Director: Charles Martin Smith
Script: Rhet Topham, Michael S. Murphey & Joel Soisson
Cast: Marc Price, Elise Richards, Tony Fields, Lisa Orgolini, Doug Savant, Gene Simmons, Ozzy Ozbourne
Running time: 98 minutes
Year: 1986
Certificate: 15
I first saw Trick or Treat at the Odeon cinema in Hanley, Stoke on Trent, when I was a student there. I remember really relating to the central character, Eddie Weinbauer (Marc Price), who is frequently misunderstood by his peer group. Sadly, they generally see him as being a bit of a weirdo; mostly due to his taste in clothes and music. While I didn’t wear anything particularly ‘interesting’ that made me stand out at school or, later, at technical college, I certainly wasn’t a ‘trendy’ student, and was often teased for my taste in hobbies/music – Herptetology (look it up!), D & D, fantasy figure collecting, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Magnum, etc… Many of my interests today are more accepted as cult/geek culture, but back then, they mostly went down like a lead balloon; but enough about me; back to the film…
Eddie (aka Ragman to his two friends) is having a hard time fitting in at high school and only keeps his morale up by listening to his metal music, in particular local metal god, Sammy Curr (Tony Fields). In fact, he’s rather obsessed with his idol’s music and is a regular visitor to the local radio station run by rock DJ, Nuke (Gene Simmons). Just days prior to Halloween his hero Sammy Curr dies in a mysterious fire and leaves instructions to Nuke to play his final recording at midnight, on Halloween night. Sensing Eddie needs cheering up Nuke lets him take the record home to listen to, since he’s already taped it, ready for wider broadcast on Halloween night.
Unfortunately, ‘Ragman’s’ sometimes creepiness has come to the attention of some bullying ‘Jocks’ at school who keep giving him a hard time, so when the record seems to transmit messages that are specific to Eddie, instructing him on how to gain revenge on his tormentors, he takes note and follows the bizarre instructions, resulting in his pulling one over on the bullies, humiliating them in the process. Obviously, they want their own kind of retribution, which results in a tit-for-tat war of escalating pratfalls, leading to the frontman bully almost getting an industrial drill lobotomy!
Curr’s last album, Songs in the Key of Death, is starting to bring about the worst in Eddie, and threatening to hurt those he cares about, including a girl he has a crush on, Leslie (Richards). He finally decides enough is enough and breaks up his stereo and he tries to get his only other friend, Roger, to destroy a tape recording he did of the album, which when played by the girlfriend of the main bully, caused her ears to melt! However, Curr gets to his friend, while Eddie is ‘grounded’, and the tape is played at the student’s Halloween party, resulting in Curr’s resurrection on stage and him killing a load of students by firing lightning bolts out of his guitar – as you do! The stage is then set for Eddie, Roger and Leslie to try and stop Curr’s plan of revenge on the people of his hometown, who banned his music and wouldn’t let him play any local gigs…
If all the above sounds somewhat silly and cheesy, it’s because it is. Certainly, they don’t make films like this anymore, which is a shame as there’s a sweet naiveté about Trick or Treat, and films of its ilk, including Hard Rock Zombies (1985) and Black Roses (1988); naiveté that instils it with a real, affectionate sense of nostalgia for a more innocent time. Not that is was, what with Christian groups, up and down the land, complaining about the bad influence of metal/punk music on the youth of the day, and implying that there were hidden, satanic messages residing in some of the records, particularly if played backwards. Trick or Treat has a few digs at this era, especially through a fun cameo by Ozzy Ozbourne, playing an evangelistic preacher decrying rock music as the Devil’s music. Ozzy is no actor, but the message is clear.
While Treat or Treat doesn’t really come up with anything particularly original, what it does, it does well, with a game cast, some fun 80’s special effects, a great soundtrack, by Fastway (if you’re into that sort of thing), and some pleasingly gratuitous T & A; and not all female, I hasten to add, before some of you get all hot under the collar. In fact, Treat or Treat’s stand-out scene is set in the backseat of a car when the bully’s girlfriend plays Eddie’s tape of Curr’s music. As she becomes immersed in the music’s sultry rhythms, a strange green glow emanates from her headphones and her clothes start undoing themselves when touched by the eerie mist, which is ‘all done in the best possible taste’, as Kenny Everett would say.
One of the nicest things about revisiting old favourites, like Trick or Treat, is noticing memorabilia from yesteryear, whether it’s the posters on Eddie’s wall (e.g. Anthrax, Twisted Sister, Raven. etc.) or cinema awnings displaying daft movie titles like ‘Lunch of the Dead’. Plus, seeing fun cameos by the likes of Ozbourne and Simmons; the latter being the better ‘actor’, by far.
Certainly, I can heartily recommend this film, especially to fans of eighties high concept horror, along the lines of Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) or Jim Wynorski’s Chopping Mall (1986), and fans of hard rock / heavy metal, with a big hair bent. In fact, I enjoyed the soundtrack to this film so much that I bought a copy on CD. Fortunately, you can now listen to most of Fastway’s tracks from the film on YouTube, if you don’t want to fork out a hefty price for the physical media.
Extras include:
Audio commentary with writer/producer Michael S. Murphy & writer Rhet Tophan, modulated by Michael Feisher from Red Shirt Productions – An interesting and wide-ranging commentary/double interview with the writing team behind Trick or Treat, Freddy’s Revenge, The Supernaturals and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Apparently, the studio head, Dino, asked Murphy and his normal writing partner, Joel Soisson, to make a film called Trick or Treat, but the two scripts they were offered were not great so they ended up writing it themselves, with later help from Rhet, who was younger and had fresh ideas. It was him who came up with the idea of ‘Back-masking’ for the film’s central conceit.
Rock & Shock – The making of Trick or Treat (81 mins) – A feature-length documentary about the making of the film. This excellent documentary consists of lots of sound-bites and mini interviews with many of the cast and crew, punctuated with lots of stills and behind-the-scenes shots from the movie. The producers discuss the origins of the ideas behind the story including when, back in 1982, teenagers were being encouraged to break their records and tapes to help clean their minds of evil! So Trick or Treat became Soisson’s payback for conservative society trying to stifle his own music tastes when he was younger. It was also interesting to hear how Rhet didn’t like Gene Simmons after he slagged off the script to his face, not knowing it was him that had written it. Oops! Also, Fastway weren’t the first choice of band for the soundtrack; ACDC were favourites, but were too busy at the time.
In the Spotlight – A tribute to Tony Fields (15 mins) – A sweet reunion featuring many of Tony’s close family and friends, including his mother, aunt, cousin and sister, coming together to talk about Fields life and career. Fields, who played Sammy Curr in the film, sadly passed away, aged 33, of a HIV-related cancer.
Horror’s Hallowed Grounds (The filming locations of Trick or Treat) (26.31 mins) – A quick travelogue showing some of the locations used in the film. For example, the main High School used was John T. Haggard High, which has been newly renovated.
After Midnight music video – This starts with a video clip of Ozzy Osbourne’s priest talking before warping into full on rock music. A fun MTV styled video.
Theatrical Trailer (3.26 mins) – “Rock N’ Roll will never die – at least not this Halloween” is the tagline for this cool but overlong trailer.
TV spots (1.08 mins) – Two abbreviated trailers for TV.
Picture gallery (24.28 mins) – A nice selection of stills and images from the film, all taken by the same photographer, Philip Caruso, who also does a commentary over the stills, if you’re so inclined to listen.
Press Kit (5.09 mins) – A fun electronic press kit with some fun imagery from the film. Pity its VHS picture quality though.
