October 10, 2018
Written by: Rhet Topham, Michael S. Murphy, Joel Soisson
Starring: Marc Price, Tony Fields, Lisa Orgolini
Quote: "Demonic beasts. Whatever happened to the good old simple love song? "I love you." That's what good words use. Nowadays they have to write some sickness. It's just absoultely sick and bizarre, and I'm going to do my upmost best to try and stop it now."
Trivia: Eddie's best friend Roger is played by Glen Morgan, his only acting stint. Morgan later went on to be a prolific writer/producer for The X-Files (1993), Final Destination (2000), and Final Destination 3 (2006), as well as direct the Black Christmas (2006) remake.
1986. The height of the Reagan Era and the Satanic Panic. It was at this time that parents specifically and society in general were in a moral frenzy that their children were being brainwashed by Satanic cults using heavy metal music, comic books, and really anything else that was cool to turn them into devil worshippers. Two years earlier, a kid committed suicide and the blame was put on Ozzy Osbourne and the subliminal messages that he supposedly put in his song. 20/20 ran weekly exposes warning parents about devil worshippers and pinpointed various heavy metal bands that were associated with Satanism. This would build toward the culmination of the jailing of the West Memphis Three; three innocent high school kids that were imprisoned (one was even on death row) for nearly twenty years for the murder of three children based on the evidence that they were "goth" or "metal" kids (The Last Podcast on the Left does a great show about them). Of course, this whole charade was bullshit that was brought on by fear campaigns by groups hoping to further their own religious and political goals. Or in the case of the media, to simply sell advertisements (shame on you 20/20). Trick or Treat is meant to be a parody of the insanity of that time.
Trick or Treat is about a teenager named Eddie whose love of heavy metal makes him an outcast and the target of bullying at his school. The movie's introduction is a montage of bully scenes: spilling milk on him, messing up his hair, taking his records and jacket, even pushing him into the girl's gym naked and locking the door. Eddie's only solace, his only escape, lies in listening to his music and writing in his diary to his rock idol Sammi Curr. One day Eddie discovers that Sammi Curr has died in a fire. Upset, he goes to his local radio station where DJ Nuke (Gene Simmons) lets him borrow the unheard last album by Sammi Curr. After playing the album, Eddie discovers that if he plays it backwards he can communicate with the death rock star. After another prank against him by the jocks, Eddie asks Sammi to help him get revenge against the bullies. Eddie's able to scare away most of the jocks, but Sammi goes a bit too far and begins killing people. After ghost seducing a girl he turns into a lizard monster and melts her ears (I don't really get what happened either, but it was pretty cool). Sammi also convinces Eddie's friend to play the tape at the high school Halloween dance releasing him so he can shred on the guitar while lazer zapping coeds out of existence. In the end Eddie is able to stop Sammi, get the girl, and save the day.
I love the idea that this movie plays with a silly idea that parents were afraid of, that rock musicians inserted backwards messages into their records to talk to their children. Its like the filmmakers said, "Is this really what you're afraid of? Well, here it is! Looks pretty silly doesn't it?" To really parody the moral panic of the the 1980s, the movie casts the Satanic Panic's ultimate boogeyman as an Evangelist preacher: Mr. Ozzy Osbourne himself. There is this great scene where Ozzy as the preacher is being interviewed and he explains the dangers of rock music: "Demonic beasts. Whatever happened to the good old simple love song? 'I love you.' That's what good words use. Nowadays they have to write some sickness. It's just absolutely sick and bizarre, and I'm going to do my upmost best to try and stop it now... this [rock music] could kick you off into becoming an absolute pervert." So great seeing Ozzy parody the moral crusaders!
The movie does a really good job of being a horror movie while being entirely devoid of blood. I could be wrong, but I don't think there is a single drop of blood seen in the entire movie. Conveniently Ghost Sammi relies on electrical current to interact with the living world so his killings are really just sending special effect electric beams at people which make them disappear. The only real gore that exists in the film is when the girl's ears melt. I would have liked to see a bit more blood since this is a horror movie, but it is not necessary here. I wonder if the lack of blood is to makeup for the fact that they are lampooning the people behind the MPAA?
Fastway, Motorhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clark's band, wrote all the songs for the soundtrack and performed most of them, and they kicks ass. There is also a ton of musical references throughout the film. If you grew up listening to punk and metal, it's really fun seeing Eddie in an Alternative Tentacle shirt or seeing his mom confused about his Judas Priest poster and leather gear. Overall, the movie is a really wonderful piece of 1980s greatness. It's a slap in the face of the Moral Majority and a fun movie to watch. A double win.
...what's your thoughts?
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