Trick 'r Treat

''Trick 'r Treat'' is a 2007 American anthology horror film written and directed by Michael Dougherty (in his directorial debut) and produced by Bryan Singer. The film stars Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Anna Paquin, and Brian Cox. It relates four Halloween horror stories with a common element in them: Sam, a trick-or-treating demon wearing orange footie pajamas with a burlap sack over his head. The character appears in each story whenever one of the other characters breaks a Halloween tradition.

Despite being delayed for two years and having only a limited number of screenings at film festivals, the film received positive reviews and has since garnered a cult following.

Plot

The film takes place on Halloween night in the fictional town of Warren Valley, Ohio. The plot follows a nonlinear narrative, with characters crossing paths throughout the film. At the center of the story is Sam, a peculiar trick-or-treater in an orange footie pajama costume, who appears to enforce the "rules" of Halloween.

Opening

In the opening scene, Emma and her Halloween-loving husband Henry return home after a celebratory night. Emma (who hates Halloween) blows out their jack-o'-lantern before midnight against Henry's advice. As Henry falls asleep in the house, Emma tears down the decorations; but is then ambushed and murdered by an unseen assailant. Hours later, Henry discovers Emma's mutilated corpse on display with the decorations.

Principal

Charlie vandalizes jack-o'-lanterns and steals candy from unattended bowls. When school principal Steven Wilkins catches him red-handed, Wilkins offers Charlie a candy bar while lecturing him on the importance of respecting Halloween rules and traditions. Shortly after, Charlie begins vomiting violently. As Charlie dies, Wilkins reveals that he laced the candy with cyanide.

Wilkins attempts to bury Charlie in his backyard along with the body of another victim, but is continually interrupted by trick-or-treaters (including Sam), his young Halloween-loving son Billy, his cantankerous elderly neighbor Mr. Kreeg, and Kreeg’s dog Spite. The other victim turns out to still be alive, and Wilkins beats him to death with a shovel to keep him quiet.

Returning indoors, Wilkins notices Kreeg seemingly in distress but brushes it off before something attacks Kreeg. Wilkins guides Billy downstairs to carve a jack-o'-lantern. As a twist, the "jack-o'-lantern" they are about to carve is Charlie's severed head.

Halloween School Bus Massacre

A group of teenage trick-or-treaters—Macy, Chip, Schrader, and Sara—meet devout Halloween traditionalist Rhonda. Macy leads the group to a flooded quarry and recounts the urban legend of the "Halloween School Bus Massacre".

The parents of eight mentally disabled children bribed their bus driver to dispose of them. Things go awry when a child dressed as Dracula gets loose and the bus is driven off a cliff into the quarry. The children all drowned, and the driver (the only survivor) was never heard from again. No one tried to find the bus as the people didn't want it found.

Macy leaves eight jack-o'-lanterns by the lake as a tribute to the deceased. The group splits up, leaving Rhonda and Chip behind. Rhonda gets separated and is then pursued by horrifying figures, which turn out to be the other teens in disguise—a prank planned by Macy. Realizing that the trick has gone too far, Schrader tries to comfort the hurt and terrified Rhonda while a bitter Macy kicks a jack-o'-lantern into the water. The actual drowned children, now risen as undead, emerge from the lake and attack the teens. Rhonda abandons the rest to their deaths as revenge for their prank. As she leaves with a wagon of jack-o'-lanterns, Rhonda encounters Sam and exchanges a respectful nod with him.

Surprise Party

Laurie, a self-conscious 22-year-old from out of town, joins her older sister Danielle and friends Maria and Janet for Halloween. The girls select princess costumes, while Laurie dresses up as "Little Red Riding Hood". A devout Halloween traditionalist, Laurie misses trick-or-treating and is uncaring of her friends' and sister's talks of dates.

While the other girls pick up dates and head to a bonfire party in the woods, Laurie stays and enjoys the town festival. Later, on the way to meet up with her friends, she is attacked by a man in a vampire costume.

Laurie arrives at the girls' bonfire with the injured and frightened "vampire" who turns out to be a disguised Steven Wilkins.

