Trick ‘r Treat – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Oct 7, 2009, 17:28 GMT

The doorbell rings, the cry goes out: Trick \'R Treat! But, wait. What\'s actually going on during this ghostly All Hallows Eve? Something eerie and unexpected. Something splattered and spooky. Something that brings ghouls, vampires and werewolves into the night. Answer the door – a shocking surprise awaits. From producer Bryan Singer (director of X-Men and Superman Returns) and writer-director Michael Dougherty (co-scripter of X2 and Superman Returns) comes a ...more

More of a treat than a trick, this horror anthology film follows several stories on Halloween night.  

It is Halloween night and many have plans of a spooky kind.  Emma (Leslie Bibb) ignores an ancient tradition of Halloween and pays dearly.  Principal Steven Wilkins (Dylan Baker) has to have a talk with one of his troubled students (Brent Kelly) before beginning his questionable Halloween activities. 

Laurie (Anna Paquin) is a shy girl and needs to find a date if she is to attend a party with her friends Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith), Janet (Moneca Delain), and Maria (Rochelle Aytes), but she has to walk through the dark woods to get to the party. 

A group of kids, Marcy (Britt McKillip), Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), Sara (Isabelle Deluce), Chip (Alberto Ghisi), and Rhonda (Samm Todd), takes a trip to an abandoned rock quarry to see the site of the Halloween School Bus Massacre. 

Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox) isn’t very nice.  He has a Halloween visitor in the form of a trick or treater named Sam (Quinn Lord) with a creepy knapsack on his head teach him the true meaning of Halloween. 

All of these terror-ific tales blend into each other and have connections sure to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.  

I love anthology films and I love Halloween.  A combination of the two is devoutly to be wished.  An anthology film always feels like several for the price of one since you always have multiple stories in one film, albeit short tales of terror.  It is much nicer if all of the tales are great.  Even better that it’s a killer of a film. 

It boggles me that Trick ‘r Treat was first shown at film festivals in 2007 and hasn't been run through theaters.  It certainly won raves at each festival where it was shown and didn’t deserve a direct-to-video fate.  In fact, it’s an excellent film and one to become a Halloween viewing tradition at every horror geek’s film-a-thon.  

The film takes some cues from Halloween, the John Carpenter classic, Creepshow, and other genre favorites.  It throws them into a blender with the classic “tale with a twist” turn and hits eviscerate.  The resulting monster mash features all sorts of creeps that go bump in the night. 

To say much more would simply spoil the fun, so just hit play and enjoy… and have a Happy Halloween [insert sinister laugh here].  

Trick ‘r Treat is presented in both fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  The only special feature is the 3 minute animated short “Trick ‘r Treat: Season’s Greetings” from 1996. 

It is the first appearance of the character of Sam and is hand animated by director Michael Dougherty (and even includes his own blood since he cut his hand during the final animation – [insert scary noise here]).  He also provides an optional commentary for the short.  

Trick ‘r Treat deserves much better than it got and turns out to be a delightful thing to find in your Halloween bag.  Director Michael Dougherty has carved a fiendish jack-o-lantern and a ghoulish good time that will be entertaining genre fans for many Halloweens to come.  

Trick ‘r Treat is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for an Oct. 26th release. Visit the DVD database for more information. The film is also available on Blu-ray, On Demand and as a Digital Download.