Tricks And Treats Review

Timely movie to watch for the Halloween season which seems to be spreading a touch bigger each year all around the world outside of the USA, particularly with an inundation of movies around the aforementioned spooky season of October.

Writer, first-time director Eric Hector, has made a contemporary horror with ancient story threads that cross over from the flashback opening complete with whippings and some kind of ritual.
This eye opening beginning eventually circles back around to a surprise finale that is an actually well thought out resolution compared to what came before it concerning a little girl, an old lady in a town with a paranormal history.

In between there are relentlessly nasty and severely brutal extensive scenes with a biker bar full of leering male motorheads prowling around young girls tied to chairs.

A group of excited friends are on their way out all dressed up and keen to party showing off their costumes in town with a long night planned, they definitely get a long night but not how they’d planned.

After a mishap the girls end up gagged in a remote dive bar and in this bar is also TRICK the possessed Pumpkin voiced by Malcolm McDowell, who after a series of unfortunate events and historical occurrences can grant wishes or can cause doom for anyone who connect with it, or at least is not as evil to those that honour its presence. Trick also serves as narrator, more of a hindrance than moving the story along. Did Malcolm know what he was signing up for when ) 1971recording his dulcet tones?

One by one the bad actor motorcycle gang who often look at each other before saying their lines in stilted or over exaggerated form, are knocked off in a series of brutal ways. They plan to torture, abuse, have their way until the carnage starts.

In an extended cameo, Gary Busey is as far away as can be from his memorable roles in, Point Break (1991) Under Siege (1992) and the Oscar nominated lead of. The Buddy Holly Story (1979). Here he’s an eye-patch wearing preacher with signature wild hair and loose dialogue that he’s either potentially reading from angles he’s filmed from or potentially making up lines.

Smearing eyeliner more with each yelp, the now scantily clad girls scream a lot, eventually breaking free or being torn apart, there’s no in-between.

Trick is a fierce force with an agenda.

Somewhat impressive lead Loren Ledesma as Ashley is the standout with physicality, believability from what seems the most screen time, she’s good.

Special effects are well intentioned, I’m not going to put them down because effort is obvious. As with any micro budget movie needing visual magic, a filmmaker will use what they have got on hand, so much of the fire, glowing pumpkin eyes and so on are fine if you just go with it.

However the premise is mean spirited, neither thrilling nor scary, it’s really hard not to grimace with some of the atrocious acting and 55 years on from Malcolm groundbreaking as Alex the Droog in masterpiece, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) did he probably imagine voicing a toy demonic pumpkin.

If you make it through the almost 10 minutes of ‘slow’ end credits, there’s a placard announcing Trick and Treats will return.