kids play a prank on a little girl that went too far and a cantankerous old man is visited by a demonic trick-or-treater.

To kick it off, what makes this movie so much more different then your typical Halloween based movie is that it’s about the holiday itself rather then having something happen during the holiday; this movie is about the traditions of Halloween and what the holiday stands for. Each story includes this little trick ‘r treater that appears everywhere who is the epitome of Halloween… Christmas has Santa, Easter as the Easter Bunny and Valentines’ Day has the cherubs and now Halloween has Sam. Since Halloween is such a dark holiday about death, it would make sense that Sam is not of this earth and that he would be a killer, another thing that I like about this movie. How Sam is the spirit that makes sure everybody follows the rules of Halloween.

From Blogger Pictures

There were a lot of good scares in this movie but there was also some good-natured dark humor. A lot of it was stupid but some of the humor was Halloween oriented. This is something that not many horror comedies can do right, the exception being Shaun of the Dead, perfectly blending horror with dark humor to where the humor is not overwhelming. It lightens up the mood but then the horror blind sights you when you least expect it.

Each story, it seems, is either based on a fair tale or based on some Halloween experience that all of us had dealt with at one time or another. The teacher that you always suspect is not who he say he is, having pranks being played on you, werewolves, vampires… all of the stories are like twisted, terrifying renditions of kids fair tales. It’s also obvious that Dougherty got his inspiration from Creepshow as well since the whole movie is told in the same style… coming from a comic book titled “Trick ‘r Treat” where Sam is the main character who is almost everywhere. It had the look of a creepy Tim Burton movie, the camera angles were very cartoonish and it was a very powerful movie.

From Blogger Pictures

It was a shame that this movie didn’t get the theatrical release that it should have gotten and I encourage anybody who loves horror movies to pick this movie up when they see it because it will not let any of your expectations. Dougherty himself wanted all of us to talk about Trick ‘r Treat so that the movie gets is recognition that it deserves. It blew me away and I am very greatfull for seeing this movie. Go see it or pick it up as soon as possible.