Trick 'r Treat (2007)
Dark, twisted Halloween tales: serial killers, pranks, and supernatural chills. Perfect for fans of horror anthologies like "Creepshow."
Genres: Horror, Comedy
Cast
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Trick 'r Treat(2007)
Overview
Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: an everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank, and a bitter old recluse receives an uninvited guest.
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Cast
Full Cast & Crew
Brian Cox
Mr. Kreeg

Quinn Lord
Sam / Peeping Tommy

Anna Paquin
Laurie

Dylan Baker
Steven

Leslie Bibb
Emma

Tahmoh Penikett
Henry

Rochelle Aytes
Maria

Britt McKillip
Macy

Moneca Delain
Janet

Lauren Lee Smith
Danielle

Brett Kelly
Charlie

Jean-Luc Bilodeau
Schrader

Alberto Ghisi
Chip

James Willson
Alex

Christine Willes
Mrs. Henderson

Isabelle Deluce
Sara

Samm Todd
Rhonda

Connor Christopher Levins
Billy

Laura Mennell
Allie

Ty Hill
Nathan
Featured Comments/Tips
Love this movie! Watch it every Halloween :)
Watched it twice in a row when I first got the Blu-ray. (the second time with the audio commentary) I love it and watch it every Halloween.
Can'#39;t believe I waited this long to watch it...good times...scared the children...mission accomplished
Damn, Ohio is a fucked up place
This was great. It'#39;s Goosebumps for Grown-Ups.
I was a bit apprehensive watching this at first but enjoyed it immensely. I'#39;d recommend this for people looking for a bit of light fun coupled with a Halloween theme.
I watched this one on the run-up to Halloween I had seen it in my periphery over the last few years and heard good things, particularly from Cinemassacre who did a review on it. If you haven'#39;t heard of this film you'#39;re not alone, it only had a handful of theatrical showings but received a decent good reception and cult status so it'#39;s a somewhat hidden gem. It'#39;s a likable horror anthology but in this case, the stories are all connected in some way. This one may now scare the pants off you but it has a little splattering of gore and an atmosphere that will put you in the right mood, so if you didn'#39;t catch it this year put it on the list for next October
The traditional viewings continue for the 31 Days Of Horror! Always a delight.
Fun Halloween flick with some quality jumpscares and cheesy plot elements. Don'#39;t think too hard about how or why any of this is happening, and just enjoy the ride.
The cult horror film Trick ‘r Treat is a clever and well-crafted anthology film that delivers some frightful scares. The stories of a group of kids collecting jack-o-lanterns, a homicidal school principal, 4 young girls on the prowl, and a mischievous treat-or-treater all come together and intertwine on one fateful All Hallows’ Eve. Featuring Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Leslie Bibb, Dylan Baker, and Britt McKillip, the film has a strong cast. And, director Michael Dougherty does a good job at creating an atmospheric and foreboding tone. Also, the costumes have a quaint Americana feel that gives them a timeless quality. However, a couple of the plots are a little hard to follow, and some of the comedy doesn’t work. Yet despite a few rough edges, Trick ‘r Treat is a fun and entertaining homage to the spirit of Halloween.
A enjoyable horror film. There were some interesting characters (the dad who kills children for example), but there were a lot of annoying characters as well (the kids who '#39;borrow'#39; jack o'#39; lanterns to sacrifice to the dead for example). The story is very entertaining and doesn'#39;t get boring, the music fits the film perfectly. Overall, this film makes you feel like it is halloween already. Defenitely a film that makes you feel the halloween spirit.
Carving a kids head like a pumpkin was a little too fucked up for my liking.
My new favorite horror anthology after Southbound! All stories are masterfully crafted and seamlessly interwoven.
I love anthologies. A well told short story is better than a long story arc or a drawn out character study way more often than not. So when "Trick 'R Treat" came along it proved to me that while it's not something the majority of the population wants to see there are filmmakers out there who still value the format. It's too bad then that "Trick 'R Treat" wasn't more of a treat. It looks great and it has its entertaining moments. I mostly enjoyed the story of an odd girl who gets her revenge from some unlikely assistants and a man who has to deal with a strange trick or treater. Unfortunately these stories aren't the most original things you'll ever see. They are more a tribute to urban legends and other Halloween clichés. The way that the four stories are intertwined is different. It's not a "Creepshow" style format as there is nothing that truly divides the stories. "Trick 'R Treat" is well done but it's not particularly exciting.
Top notch horror anthology; intricately integrated storytelling draws you through a variety of stories that range from amusing to frightening. Lots of great film making on display here as is fine acting and decent effects. Well worth the viewing...and make it an annual tradition!
Featured User Reviews

