The Internet plot description for our next installment reads as such:
“A baby sitter is stuck watching over a young brat on Halloween night who keeps playing vicious pranks on her. To add to her trouble the boy’s deranged father has escaped from an asylum and is planning on making a visit.”
If that just sounds to you like a shitty Halloween knock-off to you, you’re right, cause it does sound like that. However, the way it plays out is anything but.
Hell, I’m not even sure it’s trying to be Halloween. I’m not sure what it’s trying to do. It’s just bizarre. Is this a spoof? Is this a real horror movie? Is this a comedy? Who the hell knows. It’s probably none of those things.
I do know this though, it’s pretty damn Halloweeny. And for our purposes, that’s all that matters. You’re getting tons of vintage decorations, an onslaught of trick or treating and awesome Halloween masks coming at you left and right.
Now, this isn’t to say Trick or Treats isn’t without its charms, far from it. If you’re the right kind of viewer in the right kind of mood, it may even entertain you, but I would be careful to who exactly I’d recommend this one.
You get David Carradine being a handsy sleazeball, Peter Jason in drag screaming at bums, Steve Railsback continually whining about the opening night of play we never see performed, drunk trick or treaters, pervy little kids, an awesome bus driver for 2 seconds and an asylum full of over the top nut jobs.
But then there’s Christopher. Poor, detestable Christopher. He’s playing terrifying pranks on babysitter Linda all night long. He’s got the ill mask collection and enough magic tricks to convince Linda he’s straight up dead or horribly injured all Halloween long. Between dodging Trick or Treaters, fielding weird phone calls from loony bin Dad, and dealing with Chris’ ( at times, admittedly irritating) bullshit, she’s at her wits end with this brat. You may be too. Or you may just love him.
It’s not exciting. In fact, it’s mostly boring. It’s never approaches anything close to scary and it resembles a horror movie for, oh I don’t know, about a 10 minute stretch at the climax. But Trick or Treats is an oddball Halloween treat that I strangely enjoy. Could be the era, could be the Halloween, or it could be its general approach. It has this sluggish and lackadaisical mood that just washes over me. I don’t rightly know which factor is in the driver’s seat.
If you’re looking for something akin to even a passable scary Halloween vibe you get with even the lower rent slashers and creature features to feature the holiday, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
When Halloween Night Stopped Being fun?
Boy, I’ll say. But I think I kind of love it for that.
