| Trick 'r Treat | |
|---|---|
Promotional poster |
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| Directed by | Michael Dougherty |
| Produced by | Bryan Singer |
| Written by | Michael Dougherty |
| Based on | Season's Greetings by Michael Dougherty |
| Starring | Dylan Baker Rochelle Aytes Anna Paquin Brian Cox |
| Music by | Douglas Pipes |
| Cinematography | Glen MacPherson |
| Editing by | Robert Ivison |
| Studio | Legendary Pictures Bad Hat Harry Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Premiere |
| Release date(s) | October 6, 2009 |
| Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Trick 'r Treat is a 2007 American horror film written and directed by Michael Dougherty, and based on his short film Season's Greetings. Originally slated for an October 5, 2007 release, it was announced in September 2007 that the film had been pushed back. Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures released the film direct to DVD and Blu-ray on October 6, 2009 in North America, October 26 in the UK and October 28 in Australia.
Contents |
The film is an anthology of four Halloween-related scary stories. One common element that ties the stories together is the presence of Sam (Quinn Lord), a mysterious pint-sized trick-or-treater wearing shabby orange pajamas with a burlap sack over his head. He makes an appearance in all the stories as a 'friendly-reminder' to those who break Halloween traditions.[1]
Emma (Leslie Bibb) and Henry (Tahmoh Penikett) have set up numerous ghost-scarecrows for Halloween in their yard. After returning home from a Halloween party, Emma tries to blow out a jack-o'-lantern by their fence, but Henry tells her not to because it's against tradition; she blows out the jack-o'-lantern anyway. While Henry is inside waiting for Emma to take down the decorations, she is murdered with a large knife-like pumpkin lollipop by an unknown assailant. Later, Henry goes outside and finds Emma's severed head, with the giant lollipop in its mouth, hung up on one of the ghost-scarecrows.
Steven Wilkins (Dylan Baker), the town principal, poisons Charlie (Brett Kelly) (a boy caught stealing candy from Wilkins' porch) killing him. Charlie throws up large amounts of blood before being dragged into the principal's house. Wilkins buries Charlie in his backyard, along with another body, and has a run-in with his neighbor, Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox), and his dog. After finishing the burial, Wilkins sees Kreeg screaming from his window, begging for help; Wilkins disregards this. Later, Wilkins helps his son Billy (Connor Christopher Levins) carve a "jack-o'-lantern" in their basement, which is revealed to be Charlie's severed head. The sequence ends with Billy saying, "But don't forget to help me with the eyes."
Five kids, Macy (Britt McKillip), Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), Sara (Isabelle Deluce), Chip (Alberto Ghisi), and Rhonda (Samm Todd), a savant, journey to the local rock quarry where Macy tells them the local urban legend of "The Halloween School Bus Massacre". Thirty years ago, a school bus containing eight children, all mentally challenged and disturbed to the point of needing to be chained to their chairs, crashed into the lake at the bottom of the quarry; the bus driver, who was bribed by the parents to "end their burden" by killing the children, was the only one who survived. As the group investigates the quarry, a prank meant for Rhonda instead turns deadly when the legend proves to be true. After Macy kicks a jack-o-lantern into the lake the school bus children return from the grave. Schrader and Rhonda hear the screams of the others and Schrader - thinking it's another prank - goes to back to find them. After he does, Macy informs him that the legend is real and they need to leave. As the School Bus children chase them, they manage to grab hold of the chains which Sara is wearing as part of her costume, ultimately she is dragged away and killed. Meanwhile, Rhonda has locked herself in the elevator leading out of the quarry. Despite the others begging her to open it, she takes her revenge for the prank and rides it up herself, leaving Macy, Schrader and Chip to their deaths.
Laurie (Anna Paquin), a self-conscious 22-year-old virgin, goes into the woods after deciding to separate from her group of promiscuous friends. There, she is attacked by a vampire, while her sister Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith) and her friends Maria (Rochelle Aytes) and Janet (Moneca Delain) party nearby at a bonfire with men they picked up along the way. The vampire's body suddenly drops from a tree onto the party and Laurie appears. The "vampire" is revealed to be Principal Wilkins in disguise wearing fake fangs. The girls at the party, along with Laurie, suddenly transform into werewolves and devour their dates along with Wilkins.