The girls shed their clothing and skin, revealing their werewolf bodies. Having chosen Wilkins as her first kill as he truly deserves it, Laurie also transforms and kills Wilkins before devouring him. Sam watches as the werewolves feast on their deceased dates.

Sam

Kreeg, a curmudgeonly Halloween hater, dresses up his dog to scare trick-or-treaters off his doorstep. As the night proceeds, Kreeg encounters increasingly unusual phenomena: The front of the house is egged; the lawn is filled with ornate jack-o'-lanterns; and the hallways and ceiling are scrawled with Halloween and Samhain greetings.

Sam ambushes and attacks Kreeg. In their struggle, Kreeg manages to unmask his assailant, whose head resembles a grotesque hybrid of a skull and a jack-o'-lantern. Kreeg shoots Sam several times with a shotgun, knocking him down. However, Sam incapacitates and corners Kreeg who fails to get Wilkins to help him.

When Sam tries to stab Kreeg, he instead hits a candy bar which had fallen on the old man's lap. With this, Kreeg accidentally "gives" the candy to Sam, completing the tradition of handing out candies on Halloween. Satisfied, Sam spares a confused Kreeg and departs.

Meanwhile, photographs burning in the fireplace reveal that Kreeg was the missing driver from the School Bus Massacre.

Conclusion

A heavily-bandaged Kreeg gives candy to trick-or-treaters and witnesses other people upholding Halloween traditions. Billy sits on his father's porch while handing out candy and enjoying himself, Rhonda casually pulls along her wagon filled with jack-o'-lanterns, and Laurie and her friends drive by while laughing to each other.

After Emma and Henry arrive at home, Sam sees Emma prematurely extinguishing the jack-o'-lantern and moves in to kill her as punishment.

Kreeg answers another knock at his door as the scene becomes animated as he is surrounded and brutally torn apart by the zombie children from the bus.

Cast

Production

Development

''Season's Greetings'' is an animated short created by ''Trick 'r Treat'' writer and director Michael Dougherty in 1996, and was the precursor of the film. The film featured Sam as a little boy dressed in orange footy pajamas with his burlap sack head covering, as he is being stalked by a stranger on Halloween night. The short was released as a DVD extra on the original release for ''Trick 'r Treat'' and was aired on FEARnet in October 2013 as part of a 24-hour ''Trick 'r Treat'' marathon on Halloween.

Writing

"The Halloween School Bus Massacre" segment initially took place in a graveyard and had the kids luring the girl to play with them. It was going to be revealed that they were all ghosts and that the girl had forgotten she was one of them. Dougherty ultimately had to rewrite the whole segment because he felt that the twist of someone being dead all along had become an overused trope.

Filming

''Trick 'r Treat'' was filmed on location in Vancouver, British Columbia. Originally slated for an October 5, 2007, theatrical release, it was announced in September 2007 that the film had been pushed back. After many festival screenings, it was released on home media in 2009.

Release

Theatrical screenings

The first public screening took place at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Austin, Texas, on December 9, 2007. Subsequent screenings included the Sitges Film Festival on October 7, 2008, the 2008 Screamfest Horror Film Festival on October 10, 2008 and a free screening in New York sponsored by ''Fangoria'' on October 13, 2008. Another free screening, co-sponsored by ''Ain't It Cool News'' and Legendary Pictures, was held on October 23, 2008, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, featuring a Q&A with Michael Dougherty and a costume contest judged by him. The film was also screened at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, the Fantasia Festival on July 29 and 30, 2009, the film festival Terror in the Aisles 2 in Chicago on August 15, 2009, and the After Dark film festival in Toronto on August 20, 2009, at the Bloor.

Home media

Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures released the film direct-to-DVD and on Blu-ray in North America on October 6, 2009, in the UK on October 26, and in Australia on October 28. Shout! Factory released a "Collector's Edition" Blu-ray on October 9, 2018, with all extras from previous DVD/Blu-ray releases included as well as new extra content.

