Trick r Treat

Good evening children of the night. Welcome back to Terror Tapes; the only Horror Squad weekly feature that the FCC warns may cause seizures. Every week I scout plots in the wastelands of forgotten formats hoping to strike a wealth of great films. While I have tapped a few fantastic relics, the majority of the fare' have seen would be most aptly categorized as sewage. But still, I greet each square, transparent box with unbridled anticipation. I live for the chase; the hunt. Will today's film, The Uncanny, represent another completely wasted afternoon, or have' finally found my ultimate strike?

I found this year's collection of horror films to be relatively lackluster. In the first incarnation of this list, which was posted on my own personal site, I was only able to come up with nine films I genuinely believe should be on a Best Of... list for the year. My list is similar to Peter's, in a way, as it contains many of the same films, yet one of the films he included (Antichrist) ended up on my Worst Of... list, and I'm still in awe over how he could include the Friday the 13th redux as number one despite his explanation.

This list took some time to compile, and for the sake of conformity, I have added a tenth film. At the end I've included my Worst Of... list just so you can get an idea as to why I'm relentlessly teased for my vastly superior taste in horror films. So without further adieu, my Top 10 Horror Movies of 2009, rewritten and tweaked for Horror Squad.

10. House of the Devil My ex post facto entry to this list, House of the Devil was not an enjoyable film for me. I found it incredibly slow and lacking a sufficient payoff, all while only giving AJ Bowen approximately ten minutes of screen time. So why am I including it on this list? Because Ti West didn't make an homage to an 80's Satanic Panic film, he MADE an 80's Satanic Panic film. House of the Devil captures the look and feel of the time period perfectly, from the way it was filmed to the soundtrack. It is based on that alone that he deserves a spot on this list, even if it's number ten.

Even though I got my start writing about horror by creating a blog called Horror's Not Dead, I don't jive with the idea that good horror is becoming an endangered species. Sure, who is actually making and delivering good horror is always in a state of flux, but considering the sheer crop of films to choose from is constantly on the rise, there will always be gems to found. Now before getting to the list proper, let's explain my own personal criteria for what qualifies as a 2009 film.

Basically, what matters is if the film was given its widest release during the course of the year. For example, despite being first shown publicly years ago, I consider Trick 'r Treat an eligible title, as 2009 finally found it going wide (albeit straight-to-video). Daybreakers, on the other hand, played a few festivals in 2009 but will not have its wide release until 2010. Conversely, most people in America won't see [REC] 2 until 2010 or beyond, but it went wide in its native Spain in 2009, thus it is eligible. Make sense? On to the show!

10. Paranormal Activity
I went back and forth on excluding Paranormal Activity from my Top 10 list because, really, it didn't do much for me in the scare department. I found it pulse pounding to watch for the first time, but it has scarcely popped into my brain since then. However, I do remain in awe of what Oren Peli accomplished with a mere $15,000. I have a lot of respect for the process that goes into engineering any thrill ride, so to speak, so even if it didn't severely impact me, it still commands a placement.

9. Thirst (my review)
Chan-wook Park's Thirst is, hands down, not only the best vampire film of the year, but I'd put it in league with another similarly atypical fang-set film, Let the Right One In. It's not particularly scary, but it is a deft, engrossing blend of lust and violence that gets back to the eroticism of the vampire that no film (or TV show) has properly explored in years. If you're feeling burned out on vampires these days, and that would be perfectly understandable, at least put this in your Must Watch queue simply because it's another brilliant film from the mind of the man who gave the world Oldboy.

There are a lot of conspiracy theories swirling around as to why Warner Brothers intentionally let Michael Dougherty's excellent Trick 'r Treat collect metaphorical dust for two years before giving it an unjust, albeit successful, straight-to-DVD release. No matter what your own theory is, at Fantastic Fest Dougherty cited the film's anthology format as the reason for its shelving. Specifically, no one has made a popular, commercially successful anthology film since Creepshow, and today's audiences might not understand the concept.

Now we all know that's a load of two-week-old Jack-o-Lantern guts; that even the most cynical among us realize that the anthology film is not some kind of ancient cipher that kids today are too busy Twittering and MySpacing to figure out, but that was one of his bigger points of contention with The Suits at WB. Well, that and apparently large corporations with a vested interest in younger demographics don't like it when children are killed in movies, but that's beside the point. And that point is: Dougherty's labor of love has finally made the anthology film relevant again in America.

And as with all things that aren't failures, there are bound to be imitators. Enter Eminem, yes, that Eminem, who is now in talks to lend his considerable popularity to a film called Shady Talez; and yes, it is spelled with a z. Bloody-Disgusting explains the bizarre news:

Hey all. I hope you've missed me, but I'm just about to head home from approximately 13 days in Austin ... and once I get home, there are some big-time changes afoot for the Horror Squad! Nothing bad, I promise. But I feel like I've left you hanging lately, and for that I apologize. But hell, I've been knee-deep in the awesome horrors of Fantasia, Midnight Madness, and Fantastic Fest, so I'm sure I'm forgiven. I hope.

