Trick ‘r Treat: A Retrospective
Over ten years removed from it’s initial release, we take a look at some of the reasons behind what has made this film one of the largest cult classics in recent memory and what has caused it’s recent resurgence back into modernity in recent years.
I love me some anthologies, whether they be film or television. In fact, I love them so much; I unknowingly picked three anthology films for our Horror Bound Halloween 31 celebration this month (follow along on twitter and IG with #HBH31). Personally, I can’t really pin point where my love for this form of storytelling started. I wasn’t even born when Rod Serling’s original Twilight Zone ran for it’s course of five seasons starting in 1959, and I was still a kid when both the film version of that series and Romero’s Creepshow came out in theaters. But watching Creepshow for the first time, I knew I was watching something wholly different and unique, even though my adolescent brain probably didn’t realize it at the time. (Want a rundown on the reboot of Twilight Zone? Check that out HERE)
My love for the style is probably one of the reasons, on a very long list of ones, as to why I instantly fell in love with Bryan Singer and Michael Dougherty’s 2007 masterpiece, Trick ‘r Treat. Produced by the former, written and directed by the latter, Trick ‘r Treat went through a veritable Hollywood shit storm before it was finally released via home media in 2009. Yup, that’s right, screened mostly at festivals, to critical acclaim by the way, the general public didn’t get around to seeing it until a whole two years later. And that was after the film had already gone through production hell for the two years leading up to the official release. Look, there were big names attached with a big studio also behind the production, I just think that after all the crap it went through just to see the light of day, Universal just said “fuck this,” and just put it out of sight and out of mind… until recently. But more on that later, let’s talk about all the things we love about this brilliant film first.
I think for most fans of this film, the conversation begins and ends with the main character, Sam. Short for Samhain, the Gaelic autumnal celebration from which our modern Halloween emerged from, the character of Sam is the one link whom we follow through the five intertwining stories that are told throughout the course of the film. Sam is somewhat of an overseer, and later an enforcer, of the customs and traditions of modern Halloween. This alone is one of the main reasons most horror fans hold a special place in their hearts for Trick ‘r Treat. We’ve all been aware of the unspoken rules and practices of a traditional Halloween since childhood: Put out a Jack ‘o Lantern, and don’t smash someone else’s, check your candy for tampering (an unfortunate routine that sprung from my generation’s trick or treating), If you’re home, answer your door to revelers and hand out candy, etc. In this film, if you don’t do these things, then you’re sure to face the wrath of Sam, the childlike protector of Halloween. Therein lies the other genius thinking behind the character of Sam. Had Dougherty chosen to depict Sam as an adult, I don’t know that we would’ve had the same affinity towards him that we do now. To us he may have just come off as every other faceless lunatic or nut in every other slasher movie that had come before. Depicting him as a child immediately allows us to sympathize in his cause for defending Halloween, a holiday, that at least culturally, is often associated with children dressing up and trick or treating around town before gorging on candy for weeks upon weeks afterwards.
But don’t be fooled, Sam is no kid. Rather, like many other horror movie icons, he is a supernatural force to be reckoned with. He possesses otherworldly abilities like superhuman strength and agility, crawling along the ceiling in one scene and throwing a grown man across the room in another. He’s ageless, appearing in his child like form in a flashback scene that occurs as far back as thirty years prior to the time period the movie takes place in. And when his mask is removed and we see his grisly, jack o lantern carved visage for the first time, we know this villain is no mere child. But as centralized as his character is to the main story, he really only appears in small, short glances. Leaving his two big scene stealing performances as bookends at the beginning and end of the film.
Which brings us to where I feel Trick ‘r Treat really excels: the way in which it tells its story. Using a form of storytelling popularized by the likes of Tarantino and Nolan in their formative years, Dougherty tells the story of one single Halloween night in small town Ohio out of order, leaving the watcher to question when each individual “tale” is happening in the course of this night. Not until you reach the resolution of the film, do you realize that the beginning was the end and that the end is the beginning. It sounds jarring, but the smooth pacing in the rest of the storytelling doesn’t make it feel that the order in which the events are happening should be dwelled upon.
Another unique directing decision separating this from most other anthology films, Dougherty chooses to edit his stories together to form one larger continuous story rather than employ a storyteller like Shatner’s radio DJ in A Christmas Horror Story or Mickey Rourke’s projectionist in Nightmare Cinema (another film I’ll be covering later in the month). Creepshow and V/H/S differ from Trick ‘r Treat as well by utilizing a more traditional approach to their anthology storytelling by defining a clearer cut ending to each story, then utilizing a larger outside story to bring us into each subsequent tale after that.
So why has it taken this long for Trick ‘r Treat to finally come into its own after so many frigging years of living in cult-like obscurity? Well, if you ask us, the horror fans, we’ll tell you that in our hearts and minds, this film has always been a classic to us. But it wasn’t until recent years that a lot of things were happening both behind the scenes and right in front of our eyes for Sam and his little motion picture to get thrust back into pop culture. First, in 2016, Legendary Pictures and Michael Dougherty scored a deal with AtmosFX, a consumer based Halloween digital display decoration company. This deal would lead to other licensing deals within the seasonal decoration medium.
Then, in 2017, Universal Studios Theme Parks announced a Trick ‘r Treat scare zone would appear in their annual event for all things macabre, Halloween Horror Nights. Although a scare zone is nothing more than a little section of the park’s walkways designed to immerse attendees in the experience as they make their way around the park to the next house, it was a start. Fortunately, the following year, Universal announced that Sam and his exploits would be getting their very own, full on, haunted house maze at their 2018 event. I think from there, Trick ‘ r Treat, and especially Sam, have seen a huge resurgence into pop culture, becoming the horror icons that they deserve to be, via a much more accessible treasure trove of merchandise, especially in your favorite seasonal Halloween retailer of choice.
As for Stephen Dougherty, the magnificent mind behind all of this? Well, he went on to write and direct another seasonal horror cult classic following his work on Trick ‘r Treat, this time tackling Christmas in 2015’s Krampus. Strangely enough, that film also got a haunt at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights extravaganza; they just did it a few years before Sam did. Probably due to its much larger theatrical run and it’s much larger return receipts. Oh yeah, and Dougherty did a little film earlier this year by the name of Godzilla: King of Monsters. But fear not, although a Trick ‘r Treat sequel has been only talked about for years, with Dougherty’s new Hollywood clout after directing such a successful entry in a franchise like Godzilla, he’ll be calling his own shots in no time and we’ll be getting that long awaited sequel before you know it. Then of course we’ll be reminiscing about how much better the first one was.
