TRICK (2019) Reviews and overview

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‘Always choose treat’
Trick is a 2019 American horror serial killer thriller film directed by Patrick Lussier (Into the Dark: Flesh & Blood; My Bloody Valentine 2009; Dracula 2000 and sequels) from a screenplay co-written with Todd Farmer (My Bloody Valentine 2009; The Messengers; Jason X).

The movie stars Omar Epps, Ellen Adair, Tom Atkins (My Bloody Valentine 2009; Night of the Creeps; The Fog 1980) and Jamie Kennedy.

Home viewing release:
Trick was released on Blu-ray and DVD by RLJE Films on December 17, 2019. Discs include The Making of Trick featuring interviews with the cast and crew.

Plot:
An elusive serial killer descends upon a small town annually and is responsible for gruesome murders year after year, each seemingly unrelated. No-one believes this could be the same killer.

Detective Mike Denver (Omar Epps) has faced Trick once before, having shot and seemingly killed him. Or so everyone keeps telling him. However, Denver knows Trick is still out there, and he’s coming back for revenge…

Reviews [click link to read more]:
” …it has enough bloody action and Halloween spirit that it’s almost certain to be warmly embraced by a legion of horror fans who will be gladly adding it to their annual Halloween season viewing lists. My only true issues with the film started to emerge at the end, as I wasn’t entirely convinced by a certain turn of events…” Arrow in the Head

“With several jump-scares, practical effects, and plenty of nods to the past, Trick blends many of the best elements of Horror, old and new, to forge its own path within the genre. Certainly, a film that is crafted for those that love an antihero—and some gruesomely creative deaths in broad daylight…” Cryptic Rock

“This is Farmer and Lussier invoking all the savagery and snark they can muster to manufacture a good old-fashioned slasher with snappy style. Even though the last act specifically is ludicrously written, the fun this film has translates into a slickly made production that satisfies the job it sets out to do as homage horror.” Culture Crypt

Omar Epps in slasher horror thriller movie Trick (2019)

Trick certainly delivers what slasher fans would want out of a new slice-and-dice affair. But where the film actually superseded all my expectations is when the script, co-written by Lussier and Farmer, takes a very unexpected turn, and you realize that Trick is playing a much grander game than your run-of-the-mill killer on the loose story.” Daily Dead

Trick is violent and unfussily grubby, but it is also lean, mean, and lethally tense.  You might think you can guess the big twist and you might sort of be right, but Lussier and co-screenwriter Todd Farmer call viewers’ bets and raise them substantially. In the process, they open the door for a sequel, but in a way that doesn’t feel like a cheat.” J.B. Spins

“It’s a rare slasher movie with too much going on under the mask, with Kennedy’s presence a clue to the Scream-style underpinnings of the notion of a celebrity urban legend killer – as too many characters blunder to their deaths while sub-plots unfold in which almost everything turns out to be not what it seems … but not especially intriguing either, since too many reveals still don’t come up with much in the way of surprise. ” The Kim Newman Website

“Trick’s lack of motivation and longstanding grudge don’t make any sense so it’s hard to get into the story. The twist is so stupid and an awful payoff for this nearly two hour investment. What’s even more annoying is the hero characters’ complete inability to do anything competent even when they have all the answers.” Lyles Movies Files

“Now, not everything works; the continued onslaught of explicitly violent imagery wore me down fairly quickly, so that aspect of the film had little to no effect upon me, beyond general nausea. Even so, I understand why Lussier decided to go that route, and the film as a whole is very well put-together and fairly well flies by.” Screen Anarchy

” …Trick feels like an Asylum spin on Todd Phillips’s Joker […]But where the licensed DC spinoff is an irresponsible and irredeemable pity party for a creep, this cheap lookalike is just an incompetent, nihilistic exercise in gore and pseudo-philosophy, assembled crudely from horror and cop-movie clichés.” Slant

Release:
RLJE Films (distributors of Satanic Panic; Mandy; The Cleaning Lady; et al) released Trick theatrically and on Digital and VOD on October 18th 2019.

Background:

Trick is, for lack of a better term, ‘slasher-noir’ horror set in upstate New York, spanning five consecutive Halloweens where serial killer Trick Weaver taunts police up and down the Hudson River practising murder as performance art,” Lussier explained to Bloody Disgusting.  “The Benton Township, where Trick’s murderous journey begins, has fallen into decay, almost like Trick’s initial killings didn’t just claim individual victims but killed the town itself.”

Lussier’s lengthy list of horror credentials began while working alongside Wes Craven in some of the genre’s biggest hits including the ground-breaking Scream franchise, Red EyeNew Nightmare and Vampire in Brooklyn. Lussier directed and co-wrote My Bloody Valentine and was a writer and producer on Terminator Genisys. He also directed Dracula 2000 and Dracula II: Ascension.

Perhaps most importantly to horror fans, Lussier has promised, “We’ve gone out of our way to make the kills as grounded and practical as possible. Gary J. Tunnicliffe, who has been my partner in murder and mayhem since 2000, has once again returned to craft a festival of ferocity, drenched in bloody steel.”

Writer Todd Farmer has a long history in the horror genre including Jason X and The Messengers and has worked previously alongside Lussier co-writing My Bloody Valentine.

Cast and characters:
Jamie Kennedy … Doctor Steven
Omar Epps … Detective Mike Denver
Vanessa Aspillaga … Agent Tina Mendez
Alex Breaux … Len
Tom Atkins … Talbott
Ellen Adair … Sheriff Lisa Jayne
Melody Hurd … Janice
Kristina Reyes … Cheryl Winston
Todd Farmer … Deputy Wan
Hilary Greer … Nurse Helen
Gary J. Tunnicliffe … Principal
Thom Niemann … Patrick Weaver
Aaron Dalla Villa … Smooth Johnny
Dani Shay … Deputy Green
Jerome Charvet … Deputy Slater

Filming locations:
Beacon, Middletown, Umbra Sound Stages – Newburgh and Warwick, New York

MOVIES and MANIA rating:

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