In just one day the streets will be filled with kiddos dressed in costumes as their favorite characters, knocking on strangers’ doors to say, “trick or treat”, as a way to get free candy. Grown ups can celebrate Halloween by watching Trick R Treat instead of spending all night saying it. Trick R Treat is a 2007 horror anthology from Michael Dougherty. Over the course of the movie it is revealed that each story is intertwined with the next, the main similarity being the appearance of an adorable lil fella named Sam who dons orange footie pajamas, and a burlap mask. Although he appears to be a cute innocent child celebrating the holiday, he is actually a sort of Halloween rule enforcer who will pay you a visit if you don’t properly respect the traditions of the holiday.
I had never heard about Trick R Treat until I started going to Texas Frightmare Weekend in 2013, where I saw many people cosplaying as Sam, and didn’t watch it until about a year ago, after I had met Quinn Lord who plays Sam at the 2015 convention. I had seen mounds of people online, and obviously heard from the star himself, that Trick R Treat was one of the best Halloween movies ever. Usually when I hear something like that I believe it until I’m proved otherwise, but I was more skeptical about the statement this time around, and went into the movie wondering how that could be when the Halloween franchise exists. I was pleasantly surprised with the movie, and liked it, up until a certain point, then my friend, and I started to get really let down. When we were finished watching it we got on to twitter to announce how we were overall disappointed because we liked the concept of the film, but definitely thought it could have been better. I obviously still liked it more than I disliked it, though, because not long after I bought the dvd (L O L). I have yet to watch Trick R Treat again, but looking back on it, I realized that I only REALLY disliked one part of one of the segments, and that we were just over reacting in the moment because of how much it had been hyped up for us.
Hopefully I can squeeze a viewing of it into my schedule before the season ends, and you should, too!
Although I may not be the biggest fan of it, I did appreciate a lot of what it brought to the table, and can’t deny that it is obviously a perfect movie to watch for Halloween if you want to opt for a more fun, but still somewhat spooky flick.
