Trick 'r Treat - Collector's Edition [Blu-ray]

Trick 'r Treat (2008) is a horror movie that was completed in 2007 but never had a theatrical release. Instead, it went straight to DVD two years later, in October 2009. The reason why it was never released in theaters was because the critics felt it wasn't worthy of it and perhaps because the movie contains some disturbing scenes. I usually find a lot of movie critics to be wrong when it comes to rating movies. The critics are not right all the time. They are WRONG so much of the time. I don't know if I agree with the critics on this one.Based on the reviews, it seems that the general public generally likes this movie. I also generally like it. I think it was a good effort and a refreshing change from the typical slasher movies of today. There are actually four stories taking place at the same time that tie together. It reminds me of how George Lucas approaches movie making, such as in the Star Wars movies. A strong point of this movie is that it deals with the traditions amongst kids on Halloween night. Also, there is a brief mention of the Celtic origins of Halloween in ancient Ireland. I don't think there has been a movie since Halloween III (1982) that has dealt with this subject matter. Another thing - this movie's late-October-in-the-Midwest autumn/Halloween atmosphere can't be beat. The movie takes place in a town in Ohio. This movie has the Midwest autumn atmosphere that John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) lacked for the most part. When Carpenter's Halloween was filmed in May 1978, it was filmed in southern California. Palm trees appear on the screen every once in a while, along with mountains in the background (when Dr. Sam Loomis is in the phone booth). Flowers are blooming in the backyard of the Wallace house. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Carpenter did the best he could to create an autumn atmosphere in May in southern California. Hampered by a small budget, it prevented him from shooting the movie in the Midwest in the fall. Trick 'r Treat has everything that is Halloween in the Midwest - dry leaves falling from trees, the characters can see their breath (it almost looks like CGI breath), dampness, coldness, fog, tons of jack-o-lanterns and Halloween decorations, etc.This movie features four stories that play out simultaneously. I found that the jumping around from story to story made the movie somewhat hard to follow the first time I watched it. I have since watched it a few more times and I don't find it as hard to follow. One flaw with this movie is that these four stories occur during a very short movie (only 82 minutes). Not nearly enough time is allowed for each individual story to play out with character development and connect to the other stories in any meaningful way. As a result, the characters come across as shallow and thin and the overall plot suffers from a lack of development and direction. By the time all the characters are introduced in each individual story, you barely have time for a plot. I think it would have been better if this movie was a single story or two stories at the most. If it would have been, for example, two stories, the plot would have been better developed, characters would have more depth to them, and if there's a sequel in the future, the two unused stories can be used. I found that I never really got to know the characters or even cared about them. Near the beginning of the movie there are some ditzy girls in their early twenties who are trying on Halloween costumes at a Halloween costume store. They end up walking out of the store wearing the costumes they had just tried on and it appears that they might not have paid for them. These are shallow characters that I never cared about (though they were nice to look at). But in John Carpenter's Halloween, for example, I found that I cared for Laurie and Annie and Linda, etc. This was not the case with most of the characters in Trick 'r Treat. They're just sort of there. They're mostly teenagers and adults in their early twenties, along with lots of little kids trick-or-treating. The movie is called Trick 'r Treat, so naturally there is going to be lots of kids. But I think overall this movie was geared toward a teen audience. Now when it comes to my favorite characters, they were Rhonda (played by Samm Todd) and Laurie (played by Anna Paquin). Why???? It's because these two characters were the only ones with any depth to them. Rhonda is a nerdy type who dresses up as a witch and knew about the Celtic origins of Halloween in ancient Ireland. Laurie was a suppressed and innocent 22-year old dressed as Little Red Riding Hood.One more thing about the stories - I thought the stories themselves were somewhat on the weak side. The best story and the one with the best atmosphere was the one about the school bus. The worst one was the school principal who moonlights as a serial killer. That was just plain SICK. He's basically teaching his son how to be a murderer - kind of "showing him the ropes". And apparently the guy doesn't think the cops will ever see the hole he has dug in his backyard. The story involving the hermit was unique and reasonably effective. The one involving the transformation of the girls into vampires and werewolves was quite weird, though I did enjoy it visually.Overall, I don't think the movie was that scary. It had a few moments, but it seemed like a lot was predictable, like I've seen this sort of stuff play out in countless other horror movies over the years. We've all seen so many horror movies over the years that feature, for example, teenagers who are set up to die, but you never get to know the characters leading up to their demise. I put this movie into that category. This movie was also a little on the campy side. This diluted some of the scariness. I think this movie tries to be too many things at once jam packed into 78 minutes (82 minutes if you include the credits). It's a gorey slasher film at times, it's a comedy at times, it's a children's story at times, it's a teenager movie at times, it's an adult movie with nudity and sexual overtones, etc. John Carpenter's Halloween has all of these elements as well (Michael Myers is the killer stalker, PJ Soles provides comic relief, little kids have babysitters, teenagers are partying and sleeping together), but the difference is that Halloween was much scarier than Trick 'r Treat. This movie is rated G, PG, PG-13, R, and X all in one. Certain scenes have that Steven Spielberg feel to it, kind of like Poltergeist, while other scenes are like John Carpenter's Halloween or Friday The 13th.The musical score is pretty decent, but I don't find it really memorable. It's definitely not in the same category as John Carpenter's Halloween theme or The Exorcist theme, for example.I noticed that the woman in the beginning of the movie was taking down the Halloween decorations in the front yard right in the middle of trick-or-treating. Huh?Another thing I didn't care for was the foul language used by really young kids - I mean, some of these kids were 10, 11, 12 years old and they're dropping the "F" bomb like it's nothing. They're also making references to sexual acts. It shows how kids and society as a whole have changed dramatically in a short period of time. Now if these kids were teenagers who were 17, 18, 19 years old, that would be different. But it was shocking to hear this vulgar language come out of the mouths of such young kids.It's amazing - Halloween's popularity is at an all-time high, but it seems the horror movies of today can't hold a candle to the horror movies of decades ago. The horror movies of today seem to be either slasher movies or terrible remakes of classics. I give the makers of Trick 'r Treat tons of credit for coming up with something a little different with a great Halloween atmosphere. It's a good movie, but not a great movie. It suffers from being a short 82 minutes long, some predictability, and lack of character and plot development. I know this movie is destined to have a cult following, but I don't know if it's a classic. It's not scary enough and the score isn't memorable enough, in my opinion. At least right now, it's a hot fad. Just like when it comes to music, fads come and go. There was disco. There was punk. There was new wave. There were the metal hair bands. There was grunge. But I find that I always go back to the classic stuff. I'll listen to Black Sabbath instead of Cinderella any day. When it comes to horror movies, I'll watch The Haunting (1963) instead of Halloween Resurrection (2002) any day. Get what I mean?I guess I agree with Trick 'r Treat being called "The Best Halloween Film Of The Last 30 Years." In other words, the best Halloween-themed movie SINCE John Carpenter's Halloween (1978). Take this movie's outstanding Midwest autumn/Halloween atmosphere and couple it with a stronger and scarier SINGLE story with a memorable soundtrack and it might have been able to claim the title of greatest Halloween-themed movie of all time. The way I see it, the door continues to be left open for somebody out there to step in and put it all together and make THE definitive Halloween movie of ALL TIME, which would de-throne John Carpenter's Halloween. Can it be done?

