Trick ‘r Treat: The Best horror film People ignore

I recently sat down to watch Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat. I’d never seen the film, never even heard many people talk about it… Sure, I’d seen the DVD at Blockbuster back in my younger days, but I knew very little about it.

I found what is likely to be one of my absolute favorite horror films, and a necessity every time we approach Hallows Eve.



Before I watched it I saw it billed as a horror comedy, and usually, I associate that with a solid laugh, and a lot of camp (I.E. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Shaun of the Dead) and yet I was met with a very grim tone, the humor in the film isn’t designed to make you laugh, rather it feels organic within its world.

When we start the film, we’re met with an anthology format, albeit one of the most connected I’ve seen, we’ve got poisoned candy, clever reversals on Grimm’s fairytales, father-son bonding over pumpkin carving, Werewolves and demonic, lollipop-wielding pumpkin boys (I don’t think I could think of a better combination. The film stars Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox. It’s a fast-paced film that has really great acting performances (Especially from Dylan Baker, who balances his normally calm, kind demeanor with something utterly evil) and a satisfying conclusion.



Moving on to my likes and dislikes

Likes:
1. The acting, as I mentioned, is really excellent, we even have a great young actor portraying our aforementioned pumpkin boy, Sam.



2. The script has a delightful balance of fun, atmosphere, and violence. It has a lot of similarities to Dougherty’s other well-known film, Krampus.
3. The film has a reliance on practical effects over digital, and it really shows, from the creature fx on Sam, to the blood spray, and werewolves, it’s a real treat for those of us who grow more and more tired of digital effects invading our screens.



4. The way they tied all of the stories together, in the end, was honestly the best I’ve seen from an anthology.

Dislikes:
I only have one, and it’s not so much with the film, but with its distribution, this should have been a franchise, should have had a proper theatrical release, and should have been bigger… end of the day, I just wanted more, and despite Dougherty promising his plans to begin work on it after this years Godzilla: King of the Monsters, I’m not sure we’ll ever see that planned sequel
 I hope we do.