Trick 'r Treat as feels like an homage to time when practical effects and campy horror was accepted, yet more importantly, embraced. Standing as an anthology film, it consists of five short stories that intertwine with one another, revealing just how deeply so as the story progresses.
The film opens up with a couple coming home from the usual street party Halloween festivities. As the wife blows out the jack o'lantern and begs her husband to take down the decorations to prepare for her mother's arrival in the morning, he warns her about breaking Halloween traditions. Which sometimes come with supernatural repercussions. When she decides to start taking down decorations on Halloween night she must pay the the spirit of Halloween with her life for doing so...her throat is slit with a jagged Halloween sucker.
The second tale is of the local elementary school principal. He seems to be killing children and burying them in the backyard, all in the spirit of Halloween of course. In once instance when he answers his door he's covered in child's blood, but its authenticity is quickly brushed off by trick r treaters, after all, it is Halloween. Before long we see the principal's son ("Charlie Brown's an asshole!") descend into the basement, begging his dad to start carving. The principal holds a knife over the boys head...but when he strikes, the shot reveals that the principal has been severing the heads of his child victims, all the while teaching his son how to carve their faces like pumpkins.
The third tale is my favorite. Mixing vampire lore and werewolf lore, the tale tells the story of a group of girls looking for dates. When the virgin of the group breaks off from the rest to find a date, she becomes the victim of a stalker. Realizing she has no escape, the vampire reveals his fangs and the film cuts to a shot of her friends gathered...soon the vampire falls from the tree, wounded, broken and helpless. His victim shows up and we learn she was luring him the whole time. Werewolf transformations, feasting on humans and the stripping of one's flesh ensues...
The fourth tale is of three kids who are collecting pumpkins for unicef (BULLSHIT). They recruit and acquire a local, nerdy, Halloween obsessed outcast. With their strange new friend's wagon of personally carved pumpkins, they all travel to a stone reservoir. It was here years ago when a school bus, filled with mentally challenged kids, went off a cliff into the water, killing all the kids on board. The parents had gotten together and paid the bus driver to drown their burdens... ...later, the jerk kids pretend to disappear and reappear as the dead kids' ghostly figures, who chase and scare the timid outcast girl. When she hits her head and wakes up she's confused and frightened. Soon they hear real screams and eerie noises haunting, and begin their descent into torment by the very ghosts they mocked. Trying to escape. the kids become locked outside the elevator with no where to run and hide, holding her pumpkin, the girl smirks while her pranksters become just hunks of flesh.
The last tale is of a bitter old man who decides to scare chidren, skip out on giving out candy, and overall, being a jerk. However, when he's visited by the spirit of Halloween, he's soon reprimanded for his Halloween crimes filled with contempt for the holiday. The spirit tries desperatly to kill him but the old man proves to be resilient. He eventually saves his own skin by way of accidentally sacrificing a candy bar the spirit, breaking his anti Halloween tradition wats...the real trouble beings and when he sees the spirits of the school bus kids, appearing as if alive for one night, just to seek out their vengeance on their driver that drowned them.
TrT is shot incrdibly well and uses a deligtful mix between classic horror subjects, modern opinions on old traditions and preserving the spirit of Halloween.The film even seems to have a slightly orange tint at times, which of course, will tug at your Halloween heart strings. It tugs at mine.
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