Trick 'r Treat -- Review

Warning: This post contains very mild spoilers. With (subtle) guitars!

Did you know that there was a little movie called Trick 'r Treat that was scheduled for release way back in the halcyon days of October, 2007 but shelved indefinitely by Warner Brothers for -- word to The Killers -- reasons unknown? You do now. Usually, when a studio refuses to release a picture (a completed one, no less), it's because the film in question is an absolute piece of shit and there's no use promoting it because it won't make any money, and that's what makes Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat such a head scratcher, because it's a genuinely good movie, one perfectly suited for the Halloween season. Depending on who you want to believe, the movie was either shelved because Warners didn't want to lose a box-office battle with Saw IV and that franchise's legion of ticket buyers/slow mutants, or the studio, upset with the lackluster box-office performance of the Dougherty-scripted, Bryan Singer-directed snorefest Superman Returns, decided to "treat" Doughery's directorial debut (which Singer produced) with the same scorn an overzealous soccer mom might treat her son to after an embarrassing loss*. Whatever the case (and I'm more likely to believe the latter**), if there's anything movie studios love more than making a lot of money it's making some money, and after two years of exclusive screenings and subsequent Internet hype, Trick 'r Treat has finally been released for the masses' consumption.

Straight to DVD.

But whatever. Aside from reinforcing my misanthropy, my stake in films released in theaters and their box-office intake only concerns whether or not good filmmakers are allowed to continue making good films, and even though I'm sure, given a proper theatrical release, Trick 'r Treat would have turned a profit, perhaps how it all played out was for the best. After all, everyone loves an underdog story; and if early sales figures are any indication, Trick 'r Treat is doing gangbusters in DVD sales. It's simply a matter of time before it's ranked No. 2 on IMDB's list of the top 250 films, right behind that other little engine that could, The Shawshank Redemption.

Sarcastic hyperbole aside, just how good is Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat? Answer: damned good, somewhere in between Citizen Kane and City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold.

A throwback to some of the more fun horror films of the late-70s/early-80s (think Creepshow or The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh), Trick 'r Treat walks a fine line between black comedy and genuine suspense. Sure, it's gingered throughout with brief moments of gross-out shock, violence, gore, and nudity, but at its heart it's a film more in love with paying homage to both Halloween as a tradition and to rekindling the magic of childhood -- if your childhood consisted of growing up on movies like An American Werewolf in London.

I've read the film described, positively and derisively, as Tarantinoesque in its structure and tribute to films of the past, which is grossly inaccurate. I have nothing against Tarantino and his particular brand of filmmaking (I quite adore it, in fact), but aside from the loose comparisons of interwoven stories and timelines, Trick 'r Treat stands on its own in the pantheon of intelligently well-written horror films. Minus a blatant wink to Evil Dead 2, the film doesn't go out of its way to hijack its influences, and for that I am extremely handsome.

It's been a long time since I've watched a horror movie so well written and acted, one that avoids all the easy tropes of the genre and instead aims for storytelling over stupidity. Shawn of the Dead, in fact. But where Shawn of the Dead liberally spiced up its zombie narrative with comedy and charm, Dougherty's film opts to entrench itself firmly in outright malevolence, effectively dashing its gruesomeness with a lemon splash of droll.

Admittedly, I suppose a case could be made against the film for being filled with characters of no redeeming moral value. They're all pretty much assholes, some bigger than others; but isn't that in the spirit of Halloween, too? In that sense, Trick 'r Treat works like Big Daddy Kane, and I'm eagerly anticipating little freaks running around with box cutters hidden inside candy bars.

But only for one day a year.


3.5/4 *_*

4/4 *_* on October 31st


* No Dairy Queen!

** There's also a third theory that Warner Bros. was hesitant to release the completed film because it features -- mostly offscreen -- a fair number of child murders (as in kids getting killed, not kids killing others, although there's some of that, too).