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Aug '20 *
I just saw this On Demand, or possibly on Youtube, a week or so ago. It isn't really super super super hardcore or disturbing, like A Serbian Film, Mermaid in a Manhole, or whatever. But, I found that I respected it for what it is. It's just a horror anthology of overlapping stories, with varying amounts of comedic elements, and it is basically ABOUT Halloween, unlike, say, Halloween.

The way the movie is structured is pretty interesting. If you try to imagine a combination of Pulp Fiction and Creepshow, you'll have a good sense of what to expect. It has Pulp Fiction's nonlinear, out of sequence approach to presenting the (occasionally overlapping) stories and characters, and there is also a small amount of framing the stories through little intros that look like comic books.

The character Sam is a good idea, I think. He is supposed to be a sort of an embodiment or mascot of Halloween, like the Easter Bunny or Santa are for the secularized versions of their holidays. He isn't a massive, muscular, threatening or menacing figure... certainly not at first glance. He appears to be a little kid in a sort of an old-fashioned, cheap costume, with kind of a crude scarecrow-type of head. When people see him out trick or treating, they would probably just think, oh, there goes another kid... if anyone looked more closely, they would be puzzled at how he can see, because there aren't really any eye holes in the head... anyway, he sort of fits in, in typical Halloween scenes, and just seems to be an unremarkable part of any gathering you might come across on Halloween. You do see him without the scarecrow-ish head thing on, eventually, and he looks sort of like Pumpkinhead (which is good).

There are a few little stories going on, all of which show the things we all think of when we think of Halloween. The Sam character is not prominent in all the storylines, but he seems to be sort of a watchman to make sure everyone is observing certain Halloween traditions, not all of which I personally was even aware of... so, there's a pretty fair chance I would have been killed if I were in this movie.

Some of the storylines are clearly meant to be viewed more than once, because you'll only pick up on certain things upon a second viewing. Soooo... nothing wrong with that, right? I will probably try to watch this again before Halloween..... I don't want to talk too much about what the storylines are, because I would probably wreck things. But anyway... I'd give it two thumbs up! I hope some people here give it a chance.

PS One more thing. The ending is interesting. There are some interactions between Sam and a character named Mr. Kreeg, in the second to last part of the movie. Without giving too much away, I think that part makes more sense if you remember that Sam is definitely already aware of the characters who turn up at the VERY end of the movie, and he probably knows all he would need to know about their relationship with Kreeg. That is all! I now return you to your regularly scheduled life.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#1

Aug '20
Pulp Fiction meets Creepshow is a perfect way to put it. The stories are okay, but where this movie really shines is in set design and atmosphere. Not that the day of Halloween is EVER as autumnal as it is in the movies, but it's an ideal to strive for.


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Tommix says:
#12, Reply to #1

Oct '20
It is free On Demand this month, I watched it again. Some of the characters are definitely named after characters in iconic horror movies... I'm starting to wonder if they're ALL named after such characters, but it would be necessary to really do some serious homework to figure it all out.

This is probably just ridiculous, because obviously there is a fairly small number of common names that lots of people have, and not every name needs to be interpreted or placed in the context of earlier uses in horror movies. But, at least a few of the names in Trick 'r Treat are definitely homages to earlier characters, soooo... it does make me wonder.

Like, Mr. Kreeg is clearly inspired by Freddy Krueger, at least a little. There was even a dream/scene with a school bus full of doomed kids in one of the NoES sequels... part 2, I think. The Anna Paquin character Laurie is definitely a nod to Laurie Strode. So, now I'm wondering if there are some little homages that I missed. Like, the killer Stephen's kid is named Billy. Maybe a little reference to the Billy in Black Christmas? There is also an Allie who gets killed off really easily... possibly a reference to the Alice in the first F13, and/or Alice Johnson in NoES 4 and 5. Those Alices are both probably inspired by Alice in Wonderland, of course, by the way... the way Allie dies in TrT is definitely an homage to I Know What You Did Last Summer, but that has nothing to do with anything.


There's also a character with a nice smile named Janet, which could be an homage to Janet Leigh. The other characters... at some point I just have to give up and admit that the names are just so common I shouldn't even want to try to connect them up to anything... Sara, Danielle, Henry, Charlie, Chip... there's a Macy, I guess that might mean something.

Anyway, yeah. Had to speculate.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#13, Reply to #12

Oct '20
They probably did name characters off of popular horror movies. That's kind of a cliche thing to do at this point, but like you said, some of the names are also very common that it might not have been intentional.

I remember some movie examples where the names are blatant. Slumber Party Massacre 2 has an "Officer Kreuger" and an "Officer Voorhies", and Blood Feast 2 has a "Detective Loomis" and "Detective Myers". Obviously, that sort of thing is done for comedic effect in horror comedies.


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OnyxHades says:
#2

Aug '20
I will never understand why people seem to love this movie. I saw it once and once was enough for me. I thought it was so boring! I didn't like any of the stories in it. I much prefer Trick or Treat (1986).


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Box_a_Hair says:
#3, Reply to #2

Aug '20
I didn't like it on the first viewing either. In fact, I kinda hated it and loved to rag on it. Just came around to liking it, I suppose.


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OnyxHades says:
#4, Reply to #3

Aug '20
Seems to be nothing more than a mediocre antholgy emoticon . To be fair, I've only seen one or two anthologies I like, but this one for me was one of the worst.


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Tommix says:
#5, Reply to #4

Aug '20
OK, OK, fair enough... Did you dislike the Sam character? Maybe I am giving them too much credit here. I felt like Sam was very understated and intended to suggest more than is stated openly. I didn't LOVE the stories, I just thought they were an adequate means of getting the Sam character in there..... anyway, if you saw it recently, just see if it grows on you over time. Maybe it will! Or perhaps not.


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OnyxHades says:
#6, Reply to #5

Sep '20
The Sam character is cool. I'm just not the biggest fan of anthologies. I wish they would make a movie with just Sam. Would be cool to see what they could do with him.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#7, Reply to #6

Sep '20
Trick 'r Treat is almost a movie about Sam. He's involved in each story in some order of sequence, manipulating the variables of the night in favor of some evil outcome. He's also directly involved in a few of the stories.


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OnyxHades says:
#8, Reply to #7

Sep '20
Yeah, but still I don't like the different stories with different characters. I'd like a more traditional movie with him in it.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#9, Reply to #8

Sep '20
Why don't you like anthologies? I thought everyone liked at least a few of them, or perhaps tv show anthologies.

The characters in the stories are lame though. I do like how Dylan Baker is trying to murder kids, and I like Brian Cox in anything. I also feel that this movie isn't perfect and it takes some time to grow on you.


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OnyxHades says:
#10, Reply to #9

Sep '20
Mainly because the stories are usually hit or miss. The bad ones are so boring, but then you get a good story and it makes me wish it would have been the whole movie.

I do enjoy All Hallow's Eve that gave us Terrifier, but that one wasn't really set up as a traditional antholgy. At least, I didn't think it did.


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Box_a_Hair says:
#11, Reply to #10

Sep '20
I hear ya. Every anthology movie has a filler skit, and while I sorta believe that it's because people will prioritize it as the worst while it isn't even that bad, but I also sorta believe that some of these filler skits are just bad. I feel that none of Trick 'r Treat's stories are really bad, but some aren't great.

All Hallow's Eve was pretty good. The first story is pretty meh, the second one is really wtf, and the last one is hardcore enough to spawn a franchise. That's a good way to go about it, I think. I don't think a lot of anthologies intend for any of their stories to spin off into any respectable properties, so they settle on having boring characters usually. TrT has mostly boring characters.



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