Friday, October 30, 2009

Honourable Mentions: Trick r Treat

dvd

This film is down as 2008, so why we have had to wait a year to get to see this little gem is somewhat beyond me. An Anthology film with a variety of stories it follows a pattern more in keeping with, say, Creepshow 3 in that it interweaves the various stories.

The film also carries a graphic novel sensibility that works well, and displays it stories in a non-linear fashion. A new horror icon, Sam (Quinn Lord), is also introduced and his presence holds the stories together.

bloodied fangsOf course we are looking at vampires and a woman and a cloaked and masked figure are getting it on in an alleyway, off from the main town street where the Halloween parade is in full swing. She is filled with passion at first, but when she realises that she is bleeding from her neck, the blood dripping down her arms, she panics. Even more so when she sees the fangs he reveals.

victim leftShe runs into the parade, actually into a pair of characters from another story – Henry (Tahmoh Penikett, Trapped Ashes) and Emma (Leslie Bibb), but she is just another fake blood covered trickster, as far as anyone can tell. The cloaked figure gets her and, when done with her, props her body against a wall as though drunk. Later he turns his attention to another girl, Laurie (Anna Paquin, True Blood). She is dressed as Little Red Riding Hood and is actually searching for a date but, as he stalks her into the woods, the man – for he is just a mortal killer in a costume – hasn’t realised that there are much worse things out on Halloween Night.

costumeOf course we also get other vampire costumes, and I should mention the boy in the Dracula costume (Richard Harmon) who comes into another story. However, this is a costume only mention, with no real relevance to the section, and I don’t want to spoil this story any further. However, the presence of our wannabe vampire, primarily, as well as the Dracula outfit lets me mention a film that was absolutely wonderful and sure to become many a person’s favourite to show on Halloween night.

The imdb page is here.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the review, Taliesin. I saw ads for this film but dismissed it as being gory eye-candy, but after reading your review I'm going to have to watch it and give it a look.

Taliesin_ttlg said...

Nicole, I thought the whole thing rather clever. The stories interweave and are non-linear and whilst it does fall back on monster/slasher mentalities occasionally the base premises are often rather unusual - and Sam is ace!

Cheers, as always, for stopping by.

Zahir Blue said...

Cool. That looks interesting.

Derek Tatum said...

Believe it or not, this movie was completed in 2007. The rumor is that the studio did not want to put it up against the seasonal "Saw" movies, so they waited... and waited... and then sent it direct to DVD. I haven't seen it yet but it looks entertaining in the way that few modern horror films are.

Taliesin_ttlg said...

Cheers guys...

Anonymous said...

This is a great movie and should have been released to theaters. Even as a direct-to-DVD, this movie will be a seasonal favorite because of write-ups on great blogs like this. Keep it up!

Taliesin_ttlg said...

cheers thewritersjourney