Trick or Treat works best when viewed as a satirical look at a time when parents were actually afraid of things like backward masking and Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil image.
It’s impossible for me to review 1986’s Trick or Treat without giving some context. When this film was released to theaters in October, 1986, I was a freshman in college. I was a devout heavy metal fan and had read about this movie for months in heavy metal magazines of the time like Faces Rocks and Metal Edge. It was, according to the publicity, going to be the ultimate heavy metal horror movie. However, when I actually got to see the final product, I was heavily disappointed. I thought the soundtrack was okay but the rest was overly silly and made metal fans look like dweebs. I promptly forgot about it. Fast forward to 2019. Now, I’m in my early 50s. I had the opportunity to watch the movie again and found myself enjoying it quite a bit. It’s still silly but now I realize that it’s supposed to be.
High school student Eddie Weinbauer (Marc Price) is a bit of an outcast. He’s awkward, doesn’t dress like the popular kids, and listens to heavy metal. He’s also relentlessly bullied by the football team, especially Tim Hainey (Doug Savant.) He finds solace in his bedroom amongst his heavy metal posters and albums. He can put on his headphones, listen to his favorite bands, and escape the cruelty of the real world for a while. Eddie’s hero is Sammi Curr (Tony Fields,) a controversial heavy metal singer who grew up in the same town. Eddie worships Sammi because he escaped high school and made it to the big time on his own terms.
When Eddie learns that Sammi has been killed in a hotel fire, he is devastated. He goes to see his disc jockey friend, Nuke (Gene Simmons,) who gives him a copy of Sammi’s final, unreleased album. Nuke plans to play it at midnight on Halloween as a tribute to the late singer. When Eddie takes it home and plays it, he notices a backwards message. When he spins his turntable in reverse to decode it, he unleashes Sammi’s vengeful spirit. Sammi promises to take on Eddie’s enemies and “nail them all.”
The idea of a rock star, especially one as over-the-top as Sammi Curr, coming back from the dead to kill those that bully his biggest fan is pretty cool for a horror film. And, for the most part, Trick or Treat has fun with it. Sammi Curr is an amalgam of artists like Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper. At the time this film came out, Ozzy’s infamous bat-biting incident was still fresh in everyone’s minds and Alice Cooper had just resumed using a snake as a stage prop. (Ozzy Osbourne actually has an extended cameo in the movie as an anti-rock evangelist.)
Marc Price, who at the time was best known for playing the hopelessly nerdy Skippy on TV’s Family Ties, is just fine as the embattled Eddie. Tony Fields, a former Solid Gold dancer, definitely looks the part of Sammi Curr when he’s posing or standing still. His stage moves, however, are more akin to a cheerleader than a metal god.
This film perfectly captures the Satanic Panic atmosphere that was prevalent in the late 1980s and utilizes it to create a villainous persona for Sammi. Unfortunately, the film can’t quite find a steady horrific or comedic tone, so it ping-pongs uncomfortably between the two. As a horror film, it’s not very scary and as a comedy it’s not terribly funny. It does have flashes of brilliance but they’re few and far between. Trick or Treat works best when viewed as a satirical look at a time when parents were actually afraid of things like backward masking and Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil image. For fans of heavy metal, especially the bands of the 1980s, this film will bring back fond memories of a simpler time. Those looking for the “ultimate heavy metal horror movie” that was promised will still be looking after the credits roll.
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
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