Trick or Treat (1986)

Eddie Weinbauer (Marc Price), an awkward high school student, faces relentless bullying from the "cool" kids. Eddie retreats into his private world of heavy metal. When Eddie's idol, Sammi Curr (Tony Fields), is killed, Eddie is beyond devastated. Things seem as bleak and dark as they can get - until Eddie begins hearing Sammi's voice speaking directly to him on his latest album. It seems that Sammi doesn't want to be dead. He wants Eddie to help bring him back to life, regardless of how many people have to die.It's difficult for me to explain my reasoning, but I've always found Trick or Treat an effective little horror film. For whatever reason, it creeps me out. It might be the demonic nature of the subject matter or Tony Fields' incredibly effective performance or the atmosphere director Charles Martin Smith creates - I'm not sure. Whatever, this is a film that fills me with a real sense of unease. Another big plus for me as far as the film goes is the performance of Marc Price. It's hard to imagine Skippy from Family Ties giving a performance like this. You'd never know he was capable based on his time on television. He plays Eddie as a complicated, multi-layered character. He makes Eddie seem "real". Whether it's a scene where he's being bullied or a scene where he's defiant and confident with the strength he gets from Sammi or a scene where he's running scared, Price delivers. It's good stuff.A couple of other things I'll mention before I end this: 1. Gene Simmons is fantastic. I've seen him do some other things, but here, he's really good. I can't, however, say the same for Ozzy. 2. I got a real kick out of seeing Elaine Joyce in the film as Eddie's mother. She was always a favorite of mine from the 1970s-era game-show circuit.

When I first saw the movie, I still in Grade 5 or 6. There are several scenes that I still remember to this day, even though I never new what the title of the movie was. I was pleasantly surprised when I watched Trick or Treat, and realized it was the movie I had been searching for a long time. The memorable scene from my childhood(spoiler alert) was the toilet scene. Despite its age, it was fun to watch even now. Who would not want to see a metal listening nerd get revenge, and also get the girl? Who would have thought an evil rock star could be so bad ass? Who would imagine a rock star playing a priest bashing the music? Other strong points of the movie is the relatable characters such as Eddie, and his friend. The special effects were cool too. And the music before the climax literally rocked. In short, it was a great movie for Halloween.

Actually, I never bought into the metal was satanic and stuff, but this movie kind of played on that idea. Though certainly not a movie to take seriously or to rate really high, it does serve its purpose in that it entertains while it is playing. The story has a metal band burned to death in their hotel, one of their fans has a dream to this effect and said band starts to go on a kill spree from beyond the grave. So yes, a bit of "Nightmare on Elm Street" plot going on here. Granted Freddy never molested a girl in a car before. There was another movie featuring a heavy metal band in it, but it was very different in how it played out as it had a band that kind of took over a town of kids and made them crazy. This one simply has the one fan of the band kind of helping the killer spirit at first then trying to stop him. Nothing to gruesome in it as I do not remember all that many gory kills. Quite frankly, the scene I do remember most is the scene of the girl wearing the headphones and then being molested by some creature incarnation of the band. Nothing great, but a nice time filler.

It's silly, not very original and about as far away from 'high quality' as you can get, but all that stuff aside; Trick or Treat is at least an entertaining piece of crap, and I wouldn't have asked for more going into it. The film seems to take influence from 'outsider getting their own back' films such as Stephen King's Carrie (among many others), as well as Wes Craven's popular modern classic 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' as it features an evil entity being brought back from the dead via unusual means. This is all mixed in with a heavy metal soundtrack and themes coming from the insanely silly case involving Judas Priest about records harbouring secret messages when played backwards. The plot focuses on Eddie Weinbauer; a heavy metal loving outcast who is devastated when his favourite rock star dies tragically in a hotel fire. Not content to just let it go, Eddie begins playing one of the dead rockers records backwards, and soon realises that he can communicate with him through said record. It's not long before Eddie is using his new found powers to get revenge on all those that wronged him...Naturally, this film has all manner of plot holes; but you can hardly fault it for that as Trick or Treat makes no attempt to be a 'serious' horror film anyway, and the film is much more fun to watch if you forget about any plot problems. It's clear that director Charles Martin Smith has a sense of humour; this is shown best during a hilarious sequence involving Ozzy Osbourne and a cameo as an anti-heavy metal priest! I cant really say that this film is 'about' heavy metal, but the music style at the centre does play more of a role than simply being a backdrop for the silly story; though if it's trying to make any sort of point, I'm not really sure what it is as the film pokes fun at those that condemn metal; but then features a heavy metal singer as the lead villain. Anyway, it's not too important. The film does feature a few good and interesting set-pieces, though there is a lack of blood and gore as the director seems to prefer dodgy eighties special effects. Anyway, this is hardly a great film and I doubt I'll remember much about it in a few weeks time; but its fun enough and I did enjoy it.