{"id":37720,"date":"2022-08-15T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=37720"},"modified":"2023-01-03T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T16:23:09","slug":"bad-movie-monday-trick-or-treats-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/15\/bad-movie-monday-trick-or-treats-1982\/","title":{"rendered":"BAD MOVIE MONDAY: TRICK OR TREATS (1982)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This week we\u2019re gonna go obscure and old school. 1982’s “Trick or Treats”, not to be confused with 1986’s “Trick or Treat” or 2007’s “Trick R’ Treat”, is one of the weirdest slasher movies from the 80s, and that’s saying something.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Quick Recap! When COVID shut down everything two years ago, I started an online bad movie night get-together with some friends that we eventually dubbed \u201cBad Movie Monday\u201d. The premise was simple: We\u2019d torture each other every Monday with the worst trash we could find, tell a few jokes, cheer each other up, and in the process maybe discover some weird obscure cinema that we might never have seen any other way. This series of reviews will feature highlights of those night, so you guys can share in the fun and maybe get some ideas for your own movie night.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s hard to explain to \u201cthe kids\u201d today because we’re so far outside of that era, but slasher movies were EVERYWHERE in the early 80s. From about 1979 until 1983 almost every horror movie made was either a slasher movie or desperately trying to be one. Often, scripts with totally unrelated plots would be transformed into slashers. Because, well\u2026 money. Trick or Treats definitely has the feel of a revenge thriller script that was dusted off and rewritten to kind of\/sort of resemble John Carpenter’s Halloween, but who knows? I’ve seen this one four or five times and I’m still not sure if this is a terrible comedy that doesn’t know how to be funny or a terrible horror film that doesn’t know to be scary. The tone is baffling.<\/p>\n

It would be easy to dismiss director Gary Graver as a hack, but the man worked as a cinematographer for Orson Welles and John Cassavettes for f-sakes! Yeah, he did lots of B-movies too, not to mention he moonlit as a porn director making an impressive ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SIX adult films, but that just means he ought to understand how low budget cinema is supposed to work. This movie feels like the ad campaign for it was more thought out than the script. I understand the limitations of budget, but it doesn’t cost much money to write good crisp dialogue that advances the plot and create dynamic scenes that flow better into each other.<\/p>\n

That said, I have to be somewhat forgiving since the film’s budget was only $55,000. So no matter what you think of the film you have to admit that it at least gets maximum mileage and star power out of this minuscule amount of money. You can often see the cost cutting effort, although they’re not too blatant. The two most obvious is that the film stars the Graver’s son as one of the main characters, that and it was mostly shot at Graver’s own house. Still, his kid’s not a bad actor and the location is perfectly fine. So none of this is a problem. It’s no worse than a lot of other horror movies, and I might even say that it’s quite a bit better than you’d expect from something shot so cheap. The problem really lies with editing and writing. The film has huge plot holes, a bunch of set ups that go nowhere, and I can think of a million simple ways to improve everything. To be honest, I’m mostly disappointed at how wasted the cast is. Had this film been just a fraction better, I wouldn’t be reviewing it here today. It probably wouldn\u2019t have become a classic or anything, but it would at least be one of those cult movies that horror film buffs secretly dig like \u201cOne Dark Night\u201d or \u201cMadman\u201d.<\/p>\n

So what’s on the back of the VHS box? Let’s read it together shall we???<\/p>\n

“This sensational suspense thriller centers on a young boy’s Halloween hi-jinks and a true madman’s thirst for revenge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. and Mrs Adams (CARRIE SNODGRESS of THE FURY and DAVID CARRADINE of LONE WOLF McQUADE) are attending a Halloween masquerade party and decide to leave their precocious son Christopher in the care of Linda, a local babysitter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christopher is a master or mischievous pranks and continuously batters Linda with them, until a bizarre turn of events unleashes a true madman, just escaped from a mental institution, who treats Christopher to a trick he will never forget …and his babysitter may never survive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next time your doorbell rings, be prepared because it’s TRICK OR TREATS!”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oof, that synopsis is just full of outright lies. I won’t tell you what’s wrong with it, but I will say that I wish I\u2019d watched the movie that it’s describing instead.
\n<\/strong>
\nAlright! Now onto my favorite part, where I describe things that may or may not happen in the movie in order to entice you into watching it yourselves.<\/p>\n

#1\u00a0 The best way to convince people you’re not insane is to run around like a maniac screaming “I’M NOT INSANE!!!” while trying to hide in a tree.<\/p>\n

#2\u00a0 I love how the babysitter’s “apartment” is obviously a room in the exact same house that she later babysits at.<\/p>\n

#3\u00a0 Steve Railsback don’t give two shits that he’s in the movie. I’m not even sure he gives two shits if the camera’s rolling or not.<\/p>\n

#4\u00a0 Everyone is a pervert in this movie, everyone.<\/p>\n

#5\u00a0 Apparently, the best Halloween costumes for couples are matching top hats and fancy suits with tails.<\/p>\n

#6\u00a0 David Carradine is drunk and stoned out of his mind and legitimately flirting with the girl who plays the babysitter. I can’t prove it, but I fucking suspect it.<\/p>\n

#7\u00a0 The insane asylum scenes are… a disaster. Unless they’re meant to be funny in which case they almost succeed.<\/p>\n

#8\u00a0 I’m not saying drag can’t be scary. I’m just saying Peter Jason in drag can’t be scary.<\/p>\n

#9\u00a0 The babysitter is wearing the mom’s nightgown and drinking the dad’s booze while watching their kid. Babysitter skills: EXPERT<\/p>\n

#10 I won’t say the babysitter’s plan to defeat the killer is the stupidest one I’ve ever seen, but it’s in the Top 5. Jamie Lee Curtis may have used a coat hanger against Michael Myers, but she didn\u2019t actually expect it to work.<\/p>\n

As is often the case for movies I review, it can be found for free on Tubi<\/a>. So take a chance and have a little fun with some trash cinema. Invite your friends! Have a good time! It\u2019s like drinking beer at a frat house. It don\u2019t cost nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week we\u2019re gonna go obscure and old school. 1982’s “Trick or Treats”, not to be confused with 1986’s “Trick or Treat” or 2007’s “Trick R’ Treat”, is one of the weirdest slasher movies from the 80s, and that’s saying something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3070,12],"tags":[2951],"class_list":["post-37720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-badmoviemonday","category-movie-reviews","tag-bad-movie-monday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37720"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37728,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37720\/revisions\/37728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}