‘Death. Resurrection. Destruction. The ultimate comeback.’
Trick or Treat is a 1986 American supernatural horror film directed by Charles Martin Smith (The Beast, 1996) from a screenplay co-written by Michael S. Murphey, Joel Soisson and Rhet Topham, based on the latter’s storyline. James Wong (Final Destination films) and Glen Morgan made uncredited writing contributions.
The De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) production stars Marc Price (Killer Tomatoes Eat France), Tony Fields, and Lisa Orgolini, with special cameo appearances by Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne.
Plot:
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” (KISS singer 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…
Reviews:
‘Despite the presence of Kevin Yagher as the FX man, there really isn’t a lot of blood or gore in the film … 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 f*cking “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.’ 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 dominated Headbanger’s Ball back in 1986.” 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 film’s descent 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.” I Can’t Get Laid in This Town
Cast and characters:
Marc Price as Eddie Weinbauer
Tony Fields as Sammi Curr
Lisa Orgolini as Leslie Graham
Doug Savant as Tim Hainey
Elaine Joyce as Angie Weinbauer, Eddie’s Mother
Glen Morgan as Roger Mockus
Gene Simmons as Nuke
Ozzy Osbourne as Rev. Aaron Gilstrom [cameo]
Alice Nunn as Mrs Sylvia Cavell [cameo]
Charles Martin Smith as Mr Wimbley [cameo]
