Trick 'r Treat
Promotional poster
Directed by	Michael Dougherty
Produced by	Bryan Singer
Written by	Michael Dougherty
Starring	Anna Paquin Dylan Baker Brian Cox Leslie Bibb Rochelle Aytes Tahmoh Penikett Jean-Luc Bilodeau Quinn Lord
Music by	Douglas Pipes
Cinematography	Glen MacPherson
Editing by	Robert Ivison
Studio	Legendary Pictures Bad Hat Harry Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 6, 2009
Running time	82 minutes
Country	Canada United States
Language	English
Budget	US$12 million

Trick 'r Treat is a 2008 horror film. It was written and directed by Michael Dougherty and based on his short film Season's Greetings. Originally slated for an October 5, 2007 release, it was announced in September 2007 that the film had been pushed back. Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures released the film direct to DVD on October 6, 2009 in the US & Canada, October 26 in the UK and October 28 in Australia. However, it first appeared on 7th October 2008 in Spain, during the SITGES International Film Festival of Catalonia (Sitges Film Festival).

Contents 1 Plot 2 The Tales 3 Cast 4 Screenings 5 Critical reception 6 Awards 7 Merchandise 8 Comic adaptation 9 Sequel 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Plot

The film is an anthology of four Halloween-related scary stories. One thing that ties the stories together is the presence of Sam, a mysterious pint-sized trick-or-treater with a burlap pumpkin mask, who makes an appearance in all the stories, as a 'friendly-reminder' to those who break the Halloween traditions.^[1]

Nothing is what it seems when a suburban couple learns the dangers of blowing out a jack-o'-lantern before midnight; a terrifying principal (Dylan Baker) who moonlights as a serial killer, teaches one neighbor the true meaning of Halloween; Laurie (Anna Paquin), a young woman dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, is stalked by a mysterious hooded figure at a local Halloween festival; a group of pranksters go too far and discover the horrifying truth buried in a local urban legend of a school bus massacre; and a cantankerous old hermit (Brian Cox), is visited by a strange trick-or-treater with a few bones to pick^[2].

Things turn deadly as strange creatures of every variety — human and otherwise — try to survive the scariest night of the year^[3].

[edit] The Tales

The Opening: A couple returns to their home. In the yard, they have set up numerous "ghost-crows" (scarecrow-style ghosts) for Halloween decorations. The woman, Emma, tries to blow out a jack-o'-lantern by their fence, but her husband, Henry, tells her not to because it is not midnight yet and it's against tradition. She refuses to listen and blows out the jack-o'-lantern anyway. Emma also wants the decorations taken down in preparation for her mother's arrival the following day. After a little convincing from Henry, Emma agrees to meet him upstairs for some alone time. Henry goes inside while Emma starts to take down the decorations. As Emma takes off the sheets from the ghost-crows one jumps at her, and in the ensuing struggle they tumble onto the sidewalk where passing children witness the scene. Under cover of the sheet, the figure takes a bitten pumpkin sucker and slits her throat. The sheet turns red and the children run away as the unknown assailant drags Emma's body toward the house. Henry is upstairs, passed out, and doesn't hear what happened. Sometime later, he wakes up and sees Emma hasn't come inside yet. He goes into the yard to discover one of the ghost-crows now has lights. He removes the white sheet to see Emma's severed head on the stake with the same sucker used to kill her lodged in her mouth.

