First and foremost, thank you to everyone for taking the time to read and interact with my posts this spooky season. Without you, this whole endeavor would have been pointless. The horror community is full of some of the kindest, most genuine human beings I have ever come in contact with and I’m glad to be part of it. Horror is a love of mine and the fact I get to share it with likeminded people brightens my day. So without further ado…
Synopsis: Five interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: an everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband; and a mean old man meets his match with a demonic, supernatural trick-or-treater.
Yes, this is the same post (more or less) as last year because I couldn’t have said it any better. As is tradition with every 31 Days of Horror, I close out the month with my favorite Halloween anthology. Not much needs to be said beyond the synopsis pulled from IMDB. To me, this film is the perfect collection of tales for Halloween night. When the veil between the two worlds thin and all matter of ghoulies roam the earth.
I enjoy everything about the cult classic Trick ‘r Treat. It happens to be the movie I recommend the most around this time of year. There’s a killer stalking his prey, werewolves, ghostly children and a supernatural being that ties it all together via interstitials. It is jam packed with Halloween lore. It’s one of those flicks that has a little something for everyone and completes itself by beginning exactly where it ends. Tying the story up perfectly in a nice neat little bow.
Trick ‘r Treat takes you on a journey through the Halloween experience during every stage of life. There’s the introduction to the holiday via Steven (Dylan Baker) passing down traditions, father to son. There’s the unsupervised teen years with the kids collecting pumpkins to take to the quarry. Followed by Anna Paquin’s sequence basically showing Halloween in your 20’s, where the whole holiday revolves around sex. Then there’s the final sequence with Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox) being your twilight years. The time when the holiday starts to lose its luster. Then there’s the pumpkin headed, orange pajama clad child demon that brings this all together. Sam is the ultimate (somewhat lovable) antagonist who just wants people to respect the traditions. He is the ultimate personification of the holiday itself.
If you haven’t seen this film or even if you have, do yourself a favor and watch it again, it’s definitely worth the time. I’m pretty sure you can find this one streaming somewhere or if physical media is your jam, Arrow Video has released a new Trick ‘r Treat 4K edition on Blu-ray. Rumor has it, on the commentary Michael Dougherty says the long awaited sequel is already written and storyboarded. Just awaiting the right conditions. Giving us fans that little bit of hope part 2 isn’t dead yet.
5 out of 5
This October I took the opportunity to fill in some gaps in my horror knowledge and came across some gems in the process. The main thing I discovered is there’s still so much more to be seen and discussed. I don’t want this to end so with that being said, I will be continuing this exploration of the genre as a whole in some form or another. Keep your eyes peeled and follow me at my socials (links above) for all the coming details.
In the meantime you can find all my previous 31 Days of Horror posts here. For everything else, check out PunchDrunkCritics.com.
Happy haunting and have a safe All Hallows’ Eve!