[6.9/10] *Trick ‘r Treat* is shallow Halloween fun. There’s nothing much to its smushed-together horror anthology. The characters are shallow and cliched. The tales are largely archetypal, playing on the usual folklore and ghost stories of All Hallow’s Eve. And the spooks and scares are solid, but standard issue. Despite telling multiple tales at once, the film doesn’t offer a whole hell of a lot that's genuinely new. But the movie has two things going for it. One is its sense of subversion. The group of teenagers trying to get laid around a holliday is a tired trope, even for a film not far removed from *American Pie*. But there’s a fun punchline when it turns out that Laurie and her sister aren’t hunting for dates, but rather for victims to be consumed by their pack of werewolves. The dimestore young adult shtick to get there is still kind of a pain, but the *Buffy*-esque reversal of expectations adds an amusing punchline to the escapade. That subversiveness suffuses the film. Despite a somewhat juvenile tone to the whole thing, the film rightly takes the stuffing out of grim, horror-filled outings set around the holiday. Everything from a murderous Ned Flanders type, to children with disabilities getting a little poetic justice, to the spirit of Halloween delivering outsized punishments for violating Halloween traditions, there’s a sense of *Trick ‘r Treat* as operating in a demented, off-kilter world that plays with your expectations. That at least adds an element of surprise to what are, ultimately, a stock set of stories. The other is the fact that the quartet of macabre vignettes at the center of the film are interconnected, taking place on the same night with little linkages between them. In truth, this doesn’t actually amount to much. The only significant plot connection between them is that the murderous principal from the film’s best segment meets his deadly comeuppance in the teenagers’ segment. Otherwise, the ties between the various stories are mostly set dressing. That said, the connections come with an *Arrested Development*-like sense of whimsy when you catch the little ties between various stories, particularly when the protagonists (or survivors) all walk past each other in the movie’s bookends. And while this isn’t exactly *Pulp Fiction*, the non-linear storytelling with small moments of intersection to help the audience put the pieces together does add an extra sense of fun and cleverness to the proceedings. *Trick ‘r Treat* can also boast a memorable little mascot, for lack of a better term, with an interesting M.O. Sam, the burlap-headed, pajama-footed, pint-sized spirit of the season is the right blend of Hot Topic cute and legitimately unnerving. He moves with a disturbing, childlike gait, and though the special effects are hit or miss (see also: the werewolf puppetry), the design is memorable as all hell. The same goes for his terrifying raison d’etre. Sam is not Santa Claus. He doesn’t care whether you’ve been naughty or nice. He just wants you to honor the rituals of Halloween, from keeping your jack-o-lantern lit, to handing out candy when trick-or-treaters come around. The idea of miniaturized, supernatural slasher who *isn’t* out to punish the wicked, just to viciously enforce the spirit of the season, makes for a fun conceit. The stories themselves are a bit hit or miss on their own terms. Even though the aforementioned “teens on the prowl” segment ends with pizzazz, it offers generic young adults making generic mischief for most of its runtime. The closing transformation sequence has some visual verve, and the irony of the Little Red Riding Hood flip is amusing enough, but it’s easily the weakest of the four segments. The middle-schooler contingent fares a little better, but not by much. Thereto, writer/director Michael Dougherty is content to offer off-the-shelf kid archetypes that pull from the Amblin playbook and presage the likes of *Stranger Things*. The mean girl telling ghost stories with a sympathetic young gentleman has something to it, particularly in capturing the campfire story vibe of young kids on Halloween, but for the horror veteran, there’s nothing you haven't seen before. That said, the moments where Rhonda, the neurodivergent girl who accompanies the group, gets pranked by her erstwhile companions and eventually they all get pursued by the real ghouls, make for the scariest moments in the film. And there is a poetic sense of just deserts, both in Rhonda turning a blind eye when the people who misled and manipulated her get some recompense for their disrespect, and in the fact that the supernatural beings delivering that punishment are the spirits of other children maligned or marginalized for their differences. That's something! The story of Sam attacking Mr. Kreeg is a solid component of the film’s narrative. Brian Cox is a pro as always, and elevates what is a pretty standard slasher scenario with his reactions. THe mere presence of diminutive, deranged Sam gives this one a boost as well. And this is the segment where Dougherty’s direction buoys the proceedings as well, with a nice Looney Tunes-mixed-with-*Halloween* vibe to the whole thing, which is buttressed by the cinematography and pacing of Sam’s pursuit. The reveal that Mr. Kreeg *is* the bus driver from the middle schoolers’ ghost story, who gets his late comeuppance despite his attempt at reforming for the Halloween holiday, makes for a nice twist and connection to cap off the film. But the head and shoulders winner of the bunch is Principal Wilkins’ wacky murder misadventures. The contrast between Wikins’ outwardly square and wholesome persona, mixed with his bloody and vengeful bent, makes for a surprisingly hilarious combination. Dylan Baker, another ringer, pulls the balance off to perfection. The 1950s sitcom-style hijinks of him trying to hide a dead body are uproariously funny in a blackly comic way, and every moment he’s on screen brings a perfect mix of mirth and menace that's hard to match elsewhere in the movie. *Trick ‘r Treat* is every so slightly more than the sum of its parts. Taken individually, most of the macabre story threads the film presents would be pretty forgettable, with only a last page reversal to really make them stand out. But given that small air of subversion, and smashed together with enough little connections to add a thread delight to the interwoven horror, the various tales have just enough combined verve and blood-soaked vividness to pass muster. The film isn’t a classic, but it’s light and easy and full of enough surprises to keep your attention for a quick spooky season watch.

