Review #247: Trick 'r Treat (2007)


This review was originally written in October 2023.

Gabe's Horror Movie October Review #1- Trick 'r Treat (2007)

Happy October, everyone! It's great to be doing this again, and what better way to start it off than with Trick 'r Treat, one of the best Halloween-centric movies ever made! I've seen this one loads of times and I'm still seeing new details I never saw before. This review is going to be fairly short and spoiler-free, because there's so much fun to be had seeing this film for the first time, I don't want to ruin it for anyone!

Trick 'r Treat is a collection of linked stories taking place on Halloween night in the fictional town of Warren Valley, Ohio- where they take Halloween very, very seriously. Throughout the movie we see a husband and wife arguing about Halloween decorations, a school principal with many dark secrets, a group of girls getting ready for a costume party, some children playing a prank on a schoolmate, an urban legend from the town's past that people would like to forget, and more. All of these stories intertwine with one another, all involve the various "Rules of Halloween" (1. Wear a Costume, 2. Hand Out Treats, 3. Never Blow Out a Jack O' Lantern, and 4. Always Check Your Candy), and all of them have a common spectator: "Sam", a little child-like figure that seems to be some kind of physical representation of the "Spirit of Halloween" if such a thing existed. Each of the stories in this film are entertaining in their own right, each has one or more twists that recontextualize the entire experience, and each one has so much attention to detail (both on its own and when viewed as part of the whole) that you can ALWAYS find more hidden easter eggs (halloween eggs?) on every rewatch.

Needless to say, I love this movie. It's recommended viewing for anyone who can stomach horror films (and really, it's not that gory, I'm pretty sure every character death occurs off-screen) and it's just a damn fun movie. You can tell a lot of work went into making it, you can tell everyone involved is having a blast, and like I keep saying, you get rewarded for watching it multiple times. So stop what you're doing, go buy/rent/download this movie, and watch it every October! You won't regret it!

Overall Rating: 10/10 Candy-Based Deadly Weapons

Fun Detail I Noticed For the First Time: Near the beginning of the film, shortly after Principal Wilkins talks about making sure to check your candy, Sam grabs a candy bar from his Treat bucket. Near the end of the film, he uses this same candy bar (which we realize has a razor blade in it) to attack Mr. Kreeg.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review #181: The Evil Dead (1981)

Image
This review was originally written in 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #36: The Evil Dead (1981) As much as I'm trying to make these reviews as standalone as possible, I feel the need to tie this one (at least a little bit) into the last one (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and the next one (Evil Dead II). So, bear with me I guess. I'm a huge fan of the Evil Dead series as a whole. Evil Dead II was one of the first horror films I ever saw, and for many years was my favorite movie of all time. However, I was never a very big fan of the first movie; I only saw The Evil Dead a couple times and when I did, it felt "lesser" than Evil Dead II in every way. I'll save most of my comments about EDII until the next review, but I just want to say that in this particular rewatch, I came out liking The Evil Dead WAY more than I used to, and liking Evil Dead II a little bit less (though I still love it). If you aren't familiar with the series at all, The E
Read more

Review #199: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

Image
This review was originally written in 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #54: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? follows two aged Hollywood starlet sisters, Jane and Blanche, who have begrudgingly lived together for many years after a car accident left Blanche confined to a wheelchair. Both sisters hate one another, and their deep-seated hatred has begun to hit a breaking point as Jane struggles to hold a tight grip on a world that no longer remembers her. My thoughts on this movie itself are pretty simple: This is a long film (2 hours 15) that really didn't need to be that long, and it's a pretty slow burn. The tension is there, you really feel the fear and paranoia you're meant to feel, so it's not a bad time, I just really think it could have been tightened up (either in the script phase or the editing phase) to cut off like a solid half an hour. Then again, movies were just slower back then, I guess. I apprecia
Read more

Review #188: Let Me In (2010)

Image
This review was originally written in 2022. Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #43: Let Me In (2010) I can't fathom why both this movie AND Let the Right One In were on this bucket list, considering this one is basically a shot-for-shot remake of that one. But whatever, they're both on the list so I'm reviewing them both. To recap in basically a word-for-word manner, Let Me In is an American film about a young boy, Owen, bullied at school and without many peers, who befriends a girl, Abby, who recently moved into his apartment complex and who tries to teach Owen to stand up for himself. Little does Owen know, Abby is actually a vampire and her bloodlust will soon cause problems- problems that have kept her on the run for many, many years. Most of my thoughts on the other movie apply to this one. It's honestly such a close adaptation, I'm kind of impressed- I saw both of these films maybe ten years ago (I saw the American one first), and I remembered ther
Read more