Trick 'R Treat (2008)

OCTOBER 10, 2008

GENRE: ANTHOLOGY, COMEDIC
SOURCE: THEATRICAL (SCREAMFEST)

2008 will probably be forever known as the year that horror got fucked. First Midnight Meat Train was buried by its distributor (that would be Lionsgate), given a blink and you'll miss it release on 100 2nd rate screens throughout the country. Then the Gate decided to do even LESS of a release for Repo (try to find it November 7th! I think you win a prize if you do). And now we have Michael Dougherty's Trick 'R Treat, which Warner Bros doesn't seem to be willing to release at all. And wouldn't you know it - all 3 films sit comfortably in my top 5 horror films of the year (another one is Let The Right One In, which is simply being remade for idiots rather than try to give a wide push to a - gasp! - foreign film).

And yet Shutter opened on nearly 3000 screens.

Like all anthology films, some stories are better than others, but what's great about Treat is how it unfolds. Unlike Creepshow or whatever, we don't get a self-contained story, and then another, and then another... this one unfolds more like Pulp Fiction, where characters from stories A and B drift into stories C and D, and the chronological order is different from the order we see it. It's always fun to see the subtle nods to other stories (Lesley Bibb's character manages to be in every story, if only for a second or two), and it gives the film a sense of involvement that is hardly ever present in an anthology. Admit it; sometimes when you watch Creepshow you skip over Jordy Verrill, right? You can't do that here.

But more importantly, the film does something that horror fans have been asking for for the past 30 years: it lives up to John Carpenter's landmark film in terms of accurately depicting the Halloween holiday. I'm old now, and hardly get as excited about October 31st as I used to (I actually always have to work Halloween night), but this movie filled me with a sense of nostalgia for those magical Halloweens I experienced as a kid. Like when I was 10 or 11 and tried to watch Halloween 5 by myself, or even more mundane times like standing in line for the hayride at Spookyworld. No film, even the Halloween sequels, has delivered so much accurate Halloween atmosphere. It's all in the details too; Brian Cox's character flipping through the channels trying to find something NOT horror related, a dad trying to convince his son to watch Charlie Brown, the guy in his 30s who needs to stick to his childhood traditions... it's all here. The film goes far beyond throwing up a few Jack O'Lanterns and blowing some leaves around in order to "sell" the setting. There isn't a single scene in the film that could be mistaken for any other day of the year.

And Christ it's funny. And the good kind of funny - MEAN SPIRITED FUNNY! Dylan Baker has the film's best line, which I won't spoil, but let's just say that I can't quite recall such a terrible thing to say being played for laughs. And his kid's response to being told to watch The Great Pumpkin is worth the price of admission alone (though maybe not the Craigslist price - a guy was willing to pay 600 bucks to see the film. Yup, there's no audience for the film, Warner! Speed Racer's where the big money's at!). And Cox has a line that was used to similar effect in The Thing (or Hatchet, if you will) but is just as applause-worthy.

One thing the movie won't be known for is excessive gore. There is surprisingly little splatter (not a slight - I actually didn't even realize that until the film was over), but when it's used, it's done for great effect. There's a terrific bit early on where a girl is killed by an attacker under a "ghost" sheet, and some trick or treaters watch as the sheet is suddenly covered in blood (from the inside). And without spoiling much (I don't spoil films that no one can fucking SEE yet), the movie has one of the more original and exciting monster transformations I have seen in ages.

I also dug how Dougherty approached the horror angle. It starts off creepy scary, with a Michael Myers-y guy staring down Ms. Bibb (also in Meat Train, AND Iron Man... this broad's on a roll) being a particularly unnerving highlight. Then it goes into more Creepshow-y, EC Comics style territory for a while, takes a quick detour into Tales from the Crypt style "twist" horror, before returning back to suspense and genuine terror for the final act.

I knew I loved the movie before it was even halfway over, and the great thing about the setup was that I was never sure when it was going to end. But I started getting curious how my friends thought. I was sitting with a bunch of my local "horror" pals, and if there's one thing we can agree on, it's that we can't agree on anything. No matter how much a lot of us love a certain film, there will ALWAYS be 2-3 who hated it. But not so with this - even the most notoriously picky among us loved it. I think that's the benefit to the sort of "all types of horror" approach; maybe you're too jaded to get scared by the first and final acts, but you'll be having too much fun with the middle segments to care. However you prefer your horror film, this film delivers the goods.

After the screening I got to host a Q&A, but it was kind of awkward. They only had one microphone, so my role was pretty much null once everyone was on stage. But I got to get in a good jab at the Halloween remake*, and stand next to the super hot Lauren Lee Smith (the one who spends half of Pathology fucking the shit out of Milo), so I guess it was worth it.

The word on the street right now is that the film will actually go DTV... NEXT Halloween. The fact that it's being given the same treatment as a Seagal or Van Damme film is bad enough, but having to wait a whole more year to see it and share it with friends is just excruciating. And you know, I can almost understand Lionsgate being scared of Repo's chances at the box office - it's a strange film (a musical at that) and it pretty much starts over the top and just goes further. But Trick 'R Treat is pretty goddamn commercial; there is literally nothing in the movie that I could see causing alarm. Sure, there aren't any big stars, but since when does a horror film need big stars to be a hit? Like anyone in Saw II is on the cover of Entertainment Weekly? And I don't see Hostel's Jay Hernandez and Derek Richardson on Access Hollywood too often. Christ Warner, you have a giant built in audience, a technically flawless film, and near universal acclaim from those who have seen it... why shelve it? This movie would be a hit even if released in March. You put this out in October, and Jigsaw might finally have reason to panic.

I wanted to say this on the Q&A, but had to settle for telling Dougherty later on in private - for nearly 20 years I have been looking for something besides a random Halloween sequel to join the original film as part of my annual Halloween tradition. I finally have one.

What say you?

*When someone asked what the origin was for Sam, the film's creepy sort of "central" character, Dougherty said that not knowing the origin was scarier. "I don't need to know that he was abused or whatever," Mike said, and I muttered "Or that his mom was a stripper." Teehee, I made a funny.

22 comments:

  1. fyi, 'Midnight Meat Train' is available through October on Comcast free on demand (fearnet). I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but at least you can see it. Just be prepared to suffer through 30 promos from 'Saw V'. Will we ever get a dvd release, I wonder?

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  2. I soooo wanted to see this. We have to wait a whole year more?!

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  3. I'm sort of devastated that Trick 'r Treat won't be making it into theatres this Halloween. The set design alone looks like it would be worth the price of admission.

    I know here in Pittsburgh, among the horror faithful, there's been quite a bit of buzz about it. And if yinzers are talking about it you can be sure that everyone else is as well.

    Direct to video... =( I like to see movies projected. Call me old fashioned.

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  4. Yipe. MMT is one of your top five? To me, that speaks to the qaulity of 2008's horror more than anything else...

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  5. The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verill is my favorite part of Creepshow.

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  6. Let The Right One In looks terrific, a 30 Days of Night with kids! LOL! Yea, horror has pretty much sucked lately. Glad you're the one weeding these out for us! Last good one's I enjoyed were Frontieres and Inside.

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  7. Sam is called sam cause he is the spirit of halloween, its from the old holiday called samhain.. where we get our halloween today from

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  8. Please tell me there is a petition out there for this film to be seen. I've been waiting on this one for quite awhile.

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  9. P.S. I will always get this confused with the incredibly awesome and hilarious 80's horror flick with Mark Price, Gene Simmons, and Ozzy.

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  10. I WANT TO SEE IT AND IVE BEEN WAITING FOREVER AND I AM MAD AS HELL.

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  11. Argg! I almost wish I didn't know about this. It looks awesome, with a great cast (Dylan Baker is awesome).

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  12. My coworker and I have been waiting for this damn movie since we first watched the trailer like 10 months ago!!!!!
    WTF? There was NOTHING at the theaters this Halloween....that's why High School Musical got #1!!!!!!
    Geezus Christos. Who the hell is making executive decisions at Warner? Bugs Bunny?!!!
    I am SOOOO mad!

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  13. It's finally out...and it is as good as everyone has said.

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  14. Finally! Just watched it - holy crap how did this movie get dumped? It is seriously if not the best horror movie I've seen, certainly up there in the top tier. This thing has everything I want to see in a modern horror movie: great cast, great writing, inventive effects and cinematography, and genuinely inventive twists on old horror tropes. And, yeah, great dark humor.

    How the hell did W.B. bungle this one? I hope this goes on to the great cult audience it deserves.

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  15. I resisted the urge to read the review until I saw the movie, I still trying to figure out WTF was in the minds of put this gem on the dark (no pun intended) just to make way for the crappy teenized remakes that flooded the 08-09 run, DAMN this movie ROcked!

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  16. this movie is destined to be one of those horror flicks you watch every halloween. it's not really all that scary, but it's quite nicely done. i love that the fat kid from "bad santa" is in it.

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  17. I've heard rumor (from a friend who knows Dougherty personally) that WB refused to release it because so many children are killded in it, including mentally handicapped children.

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  18. Would have been a GREAT made-for-TV movie, and it's a nice once-a-year-at-Halloween movie, but I thought it was a little disappointing. Parts that might have been scary or creepy are just played for laughs, as seems to be the case with most mainstream horror post-Scream. In fact, I think the Scream/Shaun of the Dead crowd will love this movie, but am surprised by the reception it's gotten by real horror fans. Maybe I need to rewatch...

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  19. Great movie, but I'm SO pissed off that the commentary isn't on the DVD version!

    I get the desire to make Bluray attractive, but the way to do that should be to add value to the BR, not to subtract value from the DVD...

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  20. Awesome movie---I did a spontaneous purchase of it without knowing anything and ended up LOVING it...definitely one I'll be busting out again every October 31st. My only problem was that I really wanted to see more of the Dylan Baker character

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  21. I totally agree with the first paragraph. This movie is a rare gem, and it baffles me that they pretty much shelved it. I'm glad it finally came out.

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  22. I love Trick 'r Treat. I really do. I watch it (at least) twice every October, once on the anniversary of my first viewing of the film (October 8th, 2009), and on the 31st in a double feature with the original Halloween.
    It is an inhuman shame that this wonderful, wonderful film was kept from the public for two years while piles of dog vomit keep getting released without a problem!

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