Trick R Treat
Movies sometimes come bundled with a little bit of real life mystery, a crime or tragedy that gives them another dimension, a bit more notoriety. When you watch these movies you wonder “is that a body double or the actor who died?” and “I wonder what happened to that stolen prop?” Well with Trick R Treat the only mystery, the only crime, is “why would Warner shelf an amazing movie for two years, and then dump it straight to DVD?”
It is possible that they had no faith in the first time director Michael Dougherty, despite his excellent script for X2 and fairly good (although at times boring) one for Superman Returns. Also it is possible that they did not see a market for a movie that was not another re-shoot of Hostel or Saw, because this movie could not be any further from what is currently in fashion.
Instead Trick R Treat is a wonderful 1980’s style horror anthology movie, bursting at the seams with good TV actors, and blessed with a post Scream self awareness that allows it to be extremely funny yet edgy. Four stories, all set on Halloween in some sleepy small town, intermingle and cross over like the plot threads in “Pulp Fiction”. This structure does wonders to break up the usual horror anthology formula, normally you expect a story to end every 20 minutes but by chopping things up and mixing them together, well you never know when somebody will meet a gruesome end.
I think the less I speak about the individual plots, the better, since they are all extremely generic (think zombies and serial killers) but Michael Dougherty knows how to play his cards close to his vest so by the time you figure out which generic movie monster the story is about, he is already going in an entirely different direction. But it is safe to say that all the stories seem to exist in a world where Halloween is the only holiday: people throw parades, dress in extremely elaborate costumes and slavishly decorate their houses for the occasion. At least smart people do, the ones who disrespect the holiday are consumed by it.
The performances are great too. Anna Paquin is cute and believable as the one girl who does not want to wear one of those miniskirt and cleavage costumes that are all over the internet these days. Brian Cox puts on some makeup and prosthetics, not as a monster but as a miserable old man who hates kids and prefers to scare them away than partake in the festivities.
Still the real show stealer is Dylan Baker, as a high school principal who takes Halloween just a little bit too seriously for his own good.
The only thing I did not like too much about this movie is the one original part about it. This movie introduces a new creature called Samm, a kid sized embodiment of Halloween and the central enforcer to the nights rules. Whenever he shows up on screen, he is incredibly frightening, a burlap masked voodoo doll full of silent, curious menace. Unfortunately, much like Jason (Friday the 13th) he does not really benefit from removing his mask and in fact his make up effects kind of soured the character for me. Still it is a small detail that does not detract from any of the laughs, scares or surprises that the movie holds. I just hope we don’t have to wait forever for Warner to release the sequel this time.
