Trick 'r Treat

Michael Dougherty gives us something good to eat with his feature directorial debut, Trick 'r Treat. While several horror movies have been situated on or around the holiday of Halloween (John Carpenter's Halloween itself, of course, plus a few using the razorblade in the apple trick, like Night of the Demons, or the costume as a disguise, like House of 1000 Corpses), none have quite used the notorious date to its full potential: until now.

Trick 'r Treat is an expertly sewn bit of witch stitchery, blending five freaky fables together like a creepy cloak of subterfuge and shock. It doesn't hurt that Dougherty had nearly 10 years to bring this cauldron to a boil (the film's foundation is an animated short entitled "Season's Greetings") and while the end result is perhaps just slightly overcooked (the one-two punch ending adds a five-six, and is therefore somewhat anticlimactic… but I admit, none of the wrap-ups are superfluous) Trick 'r Treat is still super-sweet.

Exploiting the myriad of superstitions surrounding the holiday (beginning with the warning that you're never to willfully blow the candle out in a jack-o-lantern, and ending with the reminder that you should always check your candy before biting into it), Dougherty's original idea was to make Trick 'r Treat as a straightforward anthology. He wanted to do something along the lines of Creepshow, or Cat's Eye, using sinister Sam (Quinn Lord) as an interstitial character. But over the years Sam took on a life of his own, and now the eerie imp is integral to the story.

A diminutive creature, slight and about the height of a six year old child, but with a great, rounded pumpkin-shaped head that's hidden with a baleful-yet-innocent looking burlap mask (its only equal? The disguise worn by little Tomás in The Orphanage), Sam goes out every Halloween, armed with candy. Yes, armed… to harm! If you've never seen anyone brutally stabbed with a half-eaten lollipop, that is reason alone to watch Trick 'r Treat.

Every conceivable angle of Halloween is explored, from the perspective of young children who enjoy the free candy; to older kids who like to pull pranks; to adults who use the occasion to dress sexy and party it up; to the grumpy curmudgeon who turns all the lights off and hides inside as even the cutest trick or treaters knock on his door. The supernatural elements come to the fore as well, most notably the worry that All Hallows Eve is the night in which the unseen fabric that separates the living and the dead is at its very thinnest.

The cast, which includes Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Leslie Bibb, Dylan Baker and a slew of talented unknowns, is top-notch and could not be better-fit. (One or two of the younger actors are a bit iffy, but since so many children are cruelly killed in this hard-R fright fest, one can't blame them for being shaky!)

While there certainly is enough shock and awe even for the most hardened horror fan, Trick 'r Treat also offers a wonderland of wicked beauty along the lines of The Nightmare Before Christmas or The Corpse Bride brought to live-action life. The costumes are crafted with care, the color palette is bursting with the brightness and the gloom of Fall, and the score cleverly weaves the sing-song refrain of "trick or treat!" into the notes. In sheer prettiness, mood, and atmosphere, Trick 'r Treat compares favorably with Neil Jordan's grim fairy tale, The Company of Wolves.

It's huge undertaking, and a movie like this could quite easily burst at the seams like a pillowcase stuffed with too many sourballs, but Dougherty's deft direction is nothing short of a marvel. Juggling black cats, he brings a huge ensemble cast together with real cohesiveness as they cross paths, step underneath ladders and open umbrellas indoors (not to mention serial-kill, transform, and fight for their lives). It moves backwards and forward in time, not unlike Pulp Fiction (or, for those with shorter memory spans, Saw IV).

Add to all of the above the fact Trick 'r Treat is a horror/comedy which actually works flawlessly on both levels, and you've got one of the best genre films of the past few years.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson