|
Warning
if you've yet to see "Trick r Treat," surprises and plot
twists will be spoiled. Of course, nothing
is stopping you from seeing the film, since it's been
out for a few years now on DVD and Blu-Ray. If you
haven't seen it now, you likely never will.
|
 |
A shimmering
pumpkin lit from the inside as if
illuminated from the fires of hell, a young
trick or treater with a sack over his head
braves trick of treating the night of all
Hallow's Eve as we're treated to glimpses of
Missing posters hinting at the rash of
disappearances across the town our young
trick or treater is perusing. He manages to
visit a few houses and is met with a
mysterious figure who sucks him in to the
darkness and after splashes of blood and
sounds of beating, minutes later the small
trick or treater emerges from the darkness
of the alley with the body of his attacker
in his sack. The mask this young trick or
treater is not an elaborate mask built from
a sack, but instead his face upon which he
gazes back at the audience with an evil grin
welcoming us in to the world of Halloween. |
This
little demonic specter just wanted to trick or treat,
but in the process he may very well have put an end to
the reign of terror this figure has inflicted on the
neighborhood children, likely murdering them and keeping
them in his basement. This is both an act of revenge, an
act of karma, and about pushing your luck one step too
far, as Sam demonstrates in the final scene of
Dougherty's animated flick. This is our first glimpse at
Sam, and if you were lucky enough to view Michael
Dougherty's short cartoon entitled "Season's Greetings,"
you were introduced to the clever and wicked little
Halloween short where Sam glimmered in the darkness
proclaiming Halloween to be his territory. I saw
"Season's Greetings" on the Scifi Channel here in
America on their Halloween edition of their program
"Exposure." The show entailed showcasing short films of
all kinds from the fantastical, to the horrific from
various filmmakers, and even managed to display most
short films from Hollywood's most innovative filmmakers
showing the first short film that became the inspiration
for "Eight Legged Freaks," and Michael Dougherty's
"Season's Greetings," a short film I fondly recall
watching in awe and wanting so much more of.
| This short
became the basis for Michael Dougherty's
masterpiece of a horror anthology called
"Trick 'r Treat," a film criminally
unreleased in theaters that sadly became on
of the various shelf consumers among many
straight to DVD titles that many horror fans
are still woefully unaware of. For people
anxiously awaiting its release and looking
forward to seeing what Dougherty had to
offer fans of the holiday, "Trick 'r Treat"
met every single expectation imaginable with
a wildly sardonic tone, amazing atmosphere,
and an interwoven method of telling its
scary stories that made it feel like a
horror version of "Pulp Fiction" as our
characters mixed and meshed in an alternate
world where Halloween was the most sinister
night of the year. A night where the ghouls,
and spooks came out of the darkness to play,
and Sam would watch it all with his beloved
candy sack, and buttoned mask zealously
witnessing the madness unfold. |
 |
Much
like the crypt keeper, and the Creep, he's often the
watcher and probably the catalyst for these horrific
events that unfold, and Dougherty and co. manage to tell
a massive story filled to the brim with clever nuances
and twists that seem disconnected but are unfolded in a
very seamless and fluid motion that keeps all of the
characters within the title in their own worlds and
apart of a greater scheme. He doesn't talk or giggle,
nor does he pop wise, but surely enough he's very
menacing and makes for some ghoulish imagery. This
becomes especially apparent when we see Sam in all of
his gory glory in the climax, and it won't disappoint.
"Trick r' Treat" has taken the place of John Carpenter's
"Halloween" as my favorite film to sit down and watch on
Halloween primarily for its unabashed devotion to the
atmosphere of Halloween and its orgy of orange hues and
tongue in cheek humor that keeps the film feeling like a
wonderful little secret only the select horror geeks
know.
|
 |
While
"Halloween" continues to be the standard,
Dougherty's film is a celebration of the
holiday with jabs at urban legends, folk
tales, and Halloween myths, all the while
trotting out some genuinely great
performances from folks like Anna Paquin,
Brian Cox, and Dylan Baker, all of whom have
their hand in the pot when applied to the
madness Sam indulges in. Dougherty seems to
have a genuine passion for his project of
"Trick r Treat" and in show in almost every
minute of his horror anthology that strives
to pay tribute to just about every Halloween
tradition imaginable while twisting classic
folk tales to the wills of the wicked
holiday he so steadfastly celebrates.
From urban
legends, ghosts, revenge, werewolves, serial
killers, zombies, karma, Celtic mythology,
and even Little Red Riding Hood, Dougherty
tries to squeeze in as much devices and
clever nods to the mythology of horror and
the origin of such tales in ninety minutes
and pulls it off with flying colors using
the format of the anthology film as a
function to trot out the elements without
ever faltering and turning the entire movie
in to one stylish mess that delivers no
rewards for genuine horror lovers. While
many will take issue with my preference of
"Trick R Treat" over Carpenter's seminal
slasher film that popularized the knife
wielding maniac, Dougherty's horror film
gets top billing in my Halloween rotation
for the fact that in its deepest core, it's
much more of a horror film than the former.
|
All the
while Dougherty channels the the classic EC Comics
formula while implementing the fluid disconnected
storyline to his advantage where he can dole out some
wonderful tongue in cheek comedy and sardonic humor that
always manages to undermine the audiences expectations
and side swipe us with one surprise reveal after the
other in a never ending barrage of "Gotcha's" and
"Comeuppance" toward a myriad of characters who deserve
what they get in the end, and this is all thanks to the
doing of Sam who is the gatekeeper and key device who
acts as a manifestation of such evil allowing for an
entrance and exit to these awful misdeeds these
characters engage in. Sam is a character that demands
reparations and takes this holiday very seriously to the
point where we're introduced to the variety of tales by
a prologue involving a hapless couple who break the
tradition of blowing out jack o lanterns prematurely
which results in some headway made by Sam, and poor
Leslie Bibb becomes one of her many Jack O' Lanterns in
her backyard. |
