Trick 'r Treat (2007)

A couple returns home from partying on Halloween night. The wife is not too amused, and can't wait to get her costume off and clean up the decorations so she is not embarrassed when her mother shows up in the morning. She blows out the Jack-o-Lantern despite her husband's warning that she should have kept it burning. Turns out for once the wife wasn't right.

That's because the town of Warren Valley, Ohio, has a number of creeps taking advantage of the holiday, both supernatural and frighteningly real. We are introduced to a father and son who have a strange idea of how to carve a Jack-o-Lantern, a group of women on the prowl who have a special "taste" for men, a group of kids who unwittingly raise a 30-year-old legend from the dead and an old grump who gets his come-uppance for not getting in the spirit.

There is no underlying or wrap-around story other than the fact that it is Halloween and all this strangeness tends to happen in one town. Thus, it is different than a lot of anthology stories. It also allows some of the stories that would not work as separate segments to work as part of a series of interlocking stories.

When I first saw Trick 'r Treat I wasn't expecting much. I had heard about it, it had a wide theatrical release, and my experience with modern horror films is that was enough for me to want to avoid it. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. Getting to watch it again (without a bunch of kids bugging me) was even more rewarding. I, like many people, enjoy watching Christmas Story every year on a certain other holiday, and I think that this movie may become the traditional movie that gets watched for my favorite scary night of the year.

So, as I reach the end of the October Horror Movie Challenge, I was happy to end it with this movie that encapsulates the season so nicely.

Edit: Just read this never had a theatrical release, but was direct to DVD. Pity. I think many people would pay to see this in a theater on Halloween night.

Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Duration: 82 minutes
Starring: Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Brian Cox, Samm Todd, Anna Paquin, Quinn Lord
Director: Michael Daugherty

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