During the Halloween night, various stories of blood and terror intertwine: creatures feast on human flesh under the moonlight, a revenge from beyond the grave is served cold, and some kids find out, to their dismay, that some unsettling legends are true and there's little to joke about.
All this under the supervision of a mysterious masked boy who watches in silence...
The writer considers themselves, all in all, a simple person who gets straight to the point.
This is one of the reasons why they particularly appreciate bullet points and/or numbered lists and, just to do something different, here you go, dear readers of this most noble site, the 8-point manual titled "Why Trick Or Treat is the Ultimate Halloween Film as well as Horror with the Biggest Balls in General."
Ready, let's go.
1) This is the ULTIMATE HALLOWEEN FILM. Well yes, you read that right. And don't look at the screen with that look of superiority that seems to say: "Well, it's obvious that the writer doesn't understand a thing about horror, they forgot John Carpenter's masterpiece that bears the name of the Night of the Witches just like the title, what a baby." And instead, not only do I know (and love) Carpenter's film, but I also double down: the movie produced by Bryan Singer and directed by Michael Dougherty is the only one that must be watched strictly on Halloween. It cannot be missed. This is because "Trick Or Treat" does not simply talk about "The Night of the Witches," but glorifies every little aspect of it. The atmosphere of the holiday is rendered perfectly, every single tradition is brought to the screen and treated with class and knowledge. You will also have the chance to learn something new about Halloween, a holiday that doesn't end with simple masks or the classic "Trick or Treat."
2) Just to shake the spirits of the more mature readers even more, let's say that "Trick Or Treat" is the ULTIMATE EPISODIC HORROR. Yes, it's true, there are the two "Creepshow," the first even directed by George Romero and considered a timeless classic. That's true too, but there's no comparison: "Trick Or Treat" is today the benchmark for episodic horror not only for the intrinsic quality of the individual stories but for the way these are brought to the screen. In this case, all the stories intertwine, chase each other, and take different paths; shorter but impactful stories are grafted onto the main ones without ever losing the thread of the discourse. Thanks to this strategy (and a high-quality screenplay), the pace remains always high and the duration, all in all contained (about eighty minutes), gives the film an incredible fluidity.
3) "Trick Or Treat" is a real bastard. It is vile and treacherous because behind the massive dose of irony, it presents a ferocity that is unique and rare within American horror today. "Trick or Treat" is unfair, it is a film that spares no one: women, children, despicable people, unlucky kids, and so on. Evil does not discriminate.
4) "Trick or Treat" is also a bastard because in this film nothing is what it seems. The twist is ALWAYS around the corner, and you will often find yourself with a foolish smile on your face exclaiming: "Well, shit, who would have thought?"
5) "Trick Or Treat" is a great film because, despite presenting some damned classic stories, it manages to renew everything thanks to great freshness and intelligence in the writing phase that leaves you speechless: werewolves, revenge from beyond, people paying for their sins. All things theoretically already seen but that in Michael Dougherty's film find new life and appear stronger and more vigorous than ever.
6) Sixth point, probably one of my favorite points. "Trick or Treat" has one of the coolest boogeymen (in this case, it would be better to say boogeykid) of recent years, a figure worthy of entering the gotha of important horror characters. Such a cool boogeyman that the undersigned, who is not a collector of action figures, immediately took home his statuette and would even be ready to buy the plush to hug at night. In the film, he has no name, but apparently, he has been nicknamed Sam. Sam, in short, takes care of making sure that the rules of Halloween night are respected, a sort of "guardian of traditions." If he catches you breaking the rules, you're in deep trouble, there's no possibility of appeal, and at his court, the only penalty contemplated is death. Great Sam, you are all of us.
7) Technically, the film is not up for discussion: the direction is dynamic and rich in inventiveness, the photography is of good level, and the editing, thanks to the temporal jumps between flashbacks and so on, is never banal but rather stimulating and a true added value to the film.
8) Good actors. From the first to the last. From the youngest kid to the old man eaten by remorse. And, for once, in America, they realized that having breasts is not synonymous with being a great actress, so no hot girls but incapable ones who give face and body to cinematic shame characters, but skilled actors and actresses (from Tamoh Penikett of "Battlestar Galactica" to Anna Paquin of "True Blood" and "Darkness") who leave their mark.
What else to say?
We are facing a complete horror: violent, unfair, mean, and ironic, which manages to mix tradition and modernity with class and freshness. A film that dives in headfirst, that you watch and rewatch always with immense pleasure and ideal for spending an evening with friends under the sign of quality horror.
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