Trick 'r Treat

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Movie
German title Trick 'r Treat - The Night of Terror
Original title Trick 'r Treat
Country of production Canada
USA
original language English
Publishing year 2007
length approx. 79 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Michael Dougherty
script Michael Dougherty
production Bryan Singer
music Douglas Pipes
camera Glen MacPherson
cut Robert Ivison
occupation

Trick 'r Treat is an American-Canadian horror film directed by Michael Dougherty in 2007, but it was not released on DVD until 2009 after it was banned from theaters.

action

The film features four interwoven Halloween - horror stories . One key figure that holds the stories together is Sam ( Quinn Lord ), a strange, squat-sized candy hunter. It is a kind of “reminder” for all Halloween lovers, so that they can remember the old customs .

Initial story

Emma ( Leslie Bibb ) and Henry ( Tahmoh Penikett ) have just come home from a Halloween parade from town. They decorated their front yard with numerous “scarecrow ghosts” and fake body parts. They have set up a jack-o-lantern next to the garden gate , which Emma will blow out when she returns. Henry advises her that she better not do this as it is contrary to tradition; it could cause displeasure from someone. Emma doesn't take his words seriously and finally blows out the lantern. Emma wants to remove the decorations from the garden while Henry goes into the house and waits for her in the bedroom. However, she does not come because she is attacked and killed in the garden by an unknown attacker. Only later does Henry, who had dozed off for a moment, go outside to look for Emma. He finds her head under the sheet of a scarecrow ghost, her arm and leg hang as decoration in the garden. Emma has a large lollipop in her mouth.

The director

School principal Steven Wilkins ( Dylan Baker ) poisoned Charlie ( Brett Kelly ) in candy after catching him trying to steal candy from his porch. Charlie chokes out tons of blood before collapsing and being taken to the headmaster's house. Wilkins finally brings the corpse into the garden, where he throws it into an already dug hole to be buried with another body. He got into a brief dispute with his neighbor, Mr. Kreeg ( Brian Cox ), after his dog noticed him and he tried to distract him unnoticed with one of Charlie's fingers. After Wilkins has finished, he sees his neighbor Kreeg standing at the window and calling for help, but ignores this annoyed and goes back into the house. His son Billy ( Connor Christopher Levins ) is already waiting for him there, because he wants his father to help him carve a jack-o'-lantern. However, it turns out that it's not a pumpkin, but rather Charlie's head. Billy asks his father to help carve his eyes as promised.

Among the group of children who had rang Wilkins' doorbell was Sam. Wilkins gave him candy and Sam left the property again.

The school bus massacre

Five children, Macy ( Britt McKillip ), Schrader ( Jean-Luc Bilodeau ), Sara ( Isabelle Deluce ), Chip ( Alberto Ghisi ) and Rhonda ( Samm Todd ), a girl with Savant Syndrome , go to an old man in the middle of the night Quarry. Macy tells them the story of the "Halloween school bus massacre" that supposedly happened here 30 years ago. The school bus carried a group of 8 children every day, all of whom were mentally impaired and were practically rejected by their parents as a result. To keep them quiet on the bus, they were all chained to their seats. One day, on Halloween, the bus driver went to the quarry instead of home, only to end her life there at her parents' request. He checked all of the children's chains again when one of them managed to break free and drove the bus over the cliff as it wanted to go home. The bus driver was the only one who survived the accident.

Macy and her friends collected 8 jack-o'-lanterns to set up on the bank of the lake for the deceased children. Divided into two groups, they take an elevator down to the quarry. Macy, Schrader, Sara and Chip play a wicked prank on Rhonda down there that panics her. Shocked by her reaction, Schrader finally breaks off the matter. Macy, who is very annoyed about this, kicks the last of the jack-o-lanterns that are still lit into the water in which the school bus can be seen. At that moment, Macy, Sara and Chip suddenly hear the voices of the children who died on the school bus and speak to them. In a panic, they look for Schrader and want to flee when they see the deceased children approaching. However, Rhonda is in the only elevator that leads to safety and leaves it locked. She drives it back up herself and leaves the others to their fate. As she goes up you can hear the children obviously being eaten.

When Rhonda leaves the quarry, she sees Sam, takes notice of him for a moment and then walks on.

surprise party

Laurie ( Anna Paquin ), 22 years old and a virgin, has come to town to attend a party with her sister Danielle ( Lauren Lee Smith ) and friends Maria ( Rochelle Aytes ) and Janet ( Moneca Delain ). In the beginning, they pick out costumes, where Danielle chooses the store clerk as her date. Later, Laurie is separated from the others until she receives a call from her sister that she has found a husband for her. Laurie makes her way to the group and has to go through a forest, where she is suddenly attacked by a vampire. A moment of shock follows when the vampire's body falls from a tree in the middle of Laurie's group's party, shortly afterwards Laurie herself appears. You remove the mask from the fake vampire and the latter turns out to be Director Wilkins, who has been looking for a new victim. The girls at the party suddenly start transforming into werewolves to eat their dates. For Laurie it was the "first time".

In the middle of the party, Sam can be seen sitting on the floor and watching the werewolves eat their prey.

