Trick ‘r Treat (2007) and the Importance of Halloween
Happy Halloween, folks! Who doesn’t love Halloween, aka All Hallows Eve? A night where you can wear a mask and pretend to be anyone you want. Or for me, just a regular Tuesday. But it’s also no secret that Halloween is a dying holiday. Just take a look at retail stores around you. Less decorations, less costumes and less candy. There are even less kids going trick or treating now compared to even three years ago. But that needs to change. People have forgotten the spirit and traditions of Halloween. And no movie will better remind you than Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat.
It is Halloween night in Warren Valley, Ohio. A couple named Emma and Henry returns home only for Emma to start putting away the decorations before the night is done. While she’s in the middle of taking them down, she’s attacked and murdered by a figure who hangs her mangled corpse with the remaining decorations. Meanwhile, a middle aged man named Steven Wilkins feeds candy laced with cyanide to a local chubby punk destroying jack-o-lanterns. As he hides his body, he encounters his grumpy next door neighbor, Mr. Kreeg, who tells him to “keep his kids out of his yard.” After going back inside, Steven answers the door to a group of kids (Macy, Chip, Schrader and Sara) from his school, where we learn he’s their principal. We next see a group of sexy, college-aged girls (Laurie, Danielle, Maria and Janet) about to go to a crazy Halloween party. But one of the girls is stalked by a man in a black hood and mask, wearing vampire fangs.
I’m no stranger to horror anthologies. Hell, I’ve reviewed plenty of them on Film Purgatory. But this is unlike most anthologies I’ve seen. Instead of your typical anthology where every story is separate but shares a common motif, every story in Trick ‘r Treat is interwoven together, with the film coming full circle by the end. There is no linear flow to the film, but that only works in its favor. We see just about everything Halloween has to offer, from the college partiers, to the vandalizing punks hell bent on destroying Halloween decorations, to bone-chilling local legends, and to people letting loose their…darkest and most heinous sides. Every individual story begins innocently enough (even occasionally clichéd at times). However, as the stories unfold, they become increasingly dark before culminating in the penultimate twist that leaves you on the edge of your seat with your jaw dropped to the floor. It is, and remains one of the most narratively creative movies I’ve seen.
And what ties the night’s events together is Sam. Who is Sam you may ask? He’s the small child wearing orange flannel pajamas and a burlap sack with small buttons for eyes over his head who appears in every story. At a glance, you might think Sam is the least intimidating horror movie icon. He lacks the physical presence of Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees, nor is he a sadistic killer like Freddy Krueger or Art the Clown. But looks can be very deceiving. You see, Sam is actually a demon who’s responsible for making sure people are following Halloween’s traditions to a letter. These include: handing out candy to trick or treaters, keeping Halloween decorations out until midnight, and saying “Happy Halloween”. Seems simple, right? Well, you’d be surprised at how many people fail to do even that. And what happens when Sam catches you not following these traditions? Well…you probably don’t want to find out.
Much like Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Trick ‘r Treat interlinks comic book elements into the film. We have caption boxes detailing the film’s setting, time and place along with transitions that resemble comic book panels (in a much more aesthetically pleasing manner than Ang Lee’s Hulk). In fact, there was even a series of comic books planned to tie in with the film’s marketing. However, they were pushed back due to the film’s backlisting. Eventually, the comics were compiled into a graphic novel that merely covered the film’s events released in 2009. Additionally, there are plenty of familiar faces from comic book adaptations and pop culture staples. We have Anna Paquin (Rogue from Bryan Singer’s X-Men movies), Brian Cox (William Stryker from Singer’s X2), Dylan Baker (Dr. Connors from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy) and Britt McKillip (Princess Cadance from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) just to name a few.
Despite Trick ‘r Treat being a box office dud, making only $27,909 on a budget of $12 million, it quickly became a cult classic among horror fans and Halloween lovers. And it serves as a reminder of the beauty and simplicity of a slowly dying tradition. Nowadays, people tend to look at Christmas and New Year as the biggest holidays. But that shouldn’t be the case. Halloween as a holiday allows us freedom to truly express our darkest side in a healthy way. A chance where we can, just for a single night, forget who the world thinks we are and live out our fantasies of make believe. And a night where you’re never too old to go trick or treating.
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