Horror Anthologies: Trick 'r Treat

This might well be the best horror anthology out there it's spooky, well shot, utilizes great effects and lighting, features underrated actors pushing their most often cast parts to intense extremes, and takes place on Halloween!

The story flow: All the segments of this anthology interact with each other, and those interactions have impacts on the other stories. One character yells at another over the fence in one segment, and you see it from the other character's perspective in the next. And since there's no clunky connecting story, there's no having to reset after cheese-ball nonsense. Each story ramps up as the movie rolls on, just like a normal narrative movie, and the weak spots in each story are few. It's honestly refreshing.

The twists: As you'd expect, there are twists in each story, but many of them are new spins on old tropes. Some are more obvious than others, some lead you on to believe one thing only to take a left turn, and some even play on cultural themes that almost never get addressed in the horror genre.

The type casing: Dylan Baker and Brian Cox play variants of their typical rolls, but each is dialed to a new flavor of horrifying.

The best Halloween movie there is: Not only is this a great Halloween anthology, it's a great Halloween movie period. Even the Halloween franchises doesn't utilize the holiday as well as this film does. There's no better time of year to watch this gem than on Halloween night!





Dumped to home video: This movie was never given a chance to shine. It was finished, shelved, and unceremoniously released to home video. Unfortunately, the studio didn't license the music for theatrical release, and that's sadly why you'll never see it playing in revival theaters.

But do we recommend it: Yes, whole heartedly. This movie is one of our favorites.

The cutest fan art: If you're not familiar with Tales from the Stitch, allow me to introduce you through my FAVORITE of her offerings: the Crochet Sam Doll. It might be the perfectly crunched-through sucker, it might be the adorable size, but whatever it is, this little monster marched straight into my heart the first moment I saw him!