Meet Sam

(this scene takes place parallel to "The Director")

Mr. Kreeg is a grumpy man who hates Halloween. He lives alone with his dog Spike. In order to express his displeasure with Halloween, he does not distribute sweets to the children like all other candy, but scares them with the help of his dog, which he puts on a mask with shining eyes and rushes on them. Kreeg hears strange noises in his house and when he tries to find the source, Sam attacks him. They fight with each other, in the course of which he pulls the sack from Sam's head that goes with his costume. Sam's head is a mixture of a pumpkin and a skull. In a panic, Kreeg runs to the window and begs his neighbor, Director Wilkins, for help. Again he is attacked by Sam, but Kreeg manages to shoot him (apparently) with his rifle. Kreeg dials the 911 number when Sam attacks him again, this time with a large lollipop that Sam eventually uses to spear a candy bar that he takes. Now that he has got his candy, he leaves Kreeg's house. Meanwhile, photos burn in the chimney of the house, one shows the school class from the “school bus massacre” and the bus driver. Kreeg himself was the bus driver who was supposed to kill the children.

Final scenes

In the meantime, Kreeg has taken care of himself, having been injured several times by Sam. When the doorbell rings for him, he opens it and gives all the children a generous helping of sweets. He sees Sam who is standing in front of his house next to a tree and sees Emma blowing out the jack-o'-lantern in front of her and Henry's house, which is opposite. Rhonda comes down the street at the same time and crosses it without paying attention to the traffic. A car in which the werewolf girls are in their human form can just brake. Billy Wilkins, the principal's son, sits on the porch of his house in a "principal Wilkins" disguise, handing candy to other children. Kreeg closes the door and is about to go back in when there is another knock. He opens the door and suddenly sees himself facing the children of the “school bus massacre”, who hold out their collecting bags and say “Trick or treat?”.

The Halloween customs

The character of Sam attaches great importance to old Halloween customs and it becomes clear in the course of the film that he punishes all those who violate this tradition .

The rules of tradition are as follows:

  1. Wear a costume
  2. Hand out candy
  3. Never blow out a jack-o'-lantern
  4. Always control your candy
  5. Never go alone

Emma blows out the jack-o'-lantern (# 3). As you can see at the end, that is exactly what makes Sam kill her.

Mr. Kreeg doesn't wear a costume (# 1) nor does he hand out candy (# 2). He is attacked by Sam and persecuted until Sam skewers a chocolate bar with a lollipop he took and accepts it as a candy donation. At the end, one of the children whom he gives sweets praises his “mummy costume” when he is already wearing bandages. So he now complies with both rules.

In addition, both characters who are attacked directly by Sam have in common that they do not like Halloween and express this openly.

Those who follow tradition have nothing to fear from Sam at least.

publication

The film went into production with the Warner Bros. studio in 2007 . For inexplicable reasons, however, the studio jumped off and dropped the completed project, the cinema release was canceled. Director Dougherty then looked for a new distributor to bring the film to theaters, but was largely unsuccessful.

In the meantime, the Legendary Pictures company had acquired the rights and wanted to bring the film to the screens in October 2007, but this plan fell through. Finally, a DVD release was discussed, which now also took place with the original distributor Warner in October 2009.

Michael Dougherty had closed the chapter Trick 'r Treat after this chaos and is grateful for the consistently positive reactions he got with the trailer and the pre-screenings at various festivals.

In June 2009 it was finally announced that the film would be shown in Germany at the Fantasy Film Festival . The DVD release followed in October 2009.

Reviews

“... a wonderfully old-fashioned ghost train ride, the individual campfire stories of which boast cynical surprises. Due to his earlier superhero scripts, Michael Dougherty was also able to persuade a number of well-known actors to collaborate, so that his feature film debut is an entertaining showpiece. "

- Jens Hamp, filmstarts .de

“With great attention to detail, director Michael Dougherty staged each of the four stories, and even if the classic shock and boom moments are rather rare, Trick 'r Treat fascinates and captivates with its very own charm. Every single story offers its own characters, suitably selected actors and of course unexpected plot twists and turns that don't make the film boring for a second. Coherent music and superbly staged, illuminated and designed images make the film an experience and give the production a quality that normally requires ten times the budget. […] The debut film […] breathes more than a breath of fresh air into the now very worn holiday and tells not only exciting, but also gripping and fascinating horror stories, which makes Trick 'r Treat one of the top horror films of recent years. "

- outnow.ch

“Formally, the film is composed in an original way and does not rely on quotes, quotes or allusions in terms of content. In return, he delivers some tangible twists and turns and surprises in his episodes, which, however, could ensure that the air is out after the first sighting. "

- Stefan Höltgen, Telepolis

“ Trick 'R Treat is the full-length equivalent of a Simpsons Halloween episode. Here, too, various episodes that initially seem to be firmly rooted in reality (as in the great 'Halloween' reference scene at the beginning) are driven further and further into the realm of fantasy, witches, demons, the undead, which unfortunately the tension also decreases in the long run. Nevertheless, Trick 'R Treat is largely entertaining, well done and told with a winking attention to detail. "

- Christian Ihle, the daily newspaper

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TRICK 'R TREAT on the Fantasy Filmfest website, accessed on November 1, 2014.
  2. ↑ Rick 'r Treat - The Night of Terror on filmstarts.de, accessed on November 1, 2014.
  3. ↑ Trick 'r Treat (2007) on outnow.ch from October 26, 2009, accessed on November 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ Tales of Hearts and Aliens on Telepolis, August 23, 2009, accessed November 1, 2014.
  5. ↑ Fantasy Film Fest (5): Thirst / Durst, Deliver Us From Evil, Trick R Treat on blogs.taz.de from August 26, 2009, accessed on November 1, 2014.