My quick rating – 4.8/10. My watchlist for movies to hide in clearly isn’t enough, because I also have playlists for specific holidays, including #Shocktober Flix. Trick and Treats has been tucked away on that list, so it’s time to untuck it and see what Halloween treats, or tricks, it has in store.
It’s Halloween, and Ashley (Loren Ledesma) and her costumed friends find themselves locked inside a bar in the middle of nowhere, threatened with torture and death by a gang of bikers. Things kick off with a familiar voice telling us that, like most stories, this one is based on actual events. The trick is figuring out which parts are true. That voice certainly sounds like Malcolm McDowell, who also voices Trick, the pumpkin. A quick look at the credits confirms there are a few more McDowells lurking about, although they’re confined to bit parts. Apparently, pumpkin duty runs in the family.
Before we get to the main event, we travel back to around 1800, where a fellow named Peter rides about in a horse-drawn carriage with a giant pumpkin. His wife, Elizabeth (Anastasia Edwards), must be possessed by a demon, because apparently that’s the only reasonable explanation for her infidelity. When whipping the evil out of her fails, Peter resorts to binding her inside a pumpkin. That’ll require some practical effects to squeeze a whole woman in there! Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater…Keep singing, and you’ll get my point.
After that delightfully twisted opening, we jump to modern-day Halloween, where the credits somehow make ordinary costumed kids look downright creepy. Then, look who’s preaching. Gary Busey as a pastor. Meanwhile, three scantily dressed girls and a guy are heading to a party when they swerve to avoid a child in the road and end up in a ditch. Looking for help, they wander into the wrong bar, where Trick the pumpkin awaits and has quite a story to tell.
The bikers are certainly committed to their threats, although I’ve rarely seen potential abusers spend quite so much time mucking about before getting down to business. The story isn’t particularly original, but it’s still a reasonably entertaining little horror tale. You might, however, get tired of the girls’ constant crying and wailing. At some point, I wanted the pumpkin to eat the soundtrack.
One particularly nasty torture scene deserves credit for doing more with less. Rather than showing us a questionable makeup job or bargain-basement CGI, writer-director Eric Hector cleverly keeps the aftermath out of sight. It’s an effective way to work around budget limitations without drawing attention to them. Sometimes, what you don’t see really is scarier than what you do.
Ledesma also makes a convincing badass when Ashley finally gets going, and a late twist helps round things out nicely.
Trick and Treats isn’t a great horror movie, and it could have done considerably more with the horror elements it introduces. Still, there’s enough pumpkin-flavored nastiness to make it watchable for a Halloween playlist. Just don’t expect it to haunt your memory long after the credits roll. A trick, perhaps, but not much of a treat.
