Hello kids!To get in the mood for our upcoming scary movie episode, I decided to watch something from the genre. There are so many classics to choose from, but I thought it might be fun to check out something I hadn't seen. The piece of, "s," I picked... Trick r' Treat.
The story is set in a small suburban, friendly Ohio town on Halloween night. Kids are all dressed up and trick or treating, and adults are partying and getting wasted. Pretty standard. Then, all hell breaks loose, the plot starts to develop! Then it stops. Then it starts to develop again! Then it stops again. Then the movie is over! Hooray! Sound boring? Don't worry, it's stupid too.
Initially it looks like there's a stalking killer on the loose, with an opening similar to Halloween or Scream, but not interesting or good... or original. Then, there's a crazy satanic father who lives next door to the town shut-in. He goes nuts. Then, "That Kid," pukes his guts out. Literally (oh, what a mess!). Then Dracula's there! That's the first 15 minutes of the movie. The story gets more and more off track from then on, but I don't want to spoil the rest for you. If for some reason (not sure what that could be?) you are subjected to watching this movie, I want to you to at least have fun, seeing how it makes no sense at all.
Now, trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, halfway through the movie, I thought, "The stories will eventually tie in and make sense." Nope. Well, maybe a little, but still, no. Even if they did, they were all dumb anyway. I also thought, "Perhaps that isn't the point, and there are just supposed to be a bunch of separate tales that take place all at once." There were comic book page story breaks, so that may be it. Characters come into the story long enought just to start to seem interesting, but for the most part not, and then the story shifts to someone else before the first character even had a chance to propel their part of the story.
I must say there is one story line in the movie, which is actually really enjoyable. If you see the movie, I think you'll be able to tell which one I'm talking about. Unfortunately the movie spends so much time on the other ones, when it should have just been a full movie based on this one story.
The preview for this movie looked great, and the cast had a few stars I'm a fan of. Brian Cox (Hannibal Lecktor, yes, I know, that's how it was spelled originally - Manhunter, Richard Morgan - The Ring). Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse - True Blood, Rogue - X-Men. She's no Anna Kendrick, but who is really?). Leslie Bibb (Carley Bobby - Talladega Nights, Christine Everhart - Ironman, and she is in # 2 too. She is another one of my favorites. She's so sweet, and funny, and gorgeous). They all do a fine job, but they are only in a few minutes of the movie, so there's only so much they can do. How they were all signed on for this, I have no idea.
Another interesting fact about the movie is when it was made. It was supposed to be a theater release... in 2007. After several delays, it was instead featured at film festivals, through 2009, and it was noted that it closed out Montreal's 2009 Fantasia Film Festival, and actually was well liked. Thankfully, the studios thought differently, and it wasn't released until 2010, on DVD. That's a super straight to DVD release! I read that after watching the movie, and it felt good to know my opinion was obviously shared by the general public. If this was the type of movie they were showing at the Montreal festival, I'm not sure the happy reactions were necessarily for the film, or the fact that the festival was over.
I can't recommend this movie to anyone. Don't buy it, don't rent it, or even look at it in the store. If you're thinking of watching it, or you're bored and looking for something to do, I suggest channel 9 instead. It's the breast exam.
Grade: D-
