Eddie Weinbauer (Marc Price), or Ragman to his friends (I should write “friend” in the singular because he only has one), is a metalhead in a school full of jocks and cheerleaders. The jocks mercilessly pick on him and the girls are mean when they pay any attention to him at all. When his hero, rock legend Sammi Curr (Tony Fields) dies in a tragic accident, Eddie is completely distraught. So much so that he skips school to hang out with a local DJ named Duke (Gene Simmons in a surprisingly great performance even if it isn’t much more than a glorified cameo). Duke gives Eddie an acetate record of Curr’s last and still unreleased album, Songs in the Key of Death.
Buy Trick or Treat (1986) 4K UHDEddie takes the record home and plays it. He immediately loves it. That record speaks to him. And I mean literally. When played backwards, he hears Sammi Curr talk directly to him. At first, he’s instructed on how to take fun revenge on his bullies. He tricks them into chasing him down a hall where they slip on some sudsy floors, and burst into the teacher’s lounge. But soon enough, Sammi is pushing more extreme measures. One time, Eddie gives the bully a cassette tape that he’s dubbed Songs in the Key of Death. The bully’s girlfriend listens to it with headphones and it nearly kills her (but first, because this is a 1980s horror film it magically turns her on and strips off most of her clothes).
Eventually, Eddie pushes back, saying the tricks have gone too far, but by then Sammi has gained enough power to materialize in the real world. He can also somehow teleport through radio waves, and he’s full of electricity. This leads to a hilarious scene in which he trips in a bathroom landing with his hand in a toilet bowl, the water electrocutes him.
The rest of the plot is just Eddie trying to stop Sammi from destroying all the kids at the school dance and in the town when Duke is set to play the album on the airwaves. It is a deeply silly movie and it totally worked for me. Surprisingly for a 1980s horror film, the violence is rather tame and the gore nonexistent. There are lots of explosions and plenty of those goofy, blue lightning bolts the 1980s loved so much, but I don’t think anyone so much as dies in it. And it wasn’t trying to garner a PG rating either as there is plenty of cursing and several gratuitous naked breasts.
Marc Price is quite good as Eddie Weinbauer, giving a realistic portrayal of a metalhead kid in this era. He’s smart and mostly nice, but the heavy music taps into the angst and despair he’s feeling allowing him to both feel like someone understands what he’s going through and giving him a release valve. I knew kids just like him in high school. Hell, I almost was one.
It attempts a romantic subplot, but it barely registers. Leslie (Lisa Orgolini) starts the film as a mean girl who is dating one of the bullies, but for reasons the film doesn’t explain, she becomes infatuated with Eddie. Maybe Sammie’s connection to Eddie gives him some sort of magnetic chemistry, or maybe Sammie’s electric powers are subconsciously turning her on, I dunno, but out of nowhere, she’s suddenly all into him even though he treats her like garbage. The film isn’t interested in any of it except films like this are supposed to have some romance and the plot periodically calls for Eddie to need some help.
Trick or Treat has a lot of fun playing around with all the political nonsense happening at the time. It was made right at the height of Satanic Panic and while Tipper Gore was advocating for those stupid Parental Advisory labels on records. Heavy metal was regularly in the news being the cause of all sorts of teenage delinquency. The film playfully thumbs its nose at all that, no more so than when it has Ozzy Osborne playing a religious nutter on the TV going off on the sexuality found in heavy metal lyrics.
Synapse Films has restored Trick or Treat with a 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative mastered in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) and approved by Director of Photography Robert Elswit.
Extras include:
- Lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio of the original 2.0 theatrical mix and an all-new 5.1 surround sound mix
- Audio commentary with director Charles Martin Smith, moderated by filmmaker Mark Savage
- Audio interviews with writer/producer Michael S. Murphey and writer Rhet Topham, moderated by film historian Michael Felsher
- Audio conversation with Paul Corupe and Allison Lang, authors of Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s
- Rock & Shock: The Making of Trick or Treat
- In The Spotlight: A Tribute to Tony Fields featuring interviews with the late actor’s family and friends
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: The Filming Locations of Trick or Treat with Sean Clark
- “After Midnight” music video
- Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots and Radio Spots
- Still Gallery featuring optional audio interview with still photographer Phillip V. Caruso
- Vintage electronic press kit
- Region free for worldwide playback
- Limited edition O-Card slipcover, available on FIRST PRESSING ONLY!
- Reversible Cover Art
Trick or Treat isn’t a great film by any means but it is a very enjoyable one to watch.