But there are two great reasons to be a horror fan this week: One is the odd but very successful release pattern for Paramount's indie acquisition Paranormal Activity, which has paved the way for a full-bore limited release on October 9. You've seen plenty of love for the flick all over Cinematical and HorrorSquad, so make sure you throw the movie a few bucks if it happens to play in your neighborhood.

The other flick to get good and psyched for? Michael Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat, which single-handedly demolishes the "all DTV movies suck butt" theory -- if you happen to believe that hooey in the first place. I do not. It's a rock-solid anthology horror that focuses on all the various traditions and trappings of the Halloween season, and I truly believe it's destined to become an annual favorite. Carpenter's Halloween + Trick 'r Treat + (your favorite horror movie) = the perfect Halloween night triple feature.

Also keep an eye out The Children, a fine British import that just hit DVD last week.

Less than two weeks ago at Fantastic Fest Trick 'r Treat director Michael Dougherty confessed plenty of interest in doing more Trick 'r Treat anthology films that would feature, in one way or another, everyone's new favorite Halloween mascot, Sam, the sack-headed son of a pumpkin demon. But at the time, it was clear from Dougherty's tone of voice that he honestly didn't expect there would ever be any kind of studio support for him to make a sequel to a film that sat on said studio's shelf for nearly two years. That was, of course, before Trick 'r Treat came out on DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday.

Now I haven't seen any actual sales or shipping figures, but I've heard from multiple people in multiple states that tried to snag a copy of TrT in either format on release day and that it was sold out at every brick and mortar store they went to. One doesn't need sales figures to know that Warner Brothers has, to the surprise of no one in the horror community, a hit on their hands, and one doesn't need a flow chart to understand that popular things get sequels. So now the sequel(s) that Dougherty has been silently planning in his back mental pocket is a lot closer to reality, as evidenced by his conversation with MTV:

"The whole idea originally, for me, was to do one if not every Halloween, at least every other Halloween," Dougherty explained. "Because it's an anthology film, it lends itself to telling another four stories which would intertwine – but I think you could take the film and explore how Halloween was celebrated in different locations, different time periods, and the one consistent character would be Sam, the mascot."

Best of the New Releases: Trick 'r Treat, The Children, The Thaw, Not Quite Hollywood
Okay, okay, you've had Trick 'r Treat bludgeoned into your conscious to no end lately. Well now is your chance to finally see Michael Dougherty's fabled film. I can't speak for what's on the DVD or Blu-ray, but the film itself is a wonderful tribute to all things Halloween. I saw it for the first time a week ago (review) and I'm already planning on popping in the Blu tonight.

This October's haul from Ghost House Underground isn't quite as large as the eight or so films they put out last year, but what they've lost in quantity they've made up for in quality (plus all four titles are available on Blu-ray). For starters we have The Children, a film I think can't be improved upon (review). Next up is The Thaw, a nice bit of eco-terror starring Val Kilmer and Aaron Ashmore about the discovery of a mammoth and the deadly parasites frozen inside it. Mark A. Lewis' film is basically a proposition of how to remake The Thing without remaking The Thing, but that's not entirely a bad thing considering how excellent the formula of frost-bound bio-horror is. I wouldn't call The Thaw a blind buy, but it's worth a look down the line.

Trick 'r Treat is the holy grail of Halloween themed horror films. Not because of the notoriously long path writer-director Michael Dougherty's film has had to take to finally get released (a refresher: TrT was finished and first shown back in 2007 and, despite an overwhelming reaction to its first public exhibition, proceeded to be locked away in a vault at Warner Brothers for unspecified reasons), though that did turn it into a rare find to be coveted. No, Dougherty's film is such a treasure because it is Halloween. It just had the misfortune of being born a decade too late, of being born into a time when studios only care about remakes or sequels and certainly not about anthology films. Dougherty had, as far as a studio is concerned, the audacity to finely craft, gasp, an original, American horror film.

Wrong-decade misfortune that may be, however, it's great to be able to say that Trick 'r Treat will still be watched on Halloween for decades to come. Those who love it, like I, will still be watching it with great devotion. Those who merely liked it will not be able to help themselves from putting it on as background to their Halloween parties. And those who hated it, well, those who hated it don't exist. They can't exist. To hate Trick 'r Treat would be to hate the entire spirit of Halloween, a spirit Dougherty apparently has complete domain over.

Well, you've already seen what Weinberg and Hall were most looking forward to with regards to Fantastic Fest 2009: The Fantast-ening, and I fall somewhere in between, having already seen some damn good films and yet eagerly anticipated a great deal more -- and that's not to mention the Secret Screenings!

I'm putting my picks in alphabetical order, because numerical order would be like asking me to pick a favorite child that I haven't even met yet. Or something. Whatever. On with the list!

District 13: Ultimatum

What is it? -- A sequel to 2006's severely kick-ass District 13 (or B13 in the States), in which the eponymous ghetto is once again in danger... unless a certain cop (Cyril Raffaelli) and a certain vigilante (David Belle) team up once more to eliminate the threat.

Why am I excited? -- "Parkour!"