Stop by your local Spirit Halloween during Samhain season and you’re guaranteed to find the annual pop-up store stuffed full of merchandise from the Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street films. These venerable horror institutions have been around for forty-five, forty-three, and thirty-nine years, respectively. Yet, right alongside merch from those classics, you’re also likely to find plenty of holiday goodies on the shelves from a relatively more recent horror movie, 2007’s Trick ‘r Treat.
A spry teenager, at just sixteen years old, Trick ‘r Treat has pretty quickly become an annual cult horror favorite. For many people, the Halloween season isn’t complete without a viewing. It’s popularity is impressive, considering it only played a few film festivals in 2007, then sat on the shelf for two years before finally getting a home video release in 2009. Within a few years though, probably thanks to streaming, it has become a perennial Halloween favorite with a pretty rabid fan base.
Here’s where I admit I’ve never been a member of that fan base. I didn’t even see the movie for years. Once I finally did, I liked it fine but was left asking, “This is what all those millennials rave about every October?” Recently though, after being reminded of the film during another Spirit Halloween visit with the family (in which the kids picked up some choice Halloween goodies and settled on costume ideas), I decided to give it another try. I’m pleased to say, this time Trick ‘r Treat came much closer to sticking the landing for me.
Comprised of a series of related stories, all taking place across the same Halloween night and interconnected by the omnipresence of an orange-pajama-wearing demon named Sam, Trick ‘r Treat offers ghoulish thrills and chills in the time-honored EC Comics or Creepshow traditions. The film’s various morality tales are spiked with plenty of dark humor and lots of blood and gore. The spooky autumnal visuals are a definite treat, and an aspect I really appreciated this time out. Colorful fall leaves line the suburban streets while jack-o’-lanterns glow menacingly throughout the neighborhood. If you love Halloween, you’ll love the look of Trick ‘r Treat.
Some of the vignettes are more memorable than others for me—my favorite being the one with future True Blood hottie Anna Paquin* in a delicious twist on Little Red Riding Hood—but the ways the trick ‘r’ treating demon-child Sam weaves the stories together is nifty. All in all, I have a better understanding now for why Trick ‘r Treat is a beloved Halloween classic for many horror fanatics. It isn’t afraid to be dark and sadistic, while at the same time it never takes itself too seriously. It plays like creepy campfire horror stories brought to life onscreen.
While I might never reach the rabid levels of diehard Trick ‘r Treat fans, I am glad I gave it a second chance this Halloween season, and I can see myself occasionally revisiting it in future years, when autumn comes ‘round again.
*Halloween season note to self: rewatch True Blood. Gawd, that series was a a trashy delight, wasn’t it?
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