Halloween horror marathon: Trick ‘r Treat

poster-trick-r-treatIn the annals of horror movies, there’s nothing I enjoy more than a good anthology picture. We took a look at the Vault of Horror last week, and I’m also partial to films like its predecessor Tales From the Crypt, as well as the excellent Twilight Zone.

There’s something wonderful about a good anthology, as it allows stories that might suffer when expanded to feature length a chance to get the big screen treatment. Additionally, it gives a bigger budget to stories that might seem a little cramped when presented on television.

Trick ‘r Treat is one of the finest horror anthologies out there. Despite its straight-to-video status, the acting is fairly well done, with all participants aware of the silliness inherent in a story about trying to bury a body in your backyard, yet not winking at the camera the entire time they’re doing it.

The special effects are low-key, but not cheap, and they can shock when need be. Trick ‘r Treat doesn’t revel in gore, but when a throat gets ripped out, there’s blood, not a cut-away shot. Everything is balanced perfectly on that fine line between gory and prudish, or between fun and silly.

What really sets Trick ‘r Treat apart, though, is that the stories really intersect. There’s no half-assed framing device here. It’s only as you make your way through the four stories that you begin to see bits of one in the background of the other, until by film’s end, you’ve come back to where you started. It’s the most enjoyably scary fun you could have, and I cannot recommend this movie to enough people.

In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to state that I didn’t actually watch this movie yesterday. Every other film I’ve watched for the Halloween horror marathon has been written as I watched it, then set to post the next day. As you readers with children know, sometimes it’s not possible to do that. Thus, this was written from having seen the film multiple times.