1. "The Principal" - A boy walks through the neighborhood knocking over jack-o'-lanterns. He walks up the porch of a house to see no one is home. On the porch sits a bucket full of candy with a note that says to take only one. He begins to put the entire contents of the bucket in his bag when someone startles him from behind. The boy recognizes him as Principal Wilkins and Wilkins recognizes the boy to be Charlie. Wilkins, whose house Charlie was stealing candy from, sits Charlie down to have a little chat about the rules of Halloween. After Charlie has a piece of candy given by Wilkins, he begins to vomit up blood and chocolate and Wilkins exclaims the first rule of Halloween, "always check your candy." Charlie then passes out and seemingly dies from the poison candy. Wilkins drags Charlie into his house when the doorbell rings. Struggling with Charlie's body he opens the door to three teenagers asking if they can take his jack-o'-lantern; along with a mysterious boy in footed pajamas and a large hood with buttons for eyes (Sam). He agrees and also gives them candy. Wilkins then takes Charlie's body into his back yard, where a grave has been dug. Another child's body occupies the grave as he pushes Charlie into it. While he tries to bury the remains, his son, Billy, from a second story window, loudly announces that he still needs to help him with his jack-o'-lantern, but Wilkins tells him to be quiet and wait. After Billy leaves, Wilkins continues to bury the bodies when the neighbor's dog starts barking. At the same time, the body that was already in the grave begins to move and moan. Wilkins enters the grave and stomps the boy quiet. The dog continues to bark so Wilkins, with his shovel, takes off one of the dead boy's fingers and throws it over the fence. The dog quiets down but his neighbor, Mr. Kreeg, comes out to see what is going on. Wilkins stomps the struggling boy a final time after he stirs again, temporarily ending the struggle between them as he talks to Kreeg. Kreeg leaves and Wilkins smashes the skull of the moving boy in and finishes burying the bodies. Some time later, Wilkins is about to go back inside his house when he sees Kreeg calling for help through a window next door, but Wilkins ignores him and Kreeg is seen tackled by something. Once Wilkins is back in his kitchen, Billy asks again to help him with his jack-o'-lantern. Seemingly annoyed, Wilkins grabs a knife and follows Billy down to the basement. Billy runs ahead and sits in front of a table with tools on it with Wilkins behind him. Wilkins then takes the knife, places his hand on Billy's head, and stabs down. He pulls the knife back and it has blood on it, but Billy is still alive. The "jack-o'-lantern" he stabbed is actually Charlie’s severed head on a wooden turntable. Billy turns to Wilkins and says, "Don't forget to help me with the eyes."

2."The School Bus Massacre Revisited" - Four teenagers, Macy, Schrader, Sara and Chip, have been going around trying to collect jack-o'-lanterns. They stop at the home of a somewhat nerdy girl named Rhonda, whose front yard is decorated with dozens of hand-carved jack-o'-lanterns. Schrader asks her if they can borrow some of her pumpkins, and they invite her along on their trip. She agrees and the five arrive at their destination, an abandoned rock quarry on the other side of town, which is the location of a local legend, "The Halloween School Bus Massacre". Macy explains that 30 years ago a school bus was driven into the quarry and crashed into the lake at the bottom. The bus had on board eight children, all mentally challenged and disturbed, whose parents sent them to a school outside of town. The children were so disturbed they were chained to their seats as they rode the bus. Their parents could no longer stand the strain and humiliation of caring for them, so they paid the bus driver to take them to the rock quarry and crash the bus. As the driver went around checking each child's restraints, one managed to get free and tried to drive the bus "home". Before the driver could stop him he was tripped by one of the other children and the bus was driven into the lake. The driver survived but was never heard from again, and the bus was never recovered. Macy goes on to explain that they've collected eight pumpkins for each of the kids who died on the bus as a tribute. The first to go down are Macy, Sara and Schrader, since the rickety elevator that goes to the bottom of the quarry can only hold three at a time. As Rhonda and Chip go down next, they hear the other three scream in terror and watch as their jack-o'-lanterns suddenly go out in the mist below. Rhonda goes to investigate, leaving Chip in the elevator, and she sees the half-submerged school bus sticking out of the water with a few Halloween masks floating nearby. She's suddenly attacked by two water-drenched zombies and witnesses another disemboweling Chip. As the creatures chase her, Rhonda falls backwards and hits her head on a rock, blacking out. When she comes to, she learns that it was all a cruel prank created by the other four. Schrader tries to apologize and offer comfort to a sobbing and frightened Rhonda as the others go to clean up. The other three begin to hear whispers and giggling coming from the lake. Schrader leaves Rhonda by herself when he hears screaming. They watch as the children who died in the school bus emerge from the water, laughing and giggling and still bearing their shackles. They try to run for the elevator, but Sara is caught by the chains from her costume and dragged away. As Macy, Schrader and Chip reach the elevator they beg Rhonda to unlock the door and let them in. Instead, Rhonda turns the elevator on and waves goodbye to them as the school bus children surround all three. Rhonda silently departs, towing a jack-o'-lantern in a wagon past Sam as she hears Macy, Schrader and Chip screaming for their lives and being torn apart.

