Trick ‘r Treat (2009)

Directed by Michael Dougherty. Starring Dylan Baker, Brian Cox, Britt McKillip, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Lauren Lee Smith, Anna Paquin, Samm Todd, Alberto Ghisi, Rochelle Aytes, Monica Delain, Isabelle Deluce, Leslie Bibb, Tahmoh Penikett, Quinn Lord. [R]

Halloween-themed horror anthology is far more fluid and intertwined than average, with a quartet of stories set in the same fictional town on the same Halloween night, each of them overlapping with others in some small or substantial way. A mischievous little figure wearing footie pajamas and a button-eyed burlap sack over its head makes appearances throughout each tale: a father (Baker) introduces his son to some very macabre holiday traditions, prankster trick-or-treaters share a gruesome local legend with a shy outsider, three hot-to-trot young ladies and their virginal friend are on the prowl for party dates, and a Scrooge-like loner (Cox) gets sadistically harassed for not getting in the spirit of the season. The plotlines are thin, but the offbeat dark humor and a crafty surprise or two compensate for mere mid-level frights. Made with noticeable care and polish, from a filmmaker who demonstrates a clear fondness for the material and genre as a whole, although the comic book-stylized additions are a bit out of place (an homage to Creepshow?), which can be attributed to the movie’s identity having little in the way of originality. Produced by Bryan Singer. Premiered almost two full years before its straight-to-DVD release at the 2007 “Butt-Numb-A-Thon” Film Festival.

64/100