by Brandon Matzke

Rating: TV-14

Genre: Horror

I honestly didn’t know if I could review this one. Not because of quality, but because of the R-rating. Thankfully, a TV-14 version has been airing recently on SyFy, so I can review this one around Halloween! Yay! I’ve got to say, I am a fan of this film. I haven’t met a single person who saw this film and hated it, and I think there’s some pretty good reasons why. So, here’s my review of the very underrated modern halloween classic, Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat!

PLOT:

Trick ‘r Treat is an anthology film, meaning that it has several seemingly unrelated stories filling up the runtime. Each one is filled with so many twists and turns, it isn’t even funny. I can’t spoil what happens in these stories, because it spoils the whole experience. But let me just say this; they all take place on Halloween night in the same neighborhood. In each one, there is a mysterious trick or treater known as Sam. We don’t quite know what Sam is, but he absolutely adores two things; candy and Halloween. That’s all I’ll say.

Positives:
This is a very fun movie to watch. Yeah, it obviously has it’s creepy moments, but it also perfectly captures the charm of Halloween. And while none of the characters feel extremely fleshed out, I will say that it is fun to watch them about 90% of the time. The other 10% is them being jerks. But even then, watching them be jerks makes their story’s ending so much more satisfying. Again, no spoilers. The acting is pretty good, but the show stealer is definitely Quinn Lord as Sam. At the time of filming, he was still a kid. And for me, that worked perfectly. It gave the character a creepy yet childish feel, and it definitely benefited it. Now, because of this kid, Sam is considered to be an unofficial mascot for Halloween. The special effects are great, and this film definitely deserved a theatrical release (it was shoved into the dreaded “straight to DVD” market).

Negatives:
It’s an anthology movie, so of course some stories are going to be better than others. The second story (out of five) wasn’t that good in my opinion, but, again, it was so satisfying to see it’s conclusion. I wish the film focused more on Sam; he was the spirit of the movie and all. When he was on screen, it was almost an 11/10. But he only had about 15 minutes of screentime in this 2 hour movie so… do the math.

Overall:
Trick ‘r Treat is a very fun movie to watch around the halloween season, and has rightfully gained a following among horror fans. It’s a blast from start to finish, and earns a 10/10.