October 5, 2007…yeah, right.
Talk about atmosphere to burn! Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat gets the excited, otherworldly, anything-can-happen feeling of Halloween night like so few films in recent memory. When I was a kid, Halloween was my favorite holiday, largely because it felt like the whole world went somewhere else for one night. They say that it’s the one night where the human world is closest to the ghost world, blending the two, and it certainly always felt that way to me. Things were different, things were dangerous. Here comes a film set on Halloween night that gets it exactly right.
Completed in mid-2007, Trick ‘r Treat was on the slate for a fall opening before Warner mysteriously shelved it for a later date. Running at special screenings and film festivals for the past two years, it has garnered considerable praise from audiences and critics, making the day of its official, straight-to-dvd release on October 6th a trumpeted occasion for horror fans. Certainly all the to-do surrounding the film’s plight to be seen, coupled with the generally favorable reviews, have elevated the film to cult status before anyone outside of the festival circuit has even seen it.
The film at its core is a throwback to the omnibus films of the early 70s, such as Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror, though the stories here are more mercurial and layered than those distinctly separate affairs. There are four base stories, all occurring on Halloween night in a small town, and they’re classic like they leapt straight out of an old EC comic: A young bully gets his due when he visits the wrong house, a group of young girls go to a party in the middle of the woods, a group of children decides to perform a ritual to resurrect a decade old tragedy, and an old curmudgeon’s past comes to haunt him.
All the stories are top-notch in their conception, even if the follow-through gets a bit muddled. I couldn’t help but smile at the grim conclusion to many of the tales, containing some of the best black comedy I’ve seen in recent years. Acting is fairly great across the board, and I especially loved Dylan Baker’s part as a school principal, which played out like an extension to his character’s hilarious pursuit of a young boy in Todd Solondz’s Happiness. Also getting top billing are the always great Brian Box as a grumpy drunk and the recent cult superstar Anna Paquin as a virginal partygoer. From a visual standpoint, set design and ambiance are lovingly conceived – a yard full of jack o’ lanterns leading up a creepy house is breathtaking – and the film’s attention to detail shows in every shot.
Where it falters a bit is in the horror department, resulting in some unfortunately squandered potential. In case it you haven’t noticed, I’ve been talking up Trick ‘r Treat’s comedy more than its horror – but there are sequences that are designed to be suspenseful, they just don’t work very well. It’s a shame to see a film on the precipice of that perfect blend of scares and laughs abandon its own tension by protracting sequences for far too long or pausing for comedy at the wrong moment.
The thrill of finally seeing a film that was denied to you for so long having worn off, Michael Dougherty’s film is nothing terribly original. It’s not gonna rock your world like so many advance reviewers would have you believe. I heard someone say that it was one of the best horror films of all time, and in the long run such hyperbole is going to do more harm than good. In the end, Trick ‘r Treat is a more simple film than all the hubbub would have you think. It’s a simple love-letter to Halloween night – and as such its love is evident in every frame.
Be sure to check it out when the big night comes this year.
