Trick R Treat (2007) is technically speaking, an anthology. Okay, I know I said I hate anthology movies, but calling Trick R Treat an "anthology" is like calling an orchestra a "collection of instruments played by musicians." Singly, they each do their own parts, but together, they make up a musical symphony of surpassing beauty. It's the same thing with Trick R Treat. I can't even really tell you how many different stories are interwoven in this mess of intertwined short stories. I've seen it half a dozen times since I got it on DVD, and I still find something new every time I view it. I wouldn't be surprised if I was drinking heavily one night, and watching this on Halloween (it's a bit of a tradition for me, now), and I saw myself in the Halloween parade in this movie. Suffice it to say that, in the town of Warren Valley, Ohio (where the movie is set, I have no idea if the town is real or not), there's a HELL of a lot of weird shit happening on the night of October 31st.
You really can't take in all of this movie in one viewing. In fact, I would recommend watching it back to back, just to see some of what you missed the first time you saw it. Or, like me, you could watch it every year on October 31st if you get tired of seeing Halloween parts 1 through 6. Trick R Treat, as a movie, doesn't focus on one particular killer, but there's a whole bunch of them running amok in Warren Valley on this particular Halloween night. There's the nicely-dressed vampire guy who goes around biting women's necks with very sharp teeth. There's the crotchety old geezer who lives next to the vampire guy. There's the little hooded kid with the pumpkin-head sucker who visits them both. There's Little Bo Peep, who's having a party in Sheeps Meadow, and of course, there's Little Red Riding Hood, who drives down the street where the vampire guy and the old geezer live. And that's only part of the story.
You might be surprised to learn just how much of this movie interacts with the other parts. See a kid running across the street in the first scene? That's not an extra. That's part of another story, that happened 20 minutes before the movie starts. Hear a wolf howl? That's not just a lonely dog, but part of another story that happens later. See a smashed pumpkin on the ground? One of the other actors in the movie did that two scenes ago. This movie is like a roller coaster of horror. Sure, you go up and down and loop the loop and zip around the curves in a big circuitous route, but when you come back to the beginning, it's just as thrilling going on the ride all over again.
The only real side story in this movie, and I'm going to spoil things a little a bit here (not too much, because there's no way to spoil this movie), is the flashback of what happened on the Halloween Bus, oh-so-many years before this movie is set. Because most of the movie is set on Halloween night, you don't get to see a lot of daytime scenery, but this flashback gives a little treat to those who like a good background in a movie. For instance, in The Shining, if you liked the long drive up to the Overlook Hotel that showed a lot of fall scenery (I loved it, best way to show the opening credits I have ever seen in a movie), then you'll probably like the flashback in this movie. It's a short enough episode, and it's basically just a scary story told by one of the other characters in the movie, but it has fall foliage, and every single person in the story shows up elsewhere, in another story, or in another part of the movie. Like I said, every part of the movie is interwoven with every other part, like a tapestry of horror, where you are admiring the artwork and you come to realize the threads that make up the tapestry are actually made of human hair, attached to bloody scalps. Okay, I imagine that's never actually happened to anyone, so it's a horrible, scary analogy. I've never been good with analogies.
I tried to do a Hellgate double feature today, since there's two movies on Netflix that are called hellgate, but one turned out to be an anthology (which was bad enough), and a very badly done one at that, so i skipped it. The other Hellgate movie had pretty bad reviews, and didn't really sound like a horror movie, either. I wanted to do a hellgate double feature because, as often happens in horror movies, there's some event or gateway, and once you reach it, (say it with me) ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Which, would make sense when you are talking about an actual gateway to hell. Alas, neither of the movies called Hellgate seemed to feature an actual gate to Hell, so I gave up on them. Movie titles are so misleading, usually. Luckily that's not the case with Trick r Treat, as most everyone in the movie is in the midst of a trick, a treat, or actually trick or treating.
I hope you guys like Trick R Treat as much as I do; however, good luck finding it to watch. I have it on DVD, but it was filmed in Canada, and I haven't seen it on HBO or anything for some years now. :-( Most of you probably won't even read this review, anyways. You're either getting ready to go Trick or Treating yourselves, watching horror movies all day and night (as I will be returning to shortly), or already so blazed from partying all week that you're dreaming you're in a horror movie. However you spend your day, I hope you all have a Happy Halloween, and remember the rules! Always check your candy! Especially if that's your date's name and she happens to be passed out drunk in front of your car. :-/
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