Trick 'r Treat

Wild parties, candy, haunted houses, and sexy costumes. Halloween feels like a very modern holiday, but our contemporary festivities stem from some very ancient roots. Scholars agree that many of Halloween's staple activities and icons began with the Celtic Sawin celebration. October 31st marked the day between the light half of the year and the dark half, when the Celts lit bonfires and made offerings to appease harvest spirits. On this day, the window between our world and the worlds of the supernatural and dead opened, and many malicious pranksters, whether fairies, ghosts, or monsters of many breeds, would roam the earth freely. Traditions created to protect, fool, and honor the beings and hijinks of Sawin have inspired many of today's Halloween conventions.

But don't forget, one of the holiday's newer editions, the mischievous and adorable Protector of Spooky Practices, Sam, the iconic horror hero from Michael Doherty's cult classic Trick or Treat. Hello, Sydney. It's your killer host! My name is Parker, your resident horror fanatic. I'm Caroline, Scaredy Scream Queen. I'm Ian, Scary Movie Skeptic. And welcome to my favorite scary movie. What's your favorite scary movie is a horror film podcast where we're on a journey to find our favorite scary movie one at a time. Whether you hate them or love them, join us and discover yours. Spoilers ahead, so plan your movie screening every weekend before the episode release. So here we are, part one of our spooky, ooky, kooky, and creepy Halloween two-parter.

You'll have to stay tuned to see what we're listening to or watching next week. But this week, we watched the 2007 sleeper hit Trick-or-treat. Trick-or-Treat was written and directed by Michael Doherty. Trick-or-Treat was his feature debut as a director. He had previously written on X-Men 2. Or maybe it's just called X-2. Uh, he also wrote and directed Krampus from 2015. Oh my god. And Godzilla, King of Monsters, from this year. I came in one time when you were watching Krampus, and you were like, Oh, I just started it. You have to sit down and watch it. And I was appalled. Oh my god. Did you get cramps? I didn't, yeah, I didn't read that. What would you know about cramps, Ian?

You're not a woman. Damn it. Um, yeah, Krampus, it's it's good. I wish it was better, but it's a fun one to watch every year. And then just quickly, in 2009, Michael Doherty announced plans to create Trick-or-Treat 2, but um nothing happened until 2013 when Legendary Pictures officially announced that it would be happening, and then nothing happened until 2017, when Doherty said that he hoped, after he finished working on Godzilla, that he would be able to dive back into Trick-or-Treat 2 and make it his next project. But here we are still waiting. I guess Godzilla came out this year. So fingers crossed for next year. I think on IMB, it's IMDB it says 2020, but you know, you can never trust those until they're done.

In this movie, we have Dylan Baker who plays Principal Wilkins. He has a very familiar face. He's been in a lot of things. Um, but the standouts are Spider-Man 2 and 3 and The Cell from 2000. I feel like he's also been in a lot of like Disney TV shows, typically playing like the parent, you know. Brian Cox plays the role of Mr. Krieg also in a lot of things. Um, Manhunter from 1986, The Ring from 2002, and the autopsy of Jane Doe in 2016. Good movie. We also have Anna Anna Packwin, who plays the role of Lori. She was in the X-Men films, little tie there. Um, True Blood and Cameo in Scream 4 from 2011.

I also want to note that this movie has a lot of recognizable faces in it, but to keep things short, I only wanted to list the ones that I thought were the most prominent in the film, the biggest characters with the biggest faces. It also has Leslie Bibb, uh, Tam O Pinnicette, Rochelle Ice, and Quinn Lord as Sam. I don't know if I said all of those names correctly. The Parker summary reads An anthology of five creepy, macabre, and delightful Halloween tales woven together by appearances from the keeper of holiday traditions, Sam. Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score 84%, audience score 71%. The critics consensus quote a deftly crafted tribute to Halloween legends. Trick or Treat hits all the genre marks with gusto and old-fashioned suspense.

This is a film that you can add to your roster of every year Halloween movies that you'll watch and settle in for your spooky uh movie marathons when you want to get in the mood and the spirit for a little ghoulish fun. What'd you think? Did it make you feel Halloween-y? Yeah, for sure. Definitely the most Halloween that I've gotten from any movie other than Halloween Town, which to be honest, I didn't like that much. Yeah, Ian, I think uh you're a big fan of Halloween Town, right? Yeah, it has a lot of kid memories. I had never watched it until last year. And it sorry guys. But this one I feel like was giving me what Halloween Town gave to you guys when you were younger, but at an appropriate age for myself now.

