Trick or Treats (1982)

Charming and brutal

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Directed by Gary Graver, whose IMDb page is veritably packed with films like Sorceress, Sorceress II: The Temptress, Mortuary and Femalien II, this film concerns a babysitter, who is stuck watching a kid on Halloween while her boyfriend is in a play. Christopher, the babysittee, is a total asshole. I mean that — in a world of annoying horror movie children, he may be the most horrible ever. He keeps acting like he's cut himself or killed himself and she keeps finding him, cries and then he yells "trick or treat" and runs away.Meanwhile, the kid's dad, Malcolm (Peter Jason from They Live, In the Mouths of Madness and Prince of Darkness) was put into a mental asylum by the mother (Carrie Snodgrass, who allowed the production to use her home) years ago. He's broken out and is coming home to kill her. Except she's out with her new husband, Richard (David Carradine!) and only checking in via phone calls.Speaking of phone calls, Malcolm keeps calling home with threats.Oh yeah. Steve Railsback is the boyfriend. Paul Bartel shows up as a bum and literally chews up the entire scene that he is in. There's a movie within a movie that the babysitter's friend is editing. And Orson Welles is credited as the magic consultant.There is not a single likable person in this film. I wanted the kid to die literally from the minute he appeared on screen. The killer isn't particularly fearsome. And the tagline "…when Halloween night stopped being fun!" doesn't promise much.But I still find stuff to love in it, like the interstitial answering of the trick or treat door, hoping that something big is going to happen. And the movie within a movie's speech about transcendental meditation made me laugh.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/12/trick-or-treats-1982/

Alright I won't go as far as defending this long forgotten 1982 slasher because every single point that is made towards this film to why it sucks is completely valid. Trick Or Treats is not a good film at all. It truly does make me laugh that this got a theater release at all but all in all it's actually a rather charming film. It's not so bad it's good but it really comes very close at some points. If it were any worse it could be a small cult classic in it's own right joining the pool of the best worst horror films of the last 50 years. But it never quite gets there. All in all the irony is the people behind the film were much too talented to get the film to that level of bad. Sure it's atrocious. Sure there is no plot anywhere and the film is littered with tedious filler but all in all technically it's passable. The acting isn't great but it's not bad, the directing is okay and the potential the film had is there. It just never comes together and with a proper script it could've. I personally have 2 big qualms with the film. 1.It was much too dark. Frustrating really. It would be nice if the filmmakers would've been kind enough to show us what's going on! It seemed the longer the film went on the darker it seemed to get. The only 2 bulbs must have been going out *eyes* . 2.The comedy. Clearly Trick Or Treats wanted to be a satire of the slasher genre. It just doesn't work in the slightest. Student Bodies it's not! Nothing about Trick Or Treats is clever or funny. You actually forget it's a satire at all most of the time and only when the film forces a scene of forced humor do you realize how much it failed in that department. Now look Trick Or Treats is not a boring film like most people will make you believe. For all the filler the film has it must be complimented at moving at a nice pace. I can't even begin to understand how they managed that but they did. Maybe they fell into it? And if you're a slasher film buff it's worth the watch! Hey it's from 1982! And just the year alone is enough to make most genre fans hunt the title down. I enjoyed it. Bad film or not which it is.

Ok , I wanted to like this flick, really I did. But ...it is too hard to even remotely like... I had read about this movie and it sounded quite interesting. Also I found it had orginally been released as a Halloween gift to American Movie theaters. I went to the video store to find it. The cover looked pretty decent - depicting a ripped Trick Or treats bag with something bloody scratching its way out...So I said to myself , gotta see this. What a joke!!! I believe I didnt even see the end , thats bad. The beginning started out a tiny bit interesting - and im thinking this is leading up to something awful... Yeah RIGHT! What a Halloween nightmare alright. An utterly depressing JOKE! Just when you think something may happen or you are going to see something , anything gruesome - the gore youve been waiting for - BOOM - its completely DARK - and you can not see a dang thing! Complete - Halloween - DISASTER... Totally upsetting Boo Hoo

This is the worst movie I have ever seen. The acting is horrible, the camera work is pathetic, script is laughable. Chris Graver shares the same name as that of the director. If they're related it might help explain how Chris got the part.It's a shame David Carradine ever got involved with something like this.I hope none of you ever get suckered into buying or renting this movie.