Review:Trick R Treat

Originally suppose to come to screen October 2007 this film by Michael Dougherty had been delayed,delayed and delayed again before finally going straight to dvd in late 2009.Whatever reasons the studio had for not releasing this I will never know,cause hands down this is a damn fine movie(anthology) and maybe one of the best Halloween themed movies ever.

I have never seen a film that felt more Halloweeny(is that a word?)than this.The streets,the lite pumpkins everywhere,the costumes,the little kids trick or treating everywhere,the spooky cinematography,everything feels real and genuinely like Halloween.Just a treat...to watch.And its not just one story,its an anthology that all weaves together brillantly at the end.

First we meet Henry and Emma,a couple with different opinions on Halloween.Next we meet Steven Wilkins,a high school principal who catches a kid smashing pumpkins and his neighbor Mr Kreeg,a crabby old man with a dark secret.We next meet a group of pre-teens as they set out to pull a prank on the weird girl from school.And finally we meet an older bunch of teenagers who are trying to help their friend(the lovely Anna Pacquin)lose her virginity.Throughout these scene with get looks at a little weird figure wearing a burlap Halloween mask.We later learn he is Sam(from Samhain possibly)and is a protector of Halloween and its traditions.This little figure was the highlight of the movie for me.He is so smal,cute and cool looking,yet also kind of creepy and the reveal of his real face is a damn shocker.

All of these tales are woven together brillantly and doesn't feel forced or rushed at all.The acting is also superb.Anna Pacquin is awesome(her little red riding hood costume was the shit) and even though her role was somewhat small ,her character turns out to be something none of us would have expected.If you pay attention to some of the dialogue between her and her friends you can get little hints of what she might be.Steven Wilkins(Dylan Baker) has some funny lines and we soon learn what he is really up to.There are many little surprises for all the characters in Trick R Treat and most of them aren't good.

In closing there are enough scares and creepy moments to keep anyone interested.All the Halloween traditions seem to be covered in this as well,from carving pumpkins all the way to the stories we would hear about strangers with candy when we were younger.Everything just seems to work and it delivers the goods,which was a nice surprise because I had a feeling it might be too much hype...boy I was wrong.

yes thats the fat kid that was in bad Santa
9/10