Set On Halloween | 31 Nights of Horror

For this year’s 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, the Day 31 prompt is Set on Halloween. We watched Trick ‘r Treat on Amazon Prime.

By the way, this concludes our 2024 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, see you next year!

Storyline

Five interwoven stories that occur on the same block, on the same night. A couple finds what happens when they blow a jack o’ lantern out before midnight, a high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer, a college virgin might have met the right guy for her, a group of mean teens play a prank that they take too far, and a hermit is visited by a special trick or treater.

Our Thoughts on Trick ‘r Treat

A great movie to watch during the Halloween season. The analogy structure keeps the energy up and the filmmaking team delivers on some unexpected turns. Give it a watch.

Trick ‘r Treat is an enjoyable horror that is exactly a Halloween movie that is about the true meaning of Halloween. The movie may have tried to add multiple plot holes at once and doesn’t connect much, but it still makes a strong horror that does tell a good tale of what the holiday is about and some interesting characters, along with great special effects and stunning horror scenes. I know that there are thousands of horror movies out there worth watching for Halloween. But I think this one is worth the watch during the season if you want to watch a horror movie that’s specifically in the setting of Halloween. It may not be the best horror movie, but this is definitely worth the Halloween tradition.

8 out of 10

Trivia

The kid with the lollipop in his mouth, who peeks in on the girls in the changing rooms when they are trying on Halloween costumes is Quinn Lord who plays Sam throughout the rest of the movie.

The performers under the masks playing the kids on the school bus all have real disabilities or injuries, and they apparently had a blast during the shoot. Their costumes were inspired by a mix of photos from Ralph Meatyard and Diane Arbus capturing real mentally disabled children on Halloween in their own homemade costumes.

They couldn’t use any recognizable candy wrappers- “because all of our candy in this film is either poisoned or filled with razor blades” and had to create their own instead “which was kind of fun because we came up with stuff like Big Fudge Log.” Dougherty revealed.

Anna Paquin’s character “Laurie” is named after Laurie Strode from Halloween (1978)

Characters from each story are frequently seen in the background of stories they are not involved with. This is to help piece together the chronology of the movie.

Interesting attention to detail–in the opening sequence of the film, at minutes 3:29-3:31, the Dead School Bus Kids are visible in the background just departing Mr. Kreeg’s house, long before their exposition is presented, but exactly where their narrative would have taken place.

In “The School Bus Massacre Revisited” a 1958 Plymouth Fury from the movie Christine can be seen. An obvious nod to the John Carpenter movie and Stephen King novel.