DVDs
Trick ‘R Treat (2008) DVD
October 26
Michael Dougherty
Starring Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, Leslie Bibb, Anna Paquin
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With its omnibus approach to storylines, its EC-style brand of twisted morality and its opening credits styled to mimic a comic book’s flicking pages, Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘R Treat instantly evokes the anthology format (re)popularised in the 80s by Creepshow, Twilight Zone: The Movie, TV’s Tales From The Darkside and Tales From The Crypt – all of which in themselves already constituted a kind of horror that was nostalgic, looking back to the cartoon strips and television chillers of the 1950s and early 1960s.
Indeed there is something traditional, something classical, in the festively macabre stories that fill Dougherty’s script, peopled as they are with such familiar-seeming bogey-men (and -women) as serial killers, revenant spirits, werewolves, and the masked embodiment of Samhain itself. Even the film’s introduction, a hokey black-and-white public announcement film giving advice on safe conduct during Halloween, returns us to a bygone, albeit not entirely innocent, age – even if the film’s setting is entirely contemporary.
“You should be careful, there are rules,” says one character near the beginning of Trick ‘R Treat, and he is right. One Halloween night, as costumed children go about a small Ohio town collecting bagfuls of candy, any of the townsfolk who fail to respect the ancient laws of Halloween find themselves getting their own deserts, according to a wickedly retributive justice that is as terrifying as it is blackly funny. Like the spirit of Robert Altman risen from the grave, Dougherty interweaves the different strands of his narrative with a healthy disinterest in the norms of chronology, and so introduces just the right amount of jigsaw-like tricksiness to keep his penny-dreadful treat smelling fresh – while the performances from a cast that includes Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, Leslie Bibb and Anna Paquin are far above what might be expected from straight-to-DVD fare. It can only be assumed that some gruesomely fitting punishment awaits the studio executives who put endless bland remakes or unnecessary sequels into our cinemas while keeping horror as sophisticated, fun and original as Trick ‘R Treat from the big screen.
Contrary to popular belief…I thought this was really just….OK… and very obvious why a studio wouldn't pump money into it for theatrical…. I can't help thinking that there's a certain snowblinded myth making and studio knocking going on here – Altman…err…just because a film has three interwoven plot lines it doesn't make it an Altman film. Take one step back and there's nothing that interesting or original here. Lots and lots of really good movies go straight to DVD – no idea why this one should be singled out for special treatment….
Written by Jean-Claude on October 29th, 2009 at 18:16
1) There are more than three plots (although they are so tightly interwoven that it is hard to say where one ends and the next begins)
2) no-one is saying it actually is 'an Altman film' – just that the Altmanesque overlaying of plot strand and confusion of chronology are things rarely seen in horror
3) I can think of one very good reason why the studio should have pumped money into its theatrical release: when it showed at FrightFest in August on a massive screen (I think the film's one and only theatrical screening in Britain), the full house went wild (and far wilder than they did for many of the other titles showing over that weekend). It's always worth pumping money into something that will yield a return, so I'd say the studio might have missed a trick here…
Written by Anton Bitel on October 29th, 2009 at 19:25
I thought this was pretty good. It definitely comes as a relief after so much unpleasant and sadistic 'horror' that has flooded the market over recent years. And a trick has been missed here I agree. It seems now that the accepted Halloween film will be another addition to the tired Saw franchise. This film, with it's 80s style mix of comedy, gore and sheer fun would have been a welcome dose of retro-horror (and not another rubbish remake). And, as an aside point, how have the studios/distributors managed to fumble the ball so epically with Paranormal Activity too? A pretty much guaranteed word-of-mouth hit.
Written by Matt Poke on October 30th, 2009 at 12:06
In fairness, the studios/distributors are catching up with word-of-mouth on Paranormal Activity (which I'm seeing tomorrow at the Halloween FrightFest all-nighter – can't wait). It has moved – successfully – to a much larger number of screens in the US, where it was, at least last week, topping the box office – and it is getting a theatrical release here (through Icon) on 25th November. It is also, I believe, already (groan) being remade…
Written by Anton Bitel on October 30th, 2009 at 12:21
Remade? But it's American right? That's got to be a first that a new American film is being remade by the Americans. I didn't realise it's 2 years old as well.
Written by Matt Poke on October 30th, 2009 at 12:26
That's what I'd heard, though I could be wrong (there's no remake-in-production listed on IMdB, just the inevitable sequel scheduled for 2012). The rumour was that some thought a cashcow remade with a bigger budget would be a bigger cashcow. The problem with such reasoning, of course, is that dollar bills do not acquire more value by having a bigger size…
Written by Anton Bitel on October 30th, 2009 at 12:36