Yeah. And they uh not similarly to Halloween Town, actually similarly to Halloween Town, they used a lot of costumes and things, but a few bad computer generated animations in that movie. In this movie, I think part of it is the texture and the uh real like hands-on tangibility of some of the effects that they use, all of the gore and even like the wolves and everything look very like ooh, I want to crawl into that. I I think the biggest sin in this movie was the lower thirds that they decided to use for later or next day. Did you see like the bottom of the text on the bottom right hand? Oh, why? Why? Because they uh it was set up like a comic book.

Yeah, I didn't like that. Oh, I thought it was cute. How interesting would it have been if they didn't have those and you had to piece together the timeline? Yeah, I think it would be hard because the movie, you know, a lot of it's happening simultaneously. Afterwards, Caroline and I sat and she was like, so which one came first in this? And then we were just kind of like going through them, and I was like, Wait, this one happened the same time as this one, and this one happened at the same time as this one. This one started before this one and ended after this one. So, really, I think you need some sort of marker to like ground yourself in time and in space.

And for me, that was the wolves howling. Mm-mm. Yeah, they have a few markers and a few characters wandering through uh the very opening couple, the uh like Scroogebot woman who's just being a crank, and uh her boyfriend husband, partner, whatever they are, um, they walk through a lot of these stories and kind of give us a sense of when when things are happening based on their locations, which is interesting because they're like the smallest story. So I take it you both sound pretty positive on the experience overall. Any main thoughts to share? Anything specifically that stuck out to you and worked and made it better, or anything that stuck out and made it worse, or I feel like they kept mentioning the history of Halloween, like some characters really got it, some were like disregarding it.

I just kind of wanted to know a little bit more about that background in order because it seemed to be this like ominous thing of like if you disregard these rules and ignore the history, then something bad will happen to you. And I was like, well, what are the like tell me the rules, you know? Yeah, and I think there aren't any hard and true ones. I've been doing a lot of research on the history of Halloween for this because Michael Doherty made this movie as like a um, you know, a tribute to the the traditions of Halloween. And the main point of all that is that Sam is supposed to be, he wanted to make this figure icon for the holiday, similarly to Santa Claus for Christmas or the Easter bunny for Easter, things like that.

So he made this little trick-or-treater with the pumpkin head spoiler, um, who tries to enforce the rules of Halloween, and he's the one who kind of weaves everyone's tales together. You know, we start with this very first couple, and the husband tells uh Emma, he says, like, don't blow out that jack-lantern, it's tradition, you know. And then Sam sees them. We don't even see Sam in person until at the end watching them. We just see through his uh burlap mask. And uh he's like, Uh you're gonna blow that out on my night? And then he goes and uh jumps out and kills her with that cute little lollipop. So uh, you know, Rhonda gives us a little bit of like a rundown of Sawwin and the history of you know the ancient traditions of Halloween and a little spooky tale.

But yeah, nobody gives us any specifics. I think that some of the stories are tied to like modern traditions and some of them are a little more big picture. I just felt like the whole movie I was like, oh, like something's gonna happen and like these storylines are gonna merge, but it was like kind of nice, they were just their own thing. Yeah, I mean it's really a collection of short stories. It's just that you have little tiny pieces that are hooking them all together, and then kind of the wrap-up at the end where you see everybody kind of going home and ending their festivities. I enjoyed that because I feel like Halloween means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Mm-hmm. It's true. Uh, I personally would love to go to this little town in Ohio. Yeah, dude. Ohio is raging. Yeah, raging. They got a sweet parade, but not too many people. That looked like a parade you could run around and have fun at. You know, we live in NYC. Yeah, that was the perfect type of crowded. Yeah, the Halloween parade when we go this year, it's gonna be uh a lot to handle. So I liked the vibe there. And also, it wasn't just all party. There was some charm to it. Like bring your kids too, like but not but not mind the drunken people, so it's like a safe, healthy drinking environment. Yeah, I don't know if I'd call it a safe town, but uh a fun one, maybe.