After seeing the amazing trailer and reading all the glowing reviews, I was all set to buy this. Then I read the bad reviews and decided maybe I should rent it first...and now I wish I'd put the $5 rental fee toward purchasing it, because this is a GREAT Halloween movie.First, let's consider what constitutes a Halloween movie. It's a matter of opinion, but for me it's a movie that is either about Halloween or takes place on Halloween. Beyond that, everything else is just a horror movie (though I do pull out the classic monster movies for Halloween...e.g. vampires, werewolves, zombies, witches, etc.). So through that lens, there really aren't many true Halloween movies that are any good, and even fewer that are also horror movies. There are some great kids' movies ("Hocus Pocus," "Monster House," Tim Burton's stop-motion collection), but until now John Carpenter's "Halloween" was really about it.Then along comes "Trick 'r Treat" and the Halloween movie may never be the same! It is true to its title in every way. A treat for anyone who loves Halloween, and quite a trick because this is basically a kids' movie for adults. It tells the kind of scary stories that kids would tell each other (like "Better stay away from old lady Jensen's house...she's eaten three kids but never been caught!"), but adults usually shy away from telling stories where kids are as likely to be victims as the grown-ups. Not so with "Trick 'r Treat." Anyone and everyone is fair game, but it's done in a playful urban legend kind of way. The content itself might be disturbing, but it's presented in a way that's no more offensive than the stories your big brother told you when you were 8 to try and scare you.The overlapping timelines of the four stories (five if you count the opening sequence) and the shifts back and forth to different points in the evening works great...though I confess I've been trying to figure out how the four stories line up and for the life of me I can't seem to get the Halloween School Bus Massacre to fit. But ultimately that hardly matters. Putting all the pieces together that interlink the stories is part of the fun. And that's really what this movie is. It's not terribly scary, not terribly gory. It is a little creepy, oozes Halloween atmosphere, and ultimately is just a lot of fun.*** SPOILER ALERT --- IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE, SKIP TO THE LAST PARAGRAPH ***Every story plays on the four rules of Halloween: 1) Wear a costume, 2) never blow out a jack-o-lantern before midnight, 3) hand out treats, and 4) always check your candy!The opening sequence with the woman who hates Halloween is excellent and starts the movie with a bang. My wife and I laughed because the couple seemed to embody everybody we know, including us. Husbands tend to love Halloween, wives not as much. My wife puts up with my Halloween shenanigans, but I can tell you she won't be blowing out any Jack-o-lanterns before midnight after what Sam (the trick-or-treater on the cover) did to the woman in the movie!The Principle Wilkins story is probably the most disturbing with the most blood (or was that chocolate spewing out of Charlie's mouth?), gore, piles of dead kids and, of course, his serial-killer-in-training son. But Dylan Baker plays the part perfectly. He's demented, yet very casual about it. And funny. Michael Dougherty does a great job directing to make us feel okay with laughing at this guy when in any other movie we might have been too revolted to laugh. And it doesn't hurt that Wilkins ultimately gets what he deserves at the hands of the werewolves. But junior's waiting in the wings, sitting on his front porch dressed like his daddy, complete with bloody shirt and glasses!The Wilkins story line overlaps most with the story of Laurie (Anna Paquin) and the girls trolling for dates, ultimately looking for the guy who will be Laurie's "first." The least engaging of the stories, but still fun to witness the hunted becoming the hunter.I've read complaints that the Halloween School Bus Massacre was the least realistic and the least sensitive of the stories because how could 8 sets of parents all decide to murder their mentally challenged children? A horrifying prospect to be sure, and highly unlikely in the real world, but once you've suspended disbelief for the rest of the movie, this wasn't such a leap. This story of a practical joke gone wrong is adequately creepy though fairly predictable. The high point is Rhonda, the idiot savant channeling Velma from the Scooby-doo movies. She's a hoot and I hope we see her in a sequel one day.Finally, we have the story of Mr. Kreeg, the school bus driver who was to kill the 8 kids from the previous story so many years ago. Played perfectly by the wonderful Brian Cox, he's now a crotchety old man who chases away trick-or-treaters with his costumed dog and steals their candy. And little Sam's not too happy about that! The fact that Sam was played by a child makes everything about him that much more creepy as he stalks Kreeg through his house. I was a little disappointed the first viewing when Kreeg pulled off Sam's mask and we saw that he was sort of a skull-faced pumpkin demon (actually, he's the embodiment of Halloween, aka Samhain). It felt a little too B-movie, but after subsequent viewings he's growing on me, though he'll always be most effective in his mask.*** END SPOILERS ***So final word is this is an excellent Halloween movie (though arguably not as strong if you judge it purely as a horror movie). But if you love Halloween, no movie to date has embodied the essence of the holiday for adults as well as "Trick 'r Treat." Highly recommended!

