FEATURE FILMS

trick 'r treat
superman returns
x-men 2
 

ANIMATION

season's greetings
refrigerator art
crayons
deadtime stories

Michael Dougherty must have been shitting himself all through BNAT. To discover that your film had been moved from the very desirable horror film Midnight slot to playing last in the same spot films like Fellowship of the Ring, Passion of the Christ, V For Vendetta and 300had played must have been terrifying. The audience is expecting something like Cloverfield, Iron Man or Rambo and instead they're treated to Trick 'r Treat, a seasonal horror film that was recently pushed back from this year to next. How the hell were we going to react? Disappointment? Rage? Polite indifference? Well, fortunately for us all, his film was up to the task of rounding out this year's festivities.

Trick 'r Treat can best be described as the “Love Actually” of the horror set. While many people, the director included, choose to compare it to the likes of Creepshow or Tales from the Darkside, this film is a lot more than that. Sure, during the 80's we had a great string of genre anthologies including Nightmares, Twilight Zone: The Movie and Heavy Metal and this film plays into that group tonally. But Trick 'r Treat aspires to be more than just another series of horror stories. In fact it sets out to redefine Halloween as you know it.

Much like Love Actually before it, this film is not content to simply weave a couple of tales and entertain you in short bursts. It wants them to weave tightly together, making each story somewhat inseparable from those adjacent to it. There is no story here that has no bearing on any of the others. And the tale as a whole has no clear beginning or end. It is 5 tales, some longer than the others, that each somehow further the mythology of just why we do the things we do on Halloween. Why do we give out candy, light pumpkins and wear costumes? Trick 'r Treat aims to give us a brand new mythos to surround those institutions, all the while cementing itself as a potential holiday classic.

And it is its pursuit of those themes that elevates this well above the usual splatter or anthology fare. It wants to tell fairy tales of the modern age, an interconnected series of visceral yarns extending their reach into the realm of urban legend, somehow familiar while remaining stories you haven't actually heard before.

This film was a lot fun. At times creepy, occasionally funny and almost entirely devilish. Now that's not to say that it is perfect. It is something of a twisty film, exercising a very liberal use of the classic Twilight Zone big zinger ending – and unfortunately a few of the stories have twists you spot an hour or so out. BUT, despite knowing where the story might be going, each one manages to stay entertaining, even when entirely transparent. And each ending more than lives up to the promise hinted at once you clue into what's going on. The power of each story isn't in its surprise, but its execution. And each story has its own distinct feel ranging from a slasher story starring a mutant child, to the virginal damsel in distress played by the ever-adorable Anna Paquin, on down to this very cool Steven Spielberg/Richard Donner inspired story with the whole kids-as-adventurers motif going on.

The vibe is definitely 80's fun, but the film never gets cheesy or corny. It is light and spooky, the kind of film I plan to keep around on DVD to run while I give out candy on Halloween night. Horror fans are going to have a ton of fun with this and I fully expect this to take its rightful place as the holiday classic that gets pulled out every year, much the same way Halloween was for many of us in our youth. It is a film very much about the holiday and its spirit, and it captures that wonderfully. How I wish I could have seen this earlier this year in the run up to Halloween, and I hope to God that the studio can keep this under wraps until Autumn of next year. This film could really clean up and is something for any genre fan to look forward to. Michael Dougherty has a lot to be proud of here. He capped off BNAT is prime fashion and he's got a film that will long outlive many of the horror films that will no doubt flank it next year.

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