I think by now many, if not most, are aware of Trick 'r Treat's long and winding road to release. To recap, WB killed a potential franchise by not having the faith to release this critically acclaimed Halloween film to theaters. Why? No one really knows. But it's October of 2009, two years after the film was meant to be in theater's, and finally we at least get to see it on DVD. It was worth the wait.
What makes Trick 'r Treat so special? No, it's not particularly scary. It's not the "make you jump out of your seat" kind of fluff we're now used to calling "horror". What it is is an anthology of interconnected Halloween night stories that feel like something you would read in a classic book of spooky stories that you may have read when you were a kid. There's the gruesome, the macabre, the frightening, and perhaps most importantly the hilarious. The film falls in line with Raimi's comedy horror classics like Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, and is even a step or two better than the also-excellent recent release Drag Me to Hell.
I'm not going to summarize the film here. Lord knows I hate having to skip over a summary because I either don't want to be spoiled or have already seen the film and don't need to know what it's about. What I will do is tell you that you need to see this movie if you're a horror fan or someone that loves the holiday of Halloween. This film captures its spirit like no other, even the film by John Carpenter that owns the name. It does so by basing all of its mythos and storytelling around the holiday, rather than just using it as a backdrop like other films have done. The main villain, "Sam" is suitably creepy and the other characters are well-acted and interesting (to say the least).
The sound design, set design, costuming, directing, art direction, and everything else about the film just come together to make the perfect storm of a Halloween film. People will be watching this for years to come to celebrate the holiday, and it's sure to become a Halloween tradition.
What makes Trick 'r Treat so special? No, it's not particularly scary. It's not the "make you jump out of your seat" kind of fluff we're now used to calling "horror". What it is is an anthology of interconnected Halloween night stories that feel like something you would read in a classic book of spooky stories that you may have read when you were a kid. There's the gruesome, the macabre, the frightening, and perhaps most importantly the hilarious. The film falls in line with Raimi's comedy horror classics like Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, and is even a step or two better than the also-excellent recent release Drag Me to Hell.
I'm not going to summarize the film here. Lord knows I hate having to skip over a summary because I either don't want to be spoiled or have already seen the film and don't need to know what it's about. What I will do is tell you that you need to see this movie if you're a horror fan or someone that loves the holiday of Halloween. This film captures its spirit like no other, even the film by John Carpenter that owns the name. It does so by basing all of its mythos and storytelling around the holiday, rather than just using it as a backdrop like other films have done. The main villain, "Sam" is suitably creepy and the other characters are well-acted and interesting (to say the least).
The sound design, set design, costuming, directing, art direction, and everything else about the film just come together to make the perfect storm of a Halloween film. People will be watching this for years to come to celebrate the holiday, and it's sure to become a Halloween tradition.