Other reviewers have pointed out that this relatively recent film pays homage to movies like Creep Show and Halloween and to the feel of 80s horror movies. The interwoven stories in the film definitely recall that era and those viewers who have 'grown up' with 'Saw' and 'Hostel' will no doubt be disappointed and sneering.Personally, torture porn has no appeal to me whatsoever, whereas 'Trick 'r Treat' is an exuberant and rather charming modern take on old-style creepy movies. It embodies what 'horror' films used to be like, i.e. twist-in-the-tail tales with an emphasis on traditional concepts of spookiness and pure entertainment (rather than sadistic violence.)There is an underlying comic-book quality which makes it the kind of film the family couldwatch together. How old-fashioned is that concept! (You wouldn't show it to children below the age of 10 maybe?)Above all this would be THE ideal movie for the family to sit down and watch on Halloween. Of course you could watch it on any day of the year but if ever a film was made to be seen on Halloween this is it. Wonderful.(NOTE: If you have a blu-ray player the US import is region-free and will play on any blu-ray player.)

This atmospheric and beautifully designed movie is perfect for Halloween night. The horrors are "nasty" but not "gross". The stories are clever and well acted. The feeling of a night of mystery, fear, humour and "romance" is well evoked. No it will not deliver the extreme horrors of many contemporary shockers - it's not designed to do that. What it does capure is the spirit of All Hallows Eve and the blu ray transfer offers wonderful audio and video. So only purchase if you want a magical chiller NOT "Chain Saw Number 13" then you may not be disappointed. But be aware - it does have some very nasty moments too and is not suitable for many kids!!

Apert from John carpenter's original "Halloween", this is this is my favourite holiday movie. Multiple stories are brilliantly woven together in true halloween spirit. This is a region free disc even though the amazon description says otherwise.

Good bluray transfer for this superior horror anthology which went unreleased theatrically. Dolby TrueHD 5.1. Surround and 50 mins of extras plus Director's commentary makes this well worth checking out.

If you like horrors then this one is for you. It is eerie beyond belief and has a great twist to the stories. I won't give away the plot, but it is really different and worth a watch