Sit back, kids, as I regale you with a story of a Halloween horror movie lost in time. Trick or Treat is a gem of a movie if only for the fact that it packs so much ‘80s into one place. The ‘80s were a great time filled with glam metal, big hair, cheesy horror, and me, which may make me a little partial. Trick or Treat is filled with all of those except for me, of course. This movie is also a shameful plug for metal in general, with close-up shots on posters of some of the biggest hair metal bands of the time. I want to hate this movie so much but, through all of its corny clichés, it’s somehow charming.
High school loner Eddie isn’t exactly thrilled with his life. He gets bullied by the cool kids, and most girls don’t want anything to do with him. Eddie manages his struggles by writing letters to his idol, glam rocker Sammi Curr. Unfortunately for Eddie, Sammi just died in a tragic accident. Fortunately for Eddie, Sammi left behind one last song, and Eddie got his hands on the original album. The only problem is that there may be more to the album than just some extra-heavy glam rock.
It turns out that Sammi was into some satanic stuff and his evil spirit is locked in his final recording, ready to be released to cause havoc any time the song plays. To make matters worse, a copy of the song is set to play on the radio at midnight, putting the entire town in danger of the wrath of Sammi’s spirit. Now it’s up to Eddie to save himself, save the girl, and save the town and the school that he hates so much.
I am almost ashamed to say that I don’t hate this movie. Everything about it is so cheesy, from the costumes and makeup to the completely unbelievable story and, of course, the terrible 1980’s graphics. Something about this movie is so innocent, it makes it hard to dislike. Though it is rightly classified in the horror genre, it is not graphic in the traditional sense. Most of the victims in the film die by being zapped out of existence by Sammi’s magical guitar. That combined with special appearances by Gene Simmons of KISS and Ozzy Osbourne in a tongue-in-cheek role makes Trick or Treat the kind of movie that is so bad, it’s good.
If you can only watch one horror movie this Halloween, this one should not be it. If you have the time to watch a Halloween movie marathon like yours truly, I would suggest that you slide this one into the mix if only to experience it once. It is easy to see why Sammi Curr never became a household name like Jason and Freddy, and why Ozzy and Gene don’t mention their classic film in interviews. Still, this movie will win you over even if you don’t want to admit it.