Editor's Note: All month long, we're bringing you special deep dives with Jon Lee Brody, award-winning actor/filmmaker and co-host of the horror podcast That Was Pretty Scary with Freddie Prinze Jr. We're kicking it off with Mike Dougherty's modern classic, Trick 'r Treat.
There's nothing quite like a horror anthology. What Mike Dougherty does with his Halloween horror anthology Trick' r Treat is capture the essence of something like Creepshow and juxtapose it with the format of something like Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and even Kurosawa's Rashomon. The result is four interweaving tales, each with their own distinct feel and point of view, but they all serve the overall story.
This is no easy task, especially considering that Trick' r Treat plays out nonlinearly. It's hard enough to tell one story in a non-linear format, let alone four interweaving ones. Successfully pulling this off requires careful attention to detail and a strong opening that will set the stage for what's to come, without giving it all away.
We start with this great industrial-looking safety video as if it's a direct message to us viewers. Not only is it a fun piece, it's also setting the tone for the film as a whole because it's talking about Halloween safety, the implication being that there's danger out there, so you need to take the proper precautions.
At the end of this safety video, we get this great match cut with the jack-o'-lantern on the film to this jack-o'-lantern, and now we're in this suburban setting. As we all know, it's believed that lighting a jack-o'-lantern on Halloween will ward off evil spirits, so this isn't just a cool-looking shot or nod to John Carpenter's Halloween; it's actually something that will serve the story momentarily in a pretty big way.
This is a great opening shot, pulling back and showing us the neighborhood on Halloween; we see this wagon with another jack-o'-lantern come into frame. If you've seen this movie, you know this is a key detail from one of the upcoming stories, but we'll come back to that. A car with New York plates comes to a screeching halt — visually, it looks nice, but it's also giving us an idea of where we are. And all this information is provided to us without any official dialogue.
This opening shot is also very reminiscent of John Carpenter's opening shot in Halloween, and Dougherty manages to make the shot his own while simultaneously paying homage.
We cut to this great low-angle shot, emphasizing this jack-o'-lantern. We're then at eye level with these two characters and then quickly cut to the POV of someone. We don't know who this is yet, as we cut back to the couple, we see the light on the jack-o'-lantern go out. From there, we cut right back to this voyeuristic POV, and Mike Dougherty chooses to stay here for the conversation between Emma and Henry. Whoever's eyes we're watching them thought is someone with a clear interest.
It is then at this moment that it once again feels reminiscent of John Carpenter's Halloween. A mask distorts the whole POV/voyeuristic angle. And remember how I said the jack-o'-lantern was a key detail? The unknown has clearly taken an interest in the unlit jack-o'-lantern. Also, pay close attention to the angle here. Notice how low we are? This is something that will make sense later, but it's clear Dougherty carefully calculated how to present specific POV's in this movie. Little details like the camera's height can make a difference, even if it's not something that audiences will point out right away.
Now, we get to know this couple a little more via their banter. The husband wants to get freaky, his wife isn't having it and needs to take down the Halloween decor. This stuff with Emma and Henry may seem throwaway and just a means to an end, but it's actually pretty important for the story. The wife sends her husband upstairs, where he watches a "nature special" while he waits. So we're establishing that she will be out there alone while her husband is doing…whatever he does with his special video.
Now we're back outside, and at this point, we know someone has been watching her with great interest. And now Emma is all alone. We get a couple of nice fake scares. Establish things that are in the setting. And as Emma pulls the sheets off the yard decorations to reveal nothing underneath, we also have an important detail.
Here's a little character detail of Emma that I really love. At one point, she looks out at the street and sees kids laughing and having fun, which brings a smile to her face. I felt this was an important moment because this humanizes her. Otherwise, it would've been easy to write her off as someone who's just grumpy. But now that we see she's human, we start to get invested in her a bit.
It's here we find yet another parallel to Carpenter's Halloween. We see a hooded masked person across the street, seemingly staring her down. Remember, we don't know what our killer looks like at this point. We've only seen their POV, so this hooded figure could very well be the killer.
The back-and-forth we get between Emma and the potential stalker is great storytelling. I really love that Mike takes his time here and lets these uncomfortable silences simmer. Then tension makes the reveal such a relief and a release — it was just some kid waiting for a ride. Phew! This is a chance for Emma (and us audience members) to exhale a sigh of relief…
…but just when we start to relax, of course, this is when the chaos ensues.
As Emma loudly screams, we smash cut to Henry and his umm….nature special. And because he has the volume up so high, he assumes the scream he heard that woke him up came from his…nature special.
Now we're in this struggle. I love that it's wrapped up in a bedsheet because I'm such a fan of the unseen. This lets the audience imagine what's going on underneath, just hidden from view. It reminded me of the exorcism scene in The Conjuring when they covered Carolyn Perron with a sheet to add more mystery (and, therefore, more terror) to the scene. The camera's low angle remains, which matches the low angle from the previous POV shots (I told you this comes into play).
When the kill happens, all we get to see is the blood splatter on the sheet. That leaves us wondering what exactly happened, which is always so much scarier than simply showing us. And then, to make it even more impactful, we see the reactions of these trick-or-treaters who make like Richard Pryor and run!!
As this bloody sheet is being dragged, we still don't know who this killer is, I love that the shot here is wide and far away. We are too far away to help and are also given the chance to see the entire scope of this as a whole. Not unlike the final shot of the opening of Halloween (seeing a pattern here?).
Back to the bedroom. Having static on the TV is a great way to show that a significant amount of time has passed since Henry went upstairs. And this also motivates Henry to go outside as opposed to earlier.
Dougherty's framing here is really smart because we've established the fake hand from earlier that provided a fake scare for Emma, but we also just witnessed a kill. Because of that, we don't know if this is still the fake hand or Emma's fresh corpse hand.
I really appreciate the use of complete silence here for two reasons: deafening silence and not having music to cue you for moments make the scare that much more impactful. But, also, like the TV showing static, the silence in the neighborhood shows that the trick-or-treating is done for the night, which is a subtle way to show how much time has gone by. Now we're back to this hand. This is gonna be a big reveal, right?
Not exactly. But then, like Bonnie Tyler in 1983, Henry…turns around. He sees that something is off. Now, remember earlier we established nothing was under these sheets that Emma was pulling off? That was strategically done to lead to the official reveal of the first kill while a Bernard Herrmann-like music cue ramps up! This leads the audience to an epic title sequence, which would need its own deep dive, (maybe another time!).
This is the first six minutes and twenty seconds of a movie that will feature four different stories that all take place on Halloween in the same town. In just over six minutes, Dougherty has established that there's an unknown killer and subtly established the other storylines, like Rhonda's wagon, the car Laurie is in, and the zombie kids leaving Mr Kreeg's house. This is all before those characters' storylines unfold, but it happens at the correct time for where they would be in their narratives. Information has been given (even more than we realize on first viewing), a satisfying first kill has been served, and curiosity has been piqued. Trick r Treat indeed!
Check out the full deep dive video below, and find Jon on Instagram and TikTok. Follow That Was Pretty Scary on both IG and TikTok, and be sure to join us next week for another Halloween deep dive treat.
