by Brian Rummel

Created on: March 11, 2010

Trick ‘R Treat is really a throw back to movies like Creepshow and Tales From the Darkside. The kinds of movies Hollywood really doesn’t produce anymore, which is a shame really when you think about it. It takes 4 short stories and interweaves them over Halloween night in a small town in Ohio. Each story has it’s own little twists and turns, and keeps the view guessing on how it will all turn out.

We’re introduced to a bunch of characters over its short 88 min runtime, but each character has his or her own things to do and shows up more than once during the movie. Trick ‘R Treat plays with it’s timeline a bit so you’ll notice character that you thought were dead show up again throughout, but it’s all good once you see how things shake loose. The movie keeps things light, but you still get a sense of dread, which just makes the movie that much more fun. I would say that if you’ve enjoyed moves like Creepshow then I would feel positive to say that you’ll enjoy this movie.

The cast did a great job with this story; each one did what was necessary to make each of their characters memorable without hamming it up for the camera. With a cast like (Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin, Leslie Bibb) you can’t go wrong, and each played right into the strength of movie, which is really about the celebration of Halloween.

The direction of this movie was just stunning, Mike Dougherty did a wonderful job of capturing the essence of Halloween on film. The sets were just dripping with atmosphere, and really captured the spirit of the holiday that so many of us love. He also kept the humor flowing throughout, but gave us just enough surprises and scares to keep this firmly in the realm of adult horror.

I really loved Trick ‘R Treat, it reminded me of my childhood in regards to Halloween, of course without the bloodshed or mayhem. I thought it captured the holiday beautifully, and gave us four wonderful stories that we can revisit each Halloween. I know this will be in my yearly movie rotation for All Hollows Eve. It’s really just a fun movie for teenagers and adults who love horror movies, and better yet love Halloween. After all it’s the one time of the year where “Everyone’s entitled to one good scare”.

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