Blu-Ray Review: ‘Trick ‘r Treat’ is Shockingly Tasty Horror Anthology

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CHICAGO – From producer Bryan Singer (“X-Men,” “Superman Returns”), “Trick ‘r Treat” is a fantastic horror anthology film that has inexplicably been rolling around the Warner Bros. offices for years, having initially been scheduled for release back in 2007. Finally getting a Halloween-tied Blu-Ray release, this is one of the best straight-to-DVD horror flicks in years, a consistently clever and enjoyable genre entry that will have horror fans screaming in glee this holiday season.

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

I will never understand why junk like “The Stepfather” and “Saw VI” get national, heavily-marketed releases but something like “Trick ‘r Treat,” which has won festival awards and been buzzed about since it first started screening, won’t be playing on a screen near you this Halloween. This is one messed-up genre. I think if WB had found a way to market this film, especially with the star power of Anna Paquin coming off “True Blood,” they would have easily made back their investment.

Trick ‘r Treat was released on Blu-Ray on October 6th, 2009.
Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

But that hasn’t happened and “Trick ‘r Treat” is about to become a cult classic. In fact, the film has received such a positive response from the people that have seen it that a sequel is already in the works. Horror films this good eventually find an audience.

Trick ‘r Treat was released on Blu-Ray on October 6th, 2009. Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

“Trick ‘r Treat” isn’t your traditional anthology film. There are separate stories but there are no chapters like “The Twilight Zone: The Movie”. Instead, the stories are intertwined as writer/director Michael Dougherty flashes back and forth on one crazy Halloween night. It’s more like “Pulp Fiction,” as we watch one thread and then flashback to watch another as it intertwines with what we already know. It’s a clever construct that keeps the 82-minute film moving briskly.

As for the individual stories, they all feel like something inspired by classics like “Tales From the Crypt” comics and “Creepshow”. Most have a twisted sense of dark humor and usually come with a gotcha twist ending, although that element doesn’t feel overplayed like so many horror films in recent years.

The plot threads in “Trick ‘r Treat” start with a couple (Leslie Bibb and Tahmoh Penikett of “Dollhouse”) coming home from their Halloween festivities. She begins to take down the extensive decorations in front of the house and you just know that one of the sheet-covered ghosts is going to have someone or something underneath. Dougherty is already playing with expectations of genre fans and staples of the holiday.

Trick ‘r Treat was released on Blu-Ray on October 6th, 2009. Photo credit: Warner Brothers Home Video

The rest of “Trick ‘r Treat” features a high school principal who happens to be a serial killer (Dylan Baker), a young virgin (Anna Paquin) dressed as Red Riding Hood for the holiday but with a big surprise for her ‘wolf,’ a group of kids learning that you shouldn’t mess around near the site of a tragedy, and a Grinch-like figure (Brian Cox) terrorized by a visitor who really wants a treat.

Dougherty’s film isn’t perfect. A few of the gotcha endings fall flat and some of the dialogue could have used a rewrite, but it is an enjoyable, clever, briskly paced Halloween anthology movie and when’s the last time you saw one of those? And Dougherty wisely avoids the modern trend of sadistic horror, making a film that feels much more inspired by the horror of this filmmaker’s youth than the torture porn of something like “Saw”. Perhaps that’s why no one at WB could figure out how to get this crowd pleaser to the big screen.

Horror films that work this week are almost better off when they’re this mishandled by their studio. It allows the cult phenomenon to build and the buzz on “Trick ‘r Treat” has been deafening for awhile now. Surprisingly, it lives up to the hype.

And the theatrical branch of Warner Brothers may have screwed up the release of “Trick ‘r Treat” but the Blu-Ray is a beauty with crystal clear video and expertly mixed audio. The special features are copious and interesting including a commentary track, over fifteen minutes of deleted/extended scenes, an animated short called “Trick ‘r Treat: Season’s Greetings,” a school bus FX comparison, BD-Live features, and a holiday-based doc called “How Did Many of Our Scary Season Traditions Start?”

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]