Let's start with old principal Wilkins. Ugh. Principal Wilkins is my kind of principal. He sees a kid causing a ruckus, kills him. And then while he's trying to bury him in his backyard, interrupted by his neighbor, so he gets some good stomps in, he gets some good chopping, feeds his dog a finger, uh his neighbor's dog, and then his son has been yelling about carving this jack-lantern. Help me with the eyes, he says. And we think he's going to go kill him because he's an annoying little bastard. And instead, not literal bastard, just you know, I hate him. And then instead of murdering him, they have a severed head on the table to carve, like a check-lantern.

I gotta say, guys, this is why we have to pay our educators a little bit more because it drives them mad. Do you think that all the candy was poisoned? And that any kid that took this. No, because he came back with candy with quote unquote new and purposefully gave him that piece. You hear these things about like people putting like razor blades and apples and uh what else do people do? I don't know, but my mom took that very seriously as a kid. It was like we couldn't touch anything until she looked at it all, and I was like, What are you talking about? Like, what are people gonna do? Yeah, so Principal Wilkins. I think she was just like eat candy, go to sleep.

Principal Wilkins, he's actually doing his job as an educator saying, Hey Charlie, you're supposed to check your candy before you eat it. And he learned his lesson. Alright, here's my question. How many bodies were in that hole in the back? At least two. Yeah, yeah. In that year, or do you think he does it every year? Well, one of them was alive. Yeah, I thought that was Billy. Or not Billy's Charlie. Charlie's head was in the basement, though, so it can't have been Charlie. There was someone else alive in his hole, if you know what I mean. Oh, yes, you're right. Because I did the arm that popped out, it looked like they were wearing a clown costume.

Well, I love this little skip because how many times have we seen something similar on like TV sitcoms and stuff where somebody's trying to sneak around and do something and they keep getting interrupted and they're trying to be sneaky? And it's funny this time that he's like murdering children while he's doing it. So I like the idea of like a demented principal whose job is to care for children and he's killing them. And plus, nobody in American films will kill a kid, and I'm sick of them. So, Principal Wilkins, thumbs up from me. I thought he was trying to keep his kid, Billy, in the dark about it. And then that kid is just a freaking weirdo too.

Well, weirdo one, because he won't stop screaming out that fucking window. And then two, yeah. He's like into it. Help me with the eyes. Well, do you think he killed his wife? Because the wife was dead. Maybe. I didn't know. I don't know. Or do you think maybe his wife died and then he went off the rails? Well, that was what I was grappling with. No, I think I don't know. I think he killed the wife. I think there are many questions and no good answers. Excuse me. Speaking of autumnal colds. Yeah, I got the sniffles and a nice jazz voice, if you know what I mean. Principal Wilkins also gives us some important information for the themes of the movie.

He says two things that I wrote down when he's talking to Charlie at the beginning before he spused that beautiful viscous vomit. My dad talking tonight is about respecting the dead. This is the one night that the dead have all sorts of other things. Rome for pay us a visit. All these traditions. Jack-o'-lanterns, putting on costumes, pinning out treats. They were started to protect us, but nowadays no one really cares. I feel like the whole movie is a plea to be like, please bring Halloween back to the fun and like warmth and joy that it used to be, but nobody's respecting it. We gotta get Sam in here to chop some heads off. So that's a big one about the beginning for me is that Principal Wilkins, he's sick of people stomping all over Halloween.

When those kids knock on his door and they're like, Can we take a pumpkin for UNICEF? Which I was like, What? But um he was just like, Are you gonna smash it? And they were like, No, of course not. So respect Halloween. Is this the only storyline that doesn't have Sam involved? Sam uh goes trick-or-treats at Principal Wilkins' door behind the three children. So not like an active I think it's because he's so well at being terrible. Yeah, Principal Wilkins is in tune with Halloween. That's true. So Sam takes his candy and he gets out-I mean, Principal Wilkins is dragging a body through his house and still stops to give kids candy. That's a man who's committed to tradition.