3."Surprise Party" - Laurie is a 22-year-old "virgin" who is always very nervous and self-conscious. Her older sister Danielle and her friends try to boost her confidence by taking her to a party. The girls all dress in fairytale costumes, with Laurie dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. Along the way Danielle and the other girls pick up dates, but Laurie chooses to walk through the woods alone instead. Meanwhile, a mysterious masked man is making out with a young woman in an alley. After he kisses her neck she sees that she is bleeding. The man smiles and shows off a set of vampire fangs. The girl then runs away. Emerging from the alley, she falls and tries to ask a couple (Emma and Henry) walking past for help. Emma and Henry walk away, because they think the bleeding woman is drunk and joking when they see a group of people in costume blood nearby. The young woman turns and screams as the hooded and masked vampire proceeds to kill her under his cloak. He leaves her by some other drunk partygoers passed out by the side of a building. The girls at the party are having fun but Danielle, standing alone, worries about Laurie. As Laurie walks down a dark and narrow path in the woods, she turns around and is scared by the vampire. He closes in on Laurie and bites her neck. At the party the girls are suddenly startled when a body wrapped in a red cloak falls from the tree. The girls hesitantly take off the hood to see the bleeding vampire begging for help. One of the girls takes off the mask to reveal Principal Wilkins. Laurie appears and she assures her sister she is okay. One of the girls takes Wilkins' fangs to see they are fake. In shock, Wilkins looks around and sees that all the girls' dates are dead. He tries to escape but he has a compound fracture in his leg and cannot move. Danielle reassures Laurie about what she is about to do. Laurie sits on top of Wilkins. The girls all begin to dance sensually as they expose fangs and rip off their skin to expose fur and other wolf features. Laurie begins to change as well. Laurie leans down and whispers in Wilkins' ear then proceeds to rip open his neck, and the werewolf girls, fully transformed, begin to eat their dates' remains. Nearby, Danielle, in wolf form, howls at the moon. Looking on at the scene sitting on a log is Sam.

4. "Meet Sam" - Three children walk up the porch of a house with no Halloween decorations and knock on the door. The door opens to reveal darkness. Suddenly two glowing eyes pop up in the darkness and growling is heard. The children run away as Kreeg comes out to call for his dog, Spite. He picks up the dog to reveal that Spite is wearing a costume with glowing eyes. He picks up the children's dropped candy and goes back inside. Kreeg proceeds to burn some old pictures in his fireplace and goes to watch TV. He sits down and takes a bite out of a candy bar; disgusted, he puts it on the stand next to him and takes a swig from a mostly empty liquor bottle. He flips through the channels and quickly turns anything that has to do with Halloween. He shuts off his TV when he hears Spite barking outside. Kreeg goes to investigate when an egg hits his window. Startled and angry, he goes and gets his baseball bat. He steps outside to see his whole lawn decorated with dozens of jack-o'-lanterns. He calls for Spite to come back in but Spite is chewing on a finger. Kreeg investigates and confronts Wilkins about what he is doing. After they talk Kreeg goes back inside when he hears Spite barking upstairs. He thinks better of the bat and instead grabs his shotgun above the fireplace. As he approaches the stairs, Spite is heard yelping upstairs and then becomes silent. Kreeg proceeds up to a room at the end of the hallway. He opens the door to reveal his bedroom and something moving under the covers. He pulls them back to reveal a mechanical hand. As he examines it, fire suddenly erupts from a jack-o'-lantern in the corner of the room, revealing that 'Trick 'r Treat' and other Halloween sayings cover his walls. He turns and is cut on his leg by something under the bed. He drops to his knees and turns to see Sam. Sam lifts up a candy bar to reveal it contains a razor blade. He goes after Kreeg, who escapes, only to slip on several pieces of candy and fall down the stairs; as he attempts to stand, his hands are cut on broken glass and razor blades mixed within the candy. At the bottom Kreeg struggles against Sam but manages to get away again. He then goes to a nearby window and calls for help, yelling at Wilkins next door. Sam then tackles Kreeg and they struggle as Kreeg rips off Sam's mask. It is revealed that he's not a normal trick or treater, but is instead a monster/demon with a head resembling a cross between a jack-o-lantern and a skull. Kreeg gains the upper hand when he manages to fire his shotgun at Sam. Sam sails across the room and hits the door, seemingly dead. Kreeg walks up to him and fires twice more, severing Sam's hand. Kreeg then picks up a nearby phone and calls 911 when the line goes dead. Kreeg screams in pain as he is cut on his leg again. He looks back to see Sam's hand has come alive. It crawls back to Sam, who comes back to life as Kreeg stumbles to get away, knocking over everything near the TV. Sam pulls out a large pumpkin shaped sucker and takes a bite out of it, making a sharp edge. He then moves to stab Kreeg, but instead stabs the candy bar Kreeg discarded earlier, which is lying on his chest. Sam proceeds to eat the candy bar and then leaves the house, a puzzled Kreeg looking on. Meanwhile, the pictures in the fireplace are not all burnt and a class photo of the children from the bus accident and the bus driver, Kreeg himself, sit next to the flames.

