Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat is a 1986 horror film directed by Charles Martin Smith (The Beast, 1996) and produced by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG), starring Marc Price (Killer Tomatoes Eat France), Tony Fields, and Lisa Orgolini, with special cameo appearances by Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne.

High school outcast Eddie Weinbauer is writing a letter to his hero, heavy metal musician Sammi Curr. He puts the letter in an envelope and starts doing his chores. He watches the news at the same time when he hears the worst words to ever reach his mind: Sammi Curr has died in a mysterious hotel fire. He is completely devastated. He goes to his friend “Nuke” (Gene Simmons), a radio DJ who knew Sammi Curr personally. To take Eddie’s mind off the death of his idol, Nuke gives Eddie the only copy of Curr’s last and only unreleased album, “Songs in the Key of Death”, on an acetate disc. Nuke plans to play the album in its entirety on-air at midnight on Halloween as tribute, since according to Nuke, that was always Sammi’s plan for the album’s debut.

Once back home, Eddie falls asleep while listening to the record and has a strange dream about the fire that killed Sammi Curr. When he wakes up he finds that the record is skipping and after listening to it for a few seconds he comes to realize that there is something not right about the words the record is stuck on. Having previous experience with hidden lyrics, Eddie plays the record backwards but receives more than he imagined: Sammi Curr speaking to him from beyond the grave…

‘The film has that great, over-the-top 80s hair metal vibe running throughout that makes it a bit of fun, but there’s just something missing. Despite the presence of Kevin Yagher as the FX man, there really isn’t a lot of blood or gore in the film. There was one halfway decent melted ear effect, though. The deaths are all pretty plain (and its in territory that Shocker would cover better a couple of years down the road). Though it is interesting to note that it predates both Shocker and The Horror Show as far as the whole “killer traveling through electricity” sub-genre is concerned. Despite the hard rock attitude, the film’s content feels pretty tame. It is low on scares and desperately low on gore. You have to wonder what audience the filmmakers were targeting.’ Oh, the Horror!

‘Trick or Treat is a great 80′s metal horror movie. The music ain’t worth a shit, but that’s what makes it so great. Also you got fucking “Skippy” from “Family Ties” completely miscast as the main character and he’s surprisingly good! I recently saw it at at the theater and it had a lot of little moments that the crowd loved. Nearly as good as Black Roses and better than Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare. If you like cheesy 80′s horror then it’s worth checking out.’ Dymon Enlow, Happyotter

‘Sammy Curr is about the most uninteresting horror movie villain there is: he looks like a less-masculine version of Dead or Alive’s Peter Burns and is about as imposing as Peter Criss. I guess you can’t expect much when you hire a former Solid Gold dancer (Tony Fields) to play the role of your antagonist. His music isn’t even that cool. It’s pretty watered-down even for the metal that dominatedHeadbanger’s Ball back in 1986. And if there were ever a hero that was harder to rally behind, it’s Marc Price. He’ll never escape the guise of Skippy, no matter how hard he tries.’ For the Retarded

‘Trick or Treat starts off quite cleverly which would have made its descent into genre conventions almost forgivable or at the very least entertaining. The films decent into complete incompetence nearly squanders all the good will it has earned. It changes tone and style so abruptly and in an unconvincing fashion it almost feels like it was made by a completely different crew and nearly sinks the entire project. It never manages to be scary, suspenseful, gory, or menacing and everything plays out exactly how you think it would.’ I Can’t Get Laid in This Town