Why don't we talk about our little The Ladies? The ladies. We are the Muses. You go girl. So we're introduced to them in great scary movie fashion. Squeezing their their lovely bodies into these little costumes, which I love their costumes. You know, I would like to uh squeeze into one of those one time. That could happen. We could do that. I didn't see that storyline. No. I didn't see that. I didn't either, especially because we've been trained by our great headmaster horror film fanatic connoisseur. Me or Principal Wilkins? You to uh say I mean we are presented with these four promiscuous ladies who are clearly, you know. No shame though. Yeah, no, no shame whatsoever. But I've been taught from all these scary movies that they are like the first to go that start the bad.

Yeah, yeah. But total power play here. Love it. I was thinking when things were starting to move along in the plot line, I was like, oh my god, are they sirens? What they kind of were. Yeah. They're getting dressed for a fun night out, and we have a lot of really fun virginity talk. We think that Lori, played by Anna Pack when dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, is being pressured by her sister and her sister's friends to have sex tonight. And we keep hearing these things like she wants it to be special. It's my first time, so just bear with me. Turns out there are a couple of werewolves, and it's her first Halloween ripping into a man, if you know what I mean.

A man, that is Principal Wilkins. Yes, so full circle on that, and Principal Wilkins, up to some shenanigans out at this parade, biting into a woman's neck with fake vampire fangs. Wait, that's Principal Wilkins? Yeah. Yes. Oh, I never knew that. Do you think he's like a cannibal? I never put that together. Maybe. Yeah, when they take his mask off, it is him. Like, do you think that is why he's doing all of that? I don't know. My thought was he bites into this woman, they're like making out getting pretty hot and heavy, and then she sees blood on her and is like, can you be so drunk that you just wouldn't realize that you were like gushing blood all over the place?

I don't know. That's a little comedy told me. And then Helen Shivers styles, she style, she runs out to the parade, but he gets her, and nobody, uh gr uh Grumpy Emma, robot lady, won't help her because she's like, she's just drunk. And then Principal Wilkins arranges her on the sidewalk. People think she's passed out. I think that's the scariest part about Halloween for me, is like people don't know when you're kidding or not. Yeah. Like that that scares me a little bit. Yeah, there's a new movie this year called Haunt, which I was a little critical of on our online review, but actually it's pretty good, and I need to watch it again. But it's about some kids who go to a haunted house and they can't tell when things stop being a game.

Yeah. Um, also, um, my birthday is the day after Halloween, and I told Parker this during the movie. But the reason that I was not born on Halloween is because my doctor is superstitious. And I'm very glad that my birthday is not on Halloween. I don't know, a fun, like witchy Halloween birthday. That'd be pretty cool. I always did. I always did like pumpkin carvings as a kid for my birthday parties. Ooh, fun. Yeah. But your birthday party sounds cool. Yeah. Um, what'd you think of the transformation scene though? It was pretty intense. It got very sexy, and that Marilyn Manson uh Sweet Dreams are Sweet Dreams is playing, and then they start just ripping their skin off, like uh sexy at first and then more violent.

At first, it's like a little legging. Wait, it's a skin flap! I wasn't a huge fan of that. Oh, I loved it. Just just the like method that they turned into a werewolf through, like Peeling their skin off? Yeah, I don't I don't know. It didn't work for me. Oh, I love that. And then they have those big wolves, and she says, like, uh, she says, like, what big eyes you have, and then she has to be. Well, then the little Red Riding Hood thing made sense. I loved that. Yeah. Very cute, full circle. I also love this story because um I have a quote from the special features, David J. Skull, author of Death Makes a Holiday, a Cultural History of Halloween, said, quote, Halloween is supposed to be our birthright to become whatever it is that is clawing to get out.

Whether it's our inner child, inner demon, or our altered ego. Halloween is the time for that. So I love this storyline because it's like Halloween is the day. You can be who you really want to be. You don't have to hold back. You can wear something crazy or wild. You can go out and be a little sexy and horny if you want. You can just go out and have fun with your friends trick-or-treating. There's you can do anything. Halloween is a holiday for everyone. And Lori and her sister and her friends, that's what I like about this storyline, is they're like, we are these strong wear women, and we are like ready to feast tonight. Mmm, that's gonna be us.

