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It’s been eleven long years since I first saw this horror film and, yeah, I am still talking about it. Why? Because it’s THAT good and it turns out that there are still people out there who are virgins to its twisted tales of morbidity. And now Scream Factory gives us a Collector’s Edition of this new classic. Complete with writer/director Michael Dougherty’s involvement, a new 2K scan of the original film, and tons of new Making-Of featurettes, Trick r Treat is back to knock upon all of our doors this Halloween season.
The horror anthology is nothing new; however, its success to failure ratio is a muddled affair at best. Only a few attempts have truly been pop culture landmarks and those are usually relegated to television - namely, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales from the Dark Side, and Tales from the Crypt come to mind.
Roger Corman had his run with a few anthology films. Amicus did their best to revive the spirit, too. Super low budget B-movies still butter their bread with it. When it comes to horror movie anthologies; however, there are historically (and hysterically) more attempts and fewer successes: Creepshow worked well. The sequel not so much.
So when a film comes along attempting to weave several scary stories together as one film, like Trick r' Treat does, audiences and critics alike join together in anticipation because we want to be scared, we want to laugh at ourselves, and we all like good stories especially when they are cleverly linked.
Trick r' Treat is that rare anthology film that we all should be celebrating this Halloween; it's remains that good.
Crawling out all fresh-and-dead-like from the corpse-ridden ground of the EC Comics burial yard comes this inspired take on the anthologized horror genre. Equal parts terrifying and funny, Michael Dougherty's script and film (based on his short film Season's Greetings, now included in the supplemental items) is the wildest scream-fest to hit your television set.
Forget any notion of renting and buying the latest Hollywood teen horror flick, this is the film to see this season. Sam wouldn’t have it any other way. {googleads}
Originally filmed (and screened) in 2007, Trick r' Treat is a masterful delight of murder and mayhem whose four stories of human bondage and suffering are linked (not only by storyline tie-ins, but) by a strange masked figure of smallish proportions named Sam. This masked figure visits all the locations of the film and goes nearly unnoticed until the final story, that is, the final attack.
In each of the stories (including the opening), we are presented with victims (or victimizers) that are dead-on archetypes of the horror genre; however, due to the tone and complexity of the storylines, they work better than any teen-scream gore fest. The anthology of thrills includes the following titled tales: The Principal, The School Bus Massacre Revisited, Surprise Party, and Meet Sam. Again, while these stories are separate pieces, the fluidity in getting them to come across to the audience as one whole story is a near seamless act. 
Trick r' Treat stars Dylan Baker (Spider-Man 2), Anna Paquin (True Blood), Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy), Leslie Bibb, Rochelle Aytes, Tahmoh Penikett, and Quinn Lord as the mischievous Sam. The cast, while the stories do intertwine, really don't interact with people outside of their storylines and that's part of the charm of this movie and script. This is tightly-threaded entertainment.
Dougherty's movie comes across as a self-contained nightmare belonging solely in the pages of Stephen King's Night Gallery; however, the honest horror is when and how the stories overlap to reveal something pitch-black and darkly dangerous about the real evil lurking in Small Town, America. At that point, Trick r' Treat becomes scary as hell.
So, let’s you and me take a stroll through the neighborhood again this Halloween. Sam will be our guide through this night of many terrors.
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[tab title="Details"]
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 82 mins
Director: Michael Dougherty
Writer: Michael Dougherty
Cast: Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Dylan Baker
Genre: Horror | Comedy
Tagline: Poison, Drowning, Claw, Or Knife. So Many Ways To Take A Life.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Always check your candy."
Theatrical Distributor:
Official Site:
Release Date: December 9, 2001
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: October 9, 2018
Synopsis: A high school principal (Dylan Baker) moonlights as a vicious serial killer; the quest of a young virgin (Anna Paquin) for that special someone takes a gruesome turn; a group of teens carries out a cruel prank with disastrous consequences; and a cantankerous old man (Brian Cox) battles a mischievous trick-or-treating demon.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: Shout Factory
Available on Blu-ray - October 9, 2018
Screen Formats: 2.40:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio: English: DTS-HD 5.1 lossless Master Audio
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A
What a difference a decade makes! Scream Factory’s NEW 2K scan from the original film materials is fantastic! The images on the 1080p transfer using the AVC MPEG-4 codec are presented in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio of its original release and absolutely explode with a crispness long since missing from the original presentations. The tones are natural and amped up on saturation and dark tones. The Blu-ray is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 lossless Master Audio and contains a good mix of levels for multiple channels requiring no tweaking from its audience in order for dialogue to be heard.
Supplements:
Commentary:
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Writer/Director Michael Dougherty is informative and amusing in his feature length commentary. It includes interesting tidbits about the movie that help illuminate the connections between each story. This has been ported over from the original release.
Special Features:
Scream Factory delivers the goods with this LOADED Collector’s Edition.
NEW 2K Scan Of The Original Film Elements Supervised And Approved By Director Michael Dougherty
NEW Tales Of Folklore & Fright: Creating Trick ‘r Treat – Including Interviews With Writer/Director Michael Dougherty, Conceptual Artist Breehn Burns, And Storyboard Artist Simeon Wilkins
NEW Tales Of Mischief & Mayhem: Filming Trick ‘r Treat – In-depth Interview With Michael Dougherty On The Making Of The Film
NEW Sounds Of Shock & Superstition: Scoring Trick ‘r Treat – Including Interviews With Michael Dougherty And Composer Douglas Pipes
NEW Tales Of Dread And Despair: Releasing Trick ‘r Treat – A Look At The Release And Fandom With Michael Dougherty And Writer Rob Galluzzo
NEW 2K Scan Of The Original 16mm Elements of Season’s Greetings – A Short Film By Michael Dougherty With Optional Commentary By Dougherty
NEW Storyboard And Conceptual Artwork Gallery
NEW Behind The Scenes Still Gallery
NEW Monster Mash – A Story From The Trick ‘r Treat Graphic Novel
NEW FEARnet.com Shorts
Audio Commentary With Director Michael Dougherty
Trick ‘r Treat: The Lore And Legends Of Halloween Featurette
Deleted And Alternate Scenes With Optional Commentary By Director Michael Dougherty
School Bus FX Comparison
Theatrical Trailer
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