If you ask a horror movie fan if they have seen Trick or Treat, you will likely get one of two responses.
The first, more frequent, response is “Of course, I love that little Sam!” The much rarer response is “Do you mean the Michael Dougherty anthology or the heavy metal one from the 80s?”
And not to stereotype anyone, but if you picked the second response, you probably grew up in the same era that produced Trick or Treat (you also probably watched Headbangers Ball at midnight on Saturday night on MTV and owned an Iron Maiden Eddie t-shirt or one featuring the vocalist Ronnie James Dio).
In any case, for those who lived through those Stranger Things days and for a younger generation likely to be confused by the title, Red Shirt Home Video and Synapse Films offer a new, fully loaded version of Trick or Treat on 4K UHD (and Blu-ray).
For those that remember the film more for the cameos by Gene Simmons (as a Wolfman Jack-style DJ) and Ozzy Osbourne (as a Jimmy Swaggart-style televangelist), Trick or Treat was really the perfect horror movie for the Satanic Panic era, mining the folklore and hysteria around backward masking, devil worship, and teen delinquency for an over-the-top horror fest.
Trick or Treat borrows more than a little from A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, although Trick or Treat‘s villain Sammi Curr (a devilish rock star back from the dead and looking for vengeance on all those holy rollers, as well as anyone who gets in his way) is less engaging and sarcastic than the man in the red and green sweater. Tony Fields plays Curr (who looks like a cross between W.A.S.P.’s Blackie Lawless and Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx) with menace and gives the locals and the nervous teen (Marc Price as Eddie Weinbauer) who inadvertently conjures him up again, plenty of trouble.
Unlike Freddy and his clawed glove, Curr has a variety of demonic powers such as an Ace Frehley-style laser shooting guitar and the ability to reach into TVs to get at unsuspecting victims and transform into a demon (whose tongue rivals Simmons’ own).
The heavy metal songs performed by Fastway are strong contributions to the film and Fields lip syncs to them in a convincing fashion.
The film looks and sounds much better than any previous releases, enhancing Fastways’ tracks and the overall look of the colorful 1980s. As expected, the bonus features are just as engaging as the film, especially the new feature-length documentary on the movie called “Rock & Shock”. The new documentary includes interviews with a majority of the cast and crew about the production, the film’s release, and its legacy.
New audio commentaries with director Charles Martin Smith, writer/producer Michael S. Murphey, and writer Rhet Topham and an additional one with writers Paul Corupe and Allison Lang give viewers even more insight into the film and Satanic Panic era that produced it.
There’s also a tribute to Fields called “In The Spotlight: A Tribute to Tony Fields” and a “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds” episode by Sean Clark, music videos, trailers and TV spots, radio spots, and a still photo gallery.
This one-disc standard edition comes with reversible cover artwork and a reflective slipcover featuring the guitar-shredding movie poster.
For those unfamiliar with the film and those that don’t remember it to any great degree, the new 4K UHD Trick or Treat will rekindle some of that 80s nostalgia for metal and mayhem in a deluxe package.