Me at least, on Halloween. Ian, what do you think about the wear ladies? Did you like them? Were they sexy? No. He's lying. I can see the boner from here. He loves a little plain girl on Halloween. Plain? That's me. Don't sell yourself short. She said she's a plain girl. No, this year you're going to be a sexy. Well, we won't reveal. We won't reveal. Oh man. Wait to see what Caroline will be. Can't wait to get my costume. It might be terrible. I don't know. No, no, no. Alright. Let's hop over to this group of shenanigans-causing kids. We got a bunch of little shits, and they don't matter. Who matters is Rhonda. This cute, adorable girl who loves Halloween.

She knows all the facts. She's carved all the pumpkins. She's dressed up as a witch, and these kids take her to a quarry to play a mean prank because a certain number of years earlier, some kids were murdered in a weird accident. Accident, air quotes, where a bus driver was paid to drive a bus of disturbed, that's how they're described in the movie, disturbed kids off of a cliff into a lake. They take her there to prank her, and instead, they're the ones getting tricked tonight. And Rhonda's the one who makes it out. Uh, Rhonda, super cute. Rhonda. Rhonda. Well, here's the thing. I don't know if he was paid to drive it off the cliff because that happened by accident.

It happened by accident. What was the original plan? I think the plan was to kill them. Because he was probably gonna leave the bus. Yeah, the girl in the angel costume. I didn't care to write her name down because she's a little shit. But uh, she says that the children were sick of having or the the parents were sick of their dirty little secrets, and they were willing to gather some money to uh be rid of them. So I think the plan was to kill them, and he was giving them candy to calm them down because they knew they weren't going the right way to get to school, and then that little vampire kid drives off the cliffs.

I actually like felt a little stir of tears within me when those kids were going off the cliff. It was really sad. Yeah. Well, he kept saying he was like, wrong way, wrong way. Yeah, and he's like, I just want to go home. People, they're not nice. Anyway, the kids were really mean. They played this horrible joke on her. Yeah, Rhonda, she just needs a little love. Rhonda came out of a house that looked very similar to Mr. Krieg's house when we get there. Uh, she is not related to Mr. Krieg, but a fun fact about Rhonda's house is that is that it was sketched and designed to look like Carrie White's house from Carrie at the end when they go when she goes back home from the prom with the candles in the window.

Yeah, I think this story has the most emotional pull for me, uh, because I love Rhonda and I love those kids in the bus. They're so sad, and they um everybody ends up getting their uh their revenge. They're adjusting. Do you think there's something um either intentional or symbolic of the group of kids bringing Ronda with them when Rhonda herself is supposedly slow or she's described as a savant. Yeah, but I you know, like paralleling that with the the children. Yeah. I didn't think I hadn't thought about that before. I wonder. I mean, I just thought put it up to cruel children. Um It's an interesting idea though. But also, I mean, the kids that were in the bus show up later on as well.

Like, do you think they come out every Halloween to play, or do you think that the kids like summoned them? Hmm. I also wonder if Rhonda had been left had not gotten into the elevator, do you think they would have spared her? I don't know. Hmm. A lot of curious questions. So Rhonda has a little nod at Sam after she gets out of the elevator and they pass and go along their way. Well, Rhonda's pretty woke to Halloween, so maybe she knows who Sam is. Maybe. And Sam's just like, my fellow Halloween do-gooder. Continue on your path of spreading the colour. Kind of like Principal Wilkins. Like Sam knows the good ones and the bad ones.

Yeah, and maybe Sam was also kind of like, tricks have been tricked tonight, my will is being done. So Sam's just monitoring everything. Yeah, Sam's the enforcer of tradition. And then the last of the large storylines is Mr. Krieg, which I never really liked that you had him all kind of in one chunk. I like how everybody is kind of woven together, and Mr. Krieg is just saved to the end. That's a bit of a weird pacing thing to me where it kind of feels like everybody's stories have come to an end, and then you just have one more. I like how everybody's are kind of puzzled together, but then Mr. Krieg's. It's my one complaint about this movie.

I wish they had found a way to put him in. But his is also the most traditional horror, and so maybe it would be tough to keep the uh suspense and tension. So Mr. Krieg is not the bus driver. He is, in fact, the bus driver. Uh, which is revealed, you know, he has a spooky night with Sam because he will not uh give candy to the trick-or-treaters, and Sam comes in for his revenge on this denial of Halloween tradition and uh tortures him a bit. He gets some good stamps, a cut Achilles, uh, and only is he appeased, Sam that is, when he manages to get some candy off to off of old man Krieg.

