Trick ‘r Treat (2008)
Not to be confused with the Satanic Panic film of the 1980′s, this Trick ‘r Treat is an anthology film of a few different stories (all very EC/Tales from the Crypt style) interwoven together, all taking place on Halloween in a small town in Ohio.
The stories involve a woman who hates Halloween, her overenthusiastic husband and a trick or treater that teaches her a lesson, a mild-mannered principal (Dylan Baker from Happiness turning in a great performance) who has a secret life as a killer, Anna Paquin as a virgin (with a secret) looking for a date to a Halloween party whose path crosses a vampire, a group of preteens pull a prank that involves the phrase “The Halloween School Bus Massacre”, and finally a story where an old drunk (again, with a secret) that is terrorized by tick or treaters. All of the stories are related or a least intersect, you’ll see characters from all the stories in the others, either directly involved or just in the background.
I may’ve just made this sound very boring, but I can assure you that it is absolutely not. It is wildly entertaining, charming, with lots of fun scares. Nothing too nihilistic here, this is the kind of thing that if it had popped up around 1987 or before, I would have gone bonkers for it. It is very faithful to the E.C. comics vibe that it is playing on, as good or better than Creepshow, with the same kind of pitch black humor. It gets right down into it too, no fucking around. Comes in at a lean 88mins or so. This is exactly the type of thing that kids and people like me will rewatch around Halloween for a while.
Strangely it was slated for a Halloween theatrical release in 2007 and is only coming out straight to dvd now in 2009. No one is really sure why as all of the reviews have been positive and all of the Horror fansites have gone batshit for it. Weird. Anywhoozle, recommended!
