Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Country: Canada/USA
Production Company: Warner Brothers Pictures presents in association with Legendary Pictures, a Bad Hat Harry production
Executive Producers: Thomas Tull, Jon Jashini, William Fay, Alex Garcia, Ashok Amritaj, Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris
Producer: Bryan Singer
Co-Producer: Peter Lhotka
Director: Michael Dougherty
Screenplay: Michael Dougherty
Editor: Robert Ivison
Cinematographer: Glen MacPherson CSC, ASC
Music: Douglas Pipes
Production Design: Mark Freeborn
Art Director: Tony Wohlgemuth
Special Effects: New Deal Studios/Bob Comer, Dan Keeler
Visual Effects: Rainmaker Animation and Visual Effects/Charlene Eberle
Werewolves: Tatopoulos Studios
Sound Editor: Anke Bakker
Sound Designer: Kris Fenske
Special Effects Make-up: Bill Terezakis
Costumes: Trish Keating
Titles: Christina Beckert, Breehn Burns
Stunts: Ernie Jackson
Budget: $12M
Length: 82 mins.
Cast: Dylan Baker (Steven), Rochelle Aytes (Maria), Anna Paquin (Laurie), Brian Cox (Mr. Kreeg), Leslie Bibb (Emma), Quinn Lord (Sam/Peeping Tommy), Britt McKillip (Marcy), Lauren Lee Smith (Danielle), Isabelle Deluce (Sara), Jean-Luc Bilodeau (Schrader), Alberto Ghisi (Chip), Samm Todd (Rhonda), Moneca Delain (Janet), Tahmoh Penikett (Henry), Brett Kelly (Charlie), Connor Levins (Billy), James Willson (Alex), Patrick Gilmore (Bud The Cameraman), T-Roy Kozuki (Bud's Assistant), C. Ernst Harth (Giant Baby), Keanen Schnoor (Matthew), Catherine Barroll (Mother), Christine Willes (Mrs. Henderson), Ty Hill (Nathan), Laura Mennell (Allie), Gerald Paetz (School Bus Driver), Zip (Spite the Dog).
Synopsis: As Warren Valley, Ohio celebrates Halloween, the school Principal goes about his night job as a serial killer, a pack of girls, on the lookout for boys and a good time, harbor a deadly secret, a group of school children search for the remains of a tragic schoolbus accident, and the local grouch deals with a Pumpkin-headed demon.
Review: It's rare for a Technicolor, Panavision film, shot on 35mm, to land direct on DVD, but when the film comes from the increasingly mercurial Warner Brothers (who also delayed Richard Kelly's The Box from March to November of this year), it simply elicits a sigh. Originally festival screened in December 2007, and appearing on many genre critics' Best of 2008 lists, Trick 'r Treat was originally cut in linear fashion as a traditional portmanteau film. Recut Pulp Fiction-style the film was again tested in November of 2008, before WB threw up their hands and released it for Halloween 2009 direct to DVD and Blu-ray.
So, is this the ready-made classic many genre pundits would like us to believe, or the turkey that the instant backlash crowd have been railing against? The answer is neither, but it is a perfectly serviceable and enjoyable fright film, that perfectly captures the spirit of the season, even if it falls flat as often as it soars.
First time director Michael Dougherty is better known as a screenwriter (X2, Urban Legends 3, Superman Returns), and this started life as a spec script, picked up by Warner and Legendary who each supplied $6M. Quite why they lost their nerve, we may never know (Dougherty himself has never been told, and doesn't mention it on the commentary track), but the film's main benefit, may be what gave them pause: at its best, it's a perfect evocation of the 80s horror movie, not overly violent, but nasty where it needs to be. In short, good nostalgic fun, with an iconic new character who deserves his life as a spin-off action figure.
Reminiscent of Creepshow, and Carpenter at his best, with a dash of The Company of Wolves and Dan Curtis's Trilogy of Terror thrown in, the pleasures here are many, but the payoffs to each story are a let down, with the denouements eliciting more shrugs than aha's. The reveal that the bad guy in one story is the protagonist from an earlier tale is muddled by poor camera angles, and one victim's head on a plate is undermined by the fact that he was clearly buried alive and kicking in the previous scene.
That said, the structure rewards repeated viewing, with characters from one story interjecting in another, and a cyclical ending that clears up an unclear point from the opening. For all its faults, Trick 'r Treat deserves a place in your player this Halloween, and for many more to come. Like the holiday itself, it's fun, noisy, sometimes annoying, but hard not to love.
The version under review is the Blu-ray, which does excellent service to the photography of Glen MacPherson (Rambo, The Final Destination), production design by Mark Freeborn (Black Christmas, "Harper's Island"), who collected leaves for months, and sound design by Kris Fenske ("Masters of Horror", The Haunting in Connecticut). Extras comprise a commentary track, with Dougherty, concept artist Breehn Burns (who created the comic art seen throughout), storyboarder Simeon Wilkins and composer Douglas Pipes (Monster House); "The Lore and Legends of Halloween", a 28-minute featurette; additional scenes with optional commentary; School FX bus comparison, showing how effects were added to a key scene; Seasons Greetings, the animated film school short made by Dougherty in 1996, with optional commentary; and a Digital Copy for download. Disappointingly, the DVD features only Season's Greetings.
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