I also thought that he Sam left Mr. Krieg because like Sam knew what was coming for him. Maybe. Maybe he like he saw Rhonda and was like, you've started the process and then got to Mr. Krieg and was like and maybe that answers a question from our last story. Maybe the kids have never been released before, and that's why they're just now coming for Mr. Krieg. Uh I like to think of it a little more of like Sam was like, Alright, I'm going in for the kill, and then he was like, candy bar for me? And then he's like, Okay, I guess I can go. My uh spirit has been spread. Uh Sam is just so fucking cute.

He's got that sack on his head, and then he gets shot a few times, and he has pumpkin guts coming out of him, and that big pumpkin head. I want to be his father. He's a child. Alright. I'm not friends with children. If I were to have a child, it would be Sam, pumpkin boy. Close your ears, hot dog. Uh I can have two children. I'll adopt hot dog. Uh, yeah, R.I.P. to spike the dog. Dogs never uh never get a good fate in here. But you lose one, you get another. Sam. Uh, did you love Sam? Do you think he's cute? He's pretty cute. The little onesie was very adorable. Mm-hmm. And he moved. Uh, I was watching an interview with Michael Doherty, and he was like, I was very adamant about having an actual child because children move like children, and it's hard to get adults to pretend to act like children.

And I think you can really feel that he has a special way of moving. Uh, the only time they used it, they even had an eight-year-old stunt double who would do stunts uh for him, but the only time they had an adult was when Sam drops down from the ceiling in that gorgeous shot where he's try so Mr. Krieg, he's crawled through the glass. Ouch, painful. And then he's trying to open the door, and you see Sam crawling on the ceiling, and then he drops down on him, and there's the beautiful shot right before where it kind of like pans up to the ceiling. Love it. But uh that was an adult woman who is a stunt actress and gymnast who is 4'7.

Wow. So that's the only time an adult was used, I'm pretty sure. But uh, yeah, this was kind of their grand finale of um stories, you know, Mr. Krieg in this in the kind of quote slasher character. And then we have just Henry and Emma left, which are seem like a putty, pretty plain. Plity. Plity. They seem like a pretty plain Jane couple, except for that kinky porn tape that he puts on. Um, except their house is decked out. Yeah, Halloween decorations. She's like, God, I hate Halloween. And it's like, then who decorated your house? She said they hate Halloween because her parents are coming the next morning. My birthday. I think she said she hates Halloween too.

I think she hates cleaning up. She seems like a pretty big Grinch about Halloween. She's like Mr. Krieg too. But they go all out, so it's kind of a I don't know. Who knows? Yeah, something that I really enjoy about this first. So this is actually the first scene of the movie when Henry and Emma are cleaning up their yard, or just Emma, because what else are women good for? But she's taking all of the sheets off of like the scarecrow ghosts and stuff. I think there are some fun um inversions of expectation here because every time she pulls one of those sheets off, the movie has kind of like a like, uh, are we gonna do it?

Are we gonna do it? And she puts the sheets into the box and sheet monster comes out and gets her. And then very violent, thrown out into the sidewalk, and then there's that big like slash and splatter into the sheets. And the kids see it. Yeah, I love that. Yeah, and then that kind of calls back to um the animated short that Michael Doherty made in in his NYU studies, uh, which was called Seasons Greetings, and that was his first kind of um inkling idea of who Sam was. And in the short, Sam's trick-or-treating and a man attacks him, and then you see Sam pulling his trick-or-treat bag with a big man inside. And so that kind of reminded me of this as he kills Emma, and then she's kind of pulled back with the sheet, almost like Sam's trick-or-treat bag.

Ian needs to be Sam for Halloween. Oh, cute. Oh my god, you have a red onesie and everything. Uh, and we could tie a sack over your head and not look at you all night. Oh, it would be so cute. No, thank you. They actually have a lot of Sam stuff at Spirit Halloween right now. I believe it. So you could get a good mask probably from there. Anyway, Emma dies, Death by Lollipop. That's how I want to go. But I'd loved, and Parker pointed it out the first time, but they showed it twice. The hand hanging from a tree with a ring on it. Yeah. They have some fake limbs hanging from the branches. It's those kind of details that bring me joy.