No tricks here, just a treat. Trick 'r Treat is written and directed by Michael Dougherty. It stars Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes, Anna Paquin and Brian Cox. Music is by Douglas Pipes and cinematography by Glen MacPherson. Trick 'r Treat plays out as an anthology of four Halloween related stories. One tiny figure with a burlap sack over its head links the film together. Warner Brothers kept it on the shelf for two years, a mistake since it happens to be a delightful little frightener that appears to be made with a love of omnibus shockers from back in the day. It's never overtly scary or bloody, but it has a twisted slickness that is rather pleasing in this day and age of poor horror remakes and boorish cash cow sequels. Neatly performed by the cast and with tech credits high from the camera folk, it homages simple horror pleasures as it celebrates Halloween. With a glint in its eye and a macabre smile on the lips, this non linear treat should be perennial viewing for the Halloween hordes. Especially since it rewards still further on repeat viewings. 8/10

I love anthologies. A well told short story is better than a long story arc or a drawn-out character study way more often than not. So, when **Trick 'R Treat** came along, it proved to me that while it's not something the majority of the population wants to see, there are filmmakers out there who still value the format. It's too bad then that **Trick 'R Treat** wasn't more of a treat. It looks great and it has its entertaining moments. I mostly enjoyed the story of an odd girl who gets her revenge from some unlikely assistants and a man who has to deal with a strange trick or treater. Unfortunately, these stories aren't the most original things you'll ever see. They are more a tribute to urban legends and other Halloween clichés. The way that the four stories are intertwined is different. It's not a _Creepshow_-style format as there is nothing that truly divides the stories. **Trick 'R Treat** is well done but it's not particularly exciting.
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