Kreeg, a cantankerous, Halloween-hating, curmudgeon lives alone with his dog, Spite. Kreeg shows his disgust for Halloween by scaring away trick-or-treaters. While in his house, Kreeg is attacked by Sam. During the struggle, Kreeg rips off the sack over Sam's head to reveal his head to be a cross between a jack-o-lantern and a skull. Kreeg runs to his window calling for Mr. Wilkins to help him, but is tackled by Sam. Kreeg gains the upper hand when he manages to fire his shotgun at Sam, seemingly killing him. As Kreeg dials 9-1-1, Sam attacks him again, stabbing at him with a large pumpkin sucker which lodges in a candy bar sitting on Kreeg's chest. Finally receiving his treat, Sam proceeds to eat the candy bar and then leaves the house. Meanwhile, pictures burning slowly in a nearby fireplace show a class photo of the children from the "School Bus Massacre" and the bus driver, revealed to be Kreeg himself.
Bandaged and bruised from his encounter with Sam, Kreeg answers his door to give candy to trick-or-treaters. While on his porch, he sees Sam go to Emma and Henry's house just as she is blowing out the jack-o'-lantern. Rhonda walks across the street and is almost hit by the laughing, human-form werewolf girls in their vehicle. Young Billy Wilkins is sitting on his porch handing out candy wearing a "Principal Wilkins" costume. Kreeg then walks back inside when there's another knock at the door. He opens the door to find the kids from the School Bus Massacre standing there with their bags outstretched, saying, "Trick r' Treat". The ending is rendered as comic book pages showing the bus driver's fate at the hands of the undead children.
Trick r' Treat was filmed on location in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The first public screening took place at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Austin, Texas, on December 9, 2007. Subsequent screenings included the Sitges Film Festival on October 7, 2008, the 2008 Los Angeles Screamfest on October 10, 2008, a free screening in New York sponsored by Fangoria Magazine on October 13, 2008, and another free screening in Los Angeles co-sponsored by Ain't It Cool News and Legendary Pictures on October 23, 2008. The film was also screened at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, the Montreal Fantasia Festival on July 29 and 30, 2009, the film festival Terror In The Aisles 2 in Chicago, IL on August 15, 2009,[2] and the After Dark film festival in Toronto on August 20, 2009 at The Bloor.
Despite only a handful of public screenings, the film has been reviewed extensively by online journalists and bloggers, especially in the genre/horror communities, and reviews are unanimously positive. Dread Central gave it 5 out of 5 stars and stated "Trick 'r Treat ranks alongside John Carpenter's Halloween as traditional October viewing and I can't imagine a single horror fan that won't fall head over heels in love with it."[3] The film earned 10 out of 10 from Ryan Rotten of ShockTilYouDrop.com.[4] It also earned an 8 out of 10 from Bloody Disgusting,[5] who later ranked the film ninth in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article saying, "[It's] so good that its lack of a theatrical release borders on the criminal."[6] IGN attended a screening of the film and concluded, "This well-crafted Halloween horror tribute is a scary blast.", rating it 8 out of 10 overall.[7] Based on 17 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall "Fresh" approval rating from critics of 85%, with an average score of 7.7/10; the site's critical consensus states "An deftly crafted tribute to Halloween legends, Trick 'r' Treat hits all the genre marks with gusto and old fashioned suspense."[8]
DC Comics partner Wildstorm Comics had planned to release a four-issue adaptation of Trick 'r Treat written by Marc Andreyko and illustrated by Fiona Staples, with covers by Michael Dougherty, Breehn Burns and Ragnar.[12] The series was originally going to be released weekly in October 2007, ending on Halloween, but the series was pushed back due to the film's backlisting. The four comics were instead released as a graphic novel adaptation in October 2009.[13]
Dougherty announced on October 8, 2009 that he is planning a sequel.[14]
Dougherty helped create a short promotional Easter trailer for Fear.net's Trick 'r Treat 24-hour marathon for 2011's Halloween. The trailer showed a family's Easter celebration turning into one of horror, with Sam watching the chaos outside whilst wearing rabbit ears.[15] Several more shorts have been created during various holidays including Father's Day, and another relating to back to school, all directed by Dougherty and featuring Sam from the starring roles to cameos.