Something Good to Eat: 'Trick r Treat'

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WANT TO HEAR a truly terrifying tale? In 2007 screenwriter Michael Dougherty, coming off hits with "X-Men 2" and "Superman Returns" (but don't hold that against him), made his directorial debut with a slyly inventive Halloween horror serial titled "Trick r Treat." The movie is clever, the cast cultishly impressive: Anna Paquin pre-"True Blood"; Brian Cox, the original and scarier Hannibal Lector; Dylan Baker of "Happiness" and the "Spider-Man" movies; and Tahmoh Penikett of "Battlestar Galactica" and "Dollhouse."

The scary part? Rather than release the film in October 2007 as planned, Warner Brothers mysteriously shelved it for two years, sadistically teasing a theatrical release for years. But like any self-respecting horror villain, "Trick r Treat" just couldn't be killed. Buzz began brewing online, and Paquin became a vamp icon. Finally, Warner released it straight-to-DVD, disappointing fans at horror sites. Then again, inventive and original flicks like "Drag Me to Hell" and "Jennifer's Body" have tanked this year, so perhaps the studio's skepticism was warranted.

Such are the beginnings of a midnight movie cult, and while "Trick r Treat" may or may not achieve that status, it certainly has the scares, the laughs, the twists, the turns, the gore, and the mythology for it.

Inspired by the old EC horror comics of the 1940s and 1950s, "Trick r Treat" interweaves several vignettes that all take place during one memorable Halloween in Warren Valley, Ohio. In one, a group of teenagers try to scare their nerdy classmate, with gruesome consequences. In another, Paquin and her friends arrive for a party, but while they're trying to pick up dates, they're stalked by a sinister man in a black mask.

Meanwhile, Baker tries desperately to dispose of a body in his backyard, with comic interference from his young son (whose best line is "Charlie Brown is an asshole!"). His neighbor, a grizzled old coot played by Cox, is terrorized by a creepy kid with a burlap-sack mask pulled over his round head.

Dougherty created that kid, nicknamed Sam (presumably short for Samhain), more than a decade ago for his animated short film "Season's Greetings," which is the DVD's only bonus feature. He appears as a sinister presence in each of the stories in "Trick r Treat," but Dougherty makes the mistake of unmasking him and showing what's underneath the burlap. It's a hugely anticlimactic scene, neutering a creepy character who might have inspired a franchise.

Still, Dougherty cleverly connects these stories while routing expectations, filling his scenes with plot twists and wry visual gags (watch for a recurring hot dog costume). "Trick r Treat" is an old-fashioned movie, beholden to old comics but thankfully lacking the hambone humor and tacky scares of "Creepshow" and "Tales From the Crypt."

More than that, there's something nostalgic about the film's idea of Halloween, which thankfully has more to do with rosy reminiscences of Halloweens past than with film-school appropriations of old horror movies. It is, in fact, a sinisterly clever midnight movie.

Written by Express contributor Stephen M. Deusner