Where he's like, oh, she didn't get around to taking the fake limbs down. But it's her limbs. Those are not fake. Out of these five main stories, what would you say is your favorite? Did one which one jumped out at you and really snagged your attention? I loved the kids. I feel like that could have been a whole movie if they really dragged it out. Um they could have gone into a lot more backstory and all of that, and could have been a full movie. Yeah, Ian? I'd have to agree. I think the kids is probably my favorite storyline. See, I could pull a cheap move and say I love them all, but I'm not going to.

I love Mr. Krieg because I love Sam, but no, I love the ladies and their sexy Halloween costumes. I think they look so pretty and fun. And then, yeah, that transformation seam gives me shivers. And Helen shivers. And yeah, I love when they start ripping the skin. And the very first time the fingernail drags down the that woman's back and blood pours out, and you're like, ew, and then her back just like over. Do you know what her tattoo says? I didn't. Did you? No. No, I was trying to read it the whole time. Well, I yeah, I love that. So, like I said, trick-or-treat was made as a tribute to Halloween traditions. And in the intro, I said that it's based off of this Celtic celebration of Sawin, which is when the light half of the year turns into the dark half of the year, and they like big bonfires um to appease and celebrate the harvest, uh, the spirits.

And a big thing was that the barrier between our world and the supernatural world and the world of the dead is uh thinnest on that day. So they would dress up as monsters uh to blend in with all of the spirits that would be coming over from the other world so that they wouldn't be kidnapped or taken or tricked by these spirits. That's kind of the biggest Halloween pool from that one. There are many others, like um, they would carve turnips and light them like jack-o'-lanterns, but then when Europeans moved to America where pumpkins are native, they changed to pumpkins so that there's a little more space to do some carving. Um, a few other fun ones are that lack of skill here.

Yeah. Another fun one is that so there are two uh theorized origins of trick-or-treating. One is that uh in a medieval Christian tradition, as Christianity began sweeping Europe, uh Pope Gregory moved the Catholic tradition of All Saints Day from spring to November 1st to try and cover up Sawin, the pagan traditional holiday. And that means the 31st became the eve of All Saints Day or All Hollows Eve, which became all uh Halloween. Part of All Saints Day was that they would pray for the spirits that were trapped in purgatory to see if they could be released into heaven. And so homeless people or beggars would go door to door asking for soul cakes, which people in the um houses would give to them in exchange for them saying prayers for the souls trapped trapped in purgatory.

That's one idea for where trigger treating started. Another one that I read, and I'll put all of the sources for this research in the notes for this episode. Because there's a lot of interesting stuff you can read on these traditions, and there's a lot of different, like, uh ancient traditions that have been kind of smushed into what we have today. So historians kind of go back and forth on, oh, it could have been this or that or this or that. There's a really cool urban legend about jack-o'-lanterns, too. So there's some dispute over where that one came from as well. But another one was that in the 1930s, a lot of people started moving from rural rural areas to big cities, and there were a lot of trouble-making children who were used to having free run of the uh farms in the countryside.

They started causing a lot of trouble and not just fun like trick-or-treat Halloween trouble. They were like smashing windows and throwing large objects in front of trains to make them crash and things like that. So there was a big town committee that formed to try and problem solve, and what they came up with were like house-to-house parties, kind of like a like party crawl, but for like kids to go from house to house and celebrate and get candy, and that's another source of trick-or-treating, but that's 1930, so that's much more recent. My last fun fact is that the Celtic holiday sawwin is spelled S-A-M-H-A-I-N, and that's where Michael Doherty got the name Sam, was from the spelling of Sawwin.

And he made Sam kind of the uh the king of Halloween, and I love him. I want that trick-or-treat too. I want it. Uh, any final thoughts? I've really been yapping for on this one, but any final thoughts on trick or treat? Are you gonna add it to your yearly rotation? I would watch it again. Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, for sure. Uh, in between my Google log, if you don't know the Google Log is on shutters, and it's basically the Not sponsored. Someone give us some money, please. It's uh kind of the equivalent of like having a video of a fireplace going during like the holidays and winter months. Um, but it's basically a jack-o'-lantern that sits there and flickers, and then every once in a while, like there will be lightning or thunder in the background and like scream.