Marketing

Comic books

DC Comics partner Wildstorm Comics had planned to release a four-issue adaptation of ''Trick 'r Treat'' written by Marc Andreyko and illustrated by Fiona Staples, with covers by Michael Dougherty, Breehn Burns and Ragnar. The series was originally going to be released weekly in October 2007, ending on Halloween, but the series was pushed back due to the film's backlisting. The four comics were instead released as a graphic novel adaptation in October 2009. Legendary Comics set the second ''Trick 'r Treat'' comic book, titled ''Trick 'r Treat: Days of the Dead'', for an October 2015 release date, and features Arts of Artist Fiona Staples and Stephen Byrne. The comic was released alongside the graphic novel tie-in of Dougherty's ''Krampus''.

Reception

Box office

As of October 26, 2023, ''Trick 'r Treat'' grossed $27,909 in the United Kingdom.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "A deftly crafted tribute to Halloween legends, ''Trick 'r' Treat'' hits all the genre marks with gusto and old-fashioned suspense."

''Dread Central'' gave it five out of five stars, stating: "''Trick 'r Treat'' ranks alongside John Carpenter's ''Halloween'' as traditional October viewing and I can't imagine a single horror fan that won't fall head over heels in love with it." The film earned ten out of ten from Ryan Rotten of ShockTilYouDrop.com.

''IGN'' called it a "very well-crafted Halloween horror tribute" and "a scary blast", rating it a score of eight out of ten. ''Bloody Disgusting'' ranked the film ninth in their list of the "Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade", calling it "so good that its lack of a theatrical release borders on the criminal." Jeffrey M. Anderson of ''Common Sense Media'' rated the film four stars out of five, stating that "rarely work as well as this one does, with its brisk pacing and excellent casting, and its alluring combination of prankish humor and sincere dread." He also noted that the stories are "admirable how beautifully hattwist and flow and snap together, most with little tricks and twist endings that reference other parts of the movie." Jim Vorel of ''Paste Magazine'' praised the characters' "different social castes and age groups" and, overall, called it "one of the most purely entertaining horror films of the 2000s."

Awards

* 2008 – Audience Choice Award, Screamfest Horror Film Festival
* 2009 – Silver Audience Award, Toronto After Dark Film Festival

Possible sequel

Dougherty announced in October 2009 that he was planning a sequel, but later stated that there was "no active development nor an attempt at a pitch." A sequel was announced in October 2013, but there was a change in Legendary's management. Dougherty has continued to express interest in a sequel but said the film stands on its own.

In October 2022, Dougherty revealed that he was in "active development" of a sequel with Legendary Pictures, although the film had not been officially greenlit yet. In October 2023, Dougherty confirmed that several screenplay drafts were complete, confirming that progress had only recently continued due to the end of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike. He also clarified that he hoped to be looking at budgetary and scheduling concerns afterward; while also stating: "I mean, I love all of our favorite horror franchise characters as much as any of us, but not all of them are great. And I know we've grown to love even the lesser chapters of our favorite horror series. There's always a cheese value to them, but if I'm gonna do a sequel, I want it to be as good if not better than the original, and good things take time. The last thing I would want is to see ''Trick ‘r Treat Part 9: Sam Goes to Space'', you know? Although that does have potential, I will say."

See also

* List of films set around Halloween
* List of cult films

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Trick 'R Treat
2007 films
2007 comedy horror films
2007 black comedy films
2007 independent films
2000s serial killer films
2000s supernatural films
2000s monster movies
American horror anthology films
American supernatural horror films
American independent films
American zombie films
Fiction about buses
Demons in film
Features based on short films
Films about filicide
Films about contract killing in the United States
Films about educators
Films adapted into comics
Films based on Little Red Riding Hood
Films set in the 1970s
Films set in Ohio
Films shot in Vancouver
Films about mass murder
American nonlinear narrative films
American serial killer films
American werewolf films
Bad Hat Harry Productions films
Legendary Pictures films
Films directed by Michael Dougherty
Films produced by Bryan Singer
Films scored by Douglas Pipes
Films with screenplays by Michael Dougherty
Halloween horror films
Films about poisonings
American films about Halloween
2007 directorial debut films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films
English-language comedy horror films
English-language science fiction horror films
English-language independent films
English-language crime films