‘Trick or Treat’ 4K Review: An Effective Satanic Panic Satire
Trick or Treat (1986) is a fun flick that satirizes the 80’s Satanic panic movement. It asks the question, what if everything the adults are worried about is actually true?” What if heavy metal really is in service to Satan? And what if the ghosts of dead rock stars can come back to life simply by playing one of their records backward? It’s questions exactly like these that were on the minds of nervous parents in the 80s.
Eddie Weinbauer (Marc Price) is an isolated guy who’s really into heavy metal. He takes it so seriously that it has consumed his life. He’s a loner except for one nerdy friend, and he’s constantly messed with by the jocks. Oh, and of course he’s not good with the ladies. Although one of the most beautiful girls in school has a crush on him for no apparent reason. So at least he’s got that going for him. Indeed, a familiar setup, with the weakling getting picked on and eventually getting his revenge, but the movie is unique enough.
It’s something like a hair metal music video come to life. Sammi Curr (Tony Fields) is a rock-n-roll superstar who graduated from the same high school as Eddie. He was going to play the school’s Halloween dance, but, you know, the administrators are squares or something. But even if he wasn’t banned, he would still have to deal with the fact that he’s dead. Yeah, burned to death in a hotel fire. So that would make it even more difficult to perform. It is quite an appropriate way to go, though, considering how hair metal bands like Mötley Crüe treated their lodgings.
A little while later, a radio DJ named Nuke (Gene Simmons) gives Eddie a one of a kind acetate—Sammi’s final recording. Why he does this, I’m not quite sure, although considering what happens later in the movie, it could all have been a setup.
Gene Simmons is okay as Nuke. It’s all kind of a sneaky way to get his name on the box art, as if he has a starring role. But no, it’s just this one scene, where Simmons sleepily delivers his dialogue. The much better cameo is Ozzy Osbourne’s as a conservative preacher. You can’t understand a word he says, but at least he does it with conviction. Ozzy has an even smaller part than Simmons, but for all his mumbling and stumbling, he’s far more compelling than Simmons.
Acetate in hand, Eddie is about to enact his revenge fantasy. The bullies are tormented in a variety of ways, including an almost trepanning. Almost. The film is strangely devoid of blood or gore of any kind, though there is still plenty of death. There’s a weird sense of holding back, as if director Charles Martin Smith was going for a PG movie. Seriously, only a bit of brief nudity puts this thing in “R” territory. It’s puzzling. Most of the deaths consist of simply zapping people out of existence. Just “pop,” and they’re dead. Still, it’s cool enough.
And as silly as the idea of backwards record playing bringing a rock-n-roller back from the grave is, the movie is played oddly straight. Trick or Treat could easily have gone the other way, but this is no tongue-in-cheek affair. You might get the impression that a more or less serious tone would itself be at least slightly comedic, and the premise can’t help but be absurd, but it’s largely a humorless affair. Somehow, it works, though. You really find yourself strangely absorbed in this world where heavy metal music really is dangerous.
But I suppose that’s what you get when you make a movie about the worst nightmares of the PMRC. The Satanic panic was all nonsense, of course, but it had real consequences for youth who were already outcast and alienated. It’s great to have a movie that actually reflects back, in a straight way, the absolute ridiculousness of what some parents thought this music was capable of.
The acting is fine, ranging from good to passable. You know the deal with these 80s horror flicks. Marc Price, best known as Skippy on Family Ties, is in almost every scene and does a nice job of carrying the movie. He’s a tad stiff, but not uninteresting. But special mention has to go to Tony Fields as the demonic Sammi Curr. The guy is a very convincing rock star. He’s graceful, strange, threatening, and hypnotic—absolutely perfect for the role of a murderous heavy metal ghost.
This new 4K from Synapse Films includes loads of special features. For starters, there’s three different audio commentaries. The first is with director Charles Martin Smith, and it’s a very detailed interview. There’s also a track with audio interviews with writer/producer Michael S. Murphey and writer Rhet Topham. It’s an interesting track because they’re interviewed separately and then the audio is pasted onto a commentary track. Finally, there’s a conversation with Paul Corupe and Allison Lang, who wrote a book on the history of Satanic panic. They talk about the panic in general and how it relates to Trick or Treat.
We also get a couple of documentaries. Rock and Shock: The Making of Trick or Treat is a great in-depth mini-doc with tons of interviews with the surviving cast and crew. The second doc is a tribute to Tony Fields, who played Sammi Curr. He died in 1995 of complications from HIV. This is a touching biography as told by the loved ones of the dynamic performer.
Those are the highlights, but there’s a bunch of other stuff, too, including TV spots, a music video, and an episode of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds.
If you like the film, or even if you haven’t seen it before, this 4K is the way to experience it. A fun movie that looks and sounds great, this is a special edition that you’ll want in your horror collection.
Special Features
- 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative mastered in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) and approved by Director of Photography Robert Elswit
- Lossless English DTS-HD Master Audio of the original 2.0 theatrical mix and an all-new 5.1 surround sound mix
- Audio commentary with director Charles Martin Smith, moderated by filmmaker Mark Savage
- Audio interviews with writer/producer Michael S. Murphey and writer Rhet Topham, moderated by film historian Michael Felsher
- Audio conversation with Paul Corupe and Allison Lang, authors of Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s
- Rock & Shock: The Making of “Trick or Treat”
- In The Spotlight: A Tribute to Tony Fields featuring interviews with the late actor’s family and friends
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: The Filming Locations of “Trick or Treat” with Sean Clark
- “After Midnight” music video
- Theatrical Trailers, TV Spots and Radio Spots
- Still Gallery featuring optional audio interview with still photographer Phillip V. Caruso
- Vintage electronic press kit
- Region free for worldwide playback
- Limited edition O-Card slipcover, available on FIRST PRESSING ONLY!
- Reversible Cover Art
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Trick or Treat (1986) 4K Blu-ray
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Special Features
Summary
A bloodless slasher, Trick or Treat is an effective satire of the Satanic panic of the 1980s.
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