Yeah, like a big scream in the background, or like a little skull next to it, like chatters. At one point, like a little village of people got out of the pumpkin and ran around it. Yeah, me and Caroline were just sitting there like having a nice evening chat with the cool while we kept jumping because these big noises would happen on the ball. Every five minutes was like something would happen, and then we would look up and we're like, what the hell is that? It's pretty fun. It's it's pretty fun. Will you trick or treat this year? I will. So a very large entry into our uh roster of murders for this movie. Which one would you say could be your most memorable?

I would have to say the kid eating the candy and then vomiting and then getting his head carved. Man, there were some um gags in that vomit. The the noise particularly was. If I think of a murder on Trick or Treat, it's gotta be from the candy. So Carol. Um, I think Principal Wilkins just like getting destroyed by our lady werewolves. That scene, the fear in his eyes after he had murdered several kids, possibly his wife, I don't really know. That was pretty good. I'm tempted to say Mr. Krieg because I like the comic book effect when the zombie children show up at his house to rip him apart, and then it turns back into the comic books for the credits.

But I'm gonna go with Emma. Very first kill. Her being thrown out into the sidewalk, and then Sam slashing her underneath the sheets at least. It is yeah, I think that's a very visceral kill, too. That's uh maybe one of the more violent ones, and I enjoy that. What from Trigger Treat might haunt your dreams tonight? I'm gonna say what Caroline was saying earlier about being stuck in a crowd with no one to help you and not understanding what you're going through. I think Emma kicked it on the steak with the thick mollipop in her mouth. It was pretty scary to say. I don't know, something about that like crushed bus at the bottom of the quarry with those kids and there.

Drowning. I multiple times I have thought like, if this happens, how will I get out of a sinking car? It's tough, as I understand it. Maybe a good uh you have like five seconds to act and that's it. Maybe a good honorable mention for me would be uh kind of similar to The Strangers, where Mr. Krieg is walking around and Sam's just like scuttering on the ceiling or under the bed, and he's like, Where are you? But he doesn't know. I like a lot of that. And then finally, would you give Trick or Treat a smash or a slash? Hard smash. Smash. Ooh, me too. The hardest smash yet. Uh so I guess that leads us to pondering, wondering, but not for long answers.

What's your favorite? Scaring. This is hard because I don't know if I want to rate trick or treat first because it's like seasonal and I'm really feeling it. But like no, I'm gonna go with it. I'm gonna hard smash trick or treat. It's my favorite. I'd have to agree. Trigger treat has become the front runner for season two. And I'm going to also up it to Trick or Treat. I adore this. I think it's super fun. And uh even more festive, maybe perhaps than our next movie. But I thought Halloween is a sacred day, and so next week we will be watching the 2018 reboot or direct sequel to the original. Halloween. So join us then as we watch Halloween.

Until next time, when we do that, you can leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. Uh that'd be super helpful. And you might get a shout out on the next episode, Carol. Alright, this one comes from Charlie August. Shout out, Charlie. Who said horror content that fills the void? Oh my god. Sexy. Charlie says, I love you guys. You are so fun to listen to, and each of you brings such a different perspective on the films, which is interesting to hear. You debate and offer your own insight. So much great horror content for me to listen to while I'm sewing at work and have no core co-workers who love horror to talk to.

That's so nice. We hear from you. You fill my void, if you know what I mean. Alright. I'm gonna let you have your own room. Uh thank you. So if you want to hear similar talk about you, leave us a review on Apple. Unsolicited sexual innuendos. Oh, solicit. Solicit us. Uh until then, my name is Parker Heron. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and letterboxed at Parker Del Rey. My name is Caroline, and you can find me on Instagram at Carol Manifesto. And my name's Ian Hoyt. You can find me on YouTube by searching Ian Hoyt. You can also find the whole Scary Movie Pod crew on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at ScaryMovie Pod and YouTube as well.

We just started posting our podcast there if you'd rather listen on YouTube. Uh visit our website for all of our latest reviews on horror new releases, some exciting stuff coming up soon, including coverage of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Look us up there if you dare. And as always, we would love to hear your thoughts, comments, and feedback if you want to email us at Scarymoviepod at gmail dot com.