Later on Kreeg's doorbell rings and he comes out, bandaged and bruised from his encounter with Sam, to give candy to some children. While on his porch he sees Sam go to Emma and Henry's house just as she is blowing out the jack-o'-lantern. Rhonda then walks across the street pulling the wagon and is almost hit by, and ignores, the laughing, human-form werewolf girls in their car. Billy is sitting on his porch handing out candy wearing a "Principal Wilkins" costume. Kreeg then walks back inside when the bell rings again. He opens the door and the kids from the bus massacre are standing there. With their bags outstretched, the child who drove the bus into the lake says, "Trick 'r Treat", and the live action scene switches to a view of comic book pages briefly showing the bus driver's fate at the hands of the zombie children.

[edit] Cast

• Quinn Lord as Sam
• Brian Cox as Mr. Kreeg
• Dylan Baker as Steven Wilkins
• Connor Christopher Levins as Billy Wilkins
• Anna Paquin as Laurie
• Leslie Bibb as Emma
• Rochelle Aytes as Maria
• Moneca Delain as Janet
• Tahmoh Penikett as Henry
• Lauren Lee Smith as Danielle
• Samm Todd as Rhonda
• Britt McKillip as Macy
• Isabelle Deluce as Sara
• Jean-Luc Bilodeau as Schrader
• Alberto Ghisi as Chip
• Brett Kelly as Charlie
• Christine Willes as Mrs. Henderson
• Patrick Gilmore as Bud
• C. Ernst Harth as Giant Baby

[edit] Screenings

The first public screening took place at Harry Knowles' Butt-Numb-A-Thon film festival in Austin, Texas, on December 9, 2007. Subsequent screenings included the 2008 Los Angeles Screamfest on October 10, 2008, a free screening in New York sponsored by Fangoria Magazine on October 13, 2008, and another free screening in Los Angeles co-sponsored by Ain't It Cool News and Legendary Pictures on October 23, 2008. The film was also screened at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. The film was also screened during the Montreal Fantasia Festival on July 29 and 30, 2009 as well as at the film festival Terror In The Aisles 2 in Chicago, IL on August 15, 2009.^[4] It was also screened at the After Dark film festival in Toronto on August 20, 2009, at The Bloor. The movie was screened at the first annual Long Beach Comic Con in southern California on October 3, 2009. Trick 'r Treat will also be screened at the upcoming Silver Scream Film Festival at the University of Southern Indiana, October 30, 2009.

It is currently available for purchase via Virgin Media's FilmFlex.^[5]

[edit] Critical reception

Based on 17 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 88%, with an average score of 7.7/10.^[6]

Despite only a handful of public screenings, the film has been reviewed extensively by online journalists and bloggers, especially in the genre/horror communities, and reviews are nearly unanimously positive. Dread Central gave it five out of five stars and stated "Trick 'r Treat ranks alongside John Carpenter's Halloween as traditional October viewing and I can't imagine a single horror fan that won't fall head over heels in love with it."^[7] The film earned a 10 out of 10 from Ryan Rotten of ShockTilYouDrop.com.^[8] It also earned an 8 out of 10 from Bloody-Disgusting.com.^[9] IGN attended a screening of the film and concluded, "This well-crafted Halloween horror tribute is a scary blast.", rating it a 8/10 overall.^[10]

[edit] Awards

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

• 2008 - Audience Choice Award, Los Angeles Screamfest
• 2009 - Silver Audience Award, Toronto After Dark Film Festival

[edit] Merchandise

• Sideshow Collectibles created a 15" vinyl figure based on the film's scarecrow-like character Sam.

• National Entertainment Collectibles Association (aka NECA) has licensed numerous categories for the film. Recently a 5 1/2" scale figure of Sam has been released as part of NECA's "Cult Classics" line of movie figures. The figure includes a stand, pumpkins, "candybar," lollipop, sack, and interchangeable, uncovered head.^[11]

• Palace Press and Insight Editions published a 108-page coffee table book entitled Trick 'r Treat: Tales of Mayhem, Mystery & Mischief. It documents the making of the film, and includes storyboards, concept art, cast and crew biographies, and behind-the-scenes photographs.

[edit] Comic adaptation

DC Comics partner Wildstorm Comics had planned to release a four-issue adaptation of Trick 'r Treat written by Marc Andreyko and illustrated by Fiona Staples, with covers by Michael Dougherty, Breehn Burns and Ragnar.^[12] The series was originally going to be released weekly in October 2007, ending on Halloween, but the series was pushed back due to the film's backlisting. The four comics will instead be released as a graphic novel adaptation in October 2009.^[13]

[edit] Sequel

Michael Dougherty announced on October 8, 2009 that he is planning a sequel.^[14]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Trick r Treat Official website
• Trick 'r Treat at the Internet Movie Database
• Trick 'r Treat at Allmovie