Trick or Treat (1986)

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nTitle: Trick or Treat (1986)

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nDirector: Charles Martin Smith

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nCast: Marc Price, Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne

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nDuring the 80’s heavy metal was king, and so, a series ofnheavy metal horror movies emerged. This small group of films are beloved by horrornfans and heavy metal fans alike. Basically, if you loved bands like Anthrax, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue and Twisted Sister and lovednhearing your stereo system loud enough for your ears to bleed, if you lovednthose deep bass lines, wearing jean jackets, torn jeans, headbands, bandnt-shirts, spiked belts and wrist bands, leather pants, and took your cassette playernand headphones everywhere you went, chances are you were a heavy metal geek and younprobably loved movies like Trick or Treat (1986). The list of heavy metalnhorror films goes something like this: Rocktober Blood (1984), Hard Rock Zombies (1985), Rock and Roll Nightmare (1987), Black Roses (1988), and Shock ‘Em Dead (1991), which I think ended thenwhole shebang. But if you ask me, out of all these, the best one is the onenI’ll be reviewing today, Trick or Treat, not to be confused with thenquintessential Halloween movie with a similar title, Trick R’ Treat (2007).

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nOn this film we meet Eddie Weinbauer, a heavy metal geek ofnthe highest caliber. He worships his favorite heavy metal singer, a guy called SamminCurr. Eddie is the kind of fan who writes letters to his favorite band, andnaddresses them like they were his best friends, nay, even brothers! You know,nhe’s  the kind of fan that takes thenmusic just a little too seriously. Eddie gets laughed at by the bullies atnschool, gets ignored by the girls and essentially hates high school because ofnit; but listening to Sammy  Curr makes itnall go away. Whenever Eddie listens to Sammy, well, then everything is alright.nUnfortunately one day Sammy Curr dies, and its all gloom and doom for Eddie.nStill, there’s one guy that gets Eddie’s pain and it’s the local hard rock dj,na guy called  ‘Nuke’, played by nonenother than KISS front man Gene Simmons, and what’s cooler than having GenenSimmons playing a dj in your heavy metal movie? Nothing, your movie isninstantly cooler. So anyhow, Nuke gives Eddie the last unreleased recordingnmade by Sammi Curr! Of course, Eddie quickly runs home to listen to it. Ofncourse he plays the records backwards, because as you all know, there arensatanic messages in all heavy metal records. Especially if you play them innreverse! So once Eddie does this, the spirit of Curr talks to him and tells himnwhat to do! It’s not long before everyone who ever made fun or wronged Eddie innsome way starts to pay the price.

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nBasically, what we got here is one of those “the worm turns”nmovies, where the geeky nerdy guy gets picked on by everyone in school, andnthen by some supernatural happenstance the hunted becomes the hunter. I’ve seennthis formula played out many times in films like Evil Speak (1981), Hunk (1987)nand 976-EVIL (1988). In these movies the nerdy guy goes in cahoots with Satannto get sweet revenge on all those who wronged him. This being a movie from then80’s it makes all the sense in the world because this type of story was veryncommon back then. In these movies the quintessential 80’s bullies always wentntoo far with their pranks and jokes in order to torture the nerdy guy. Why is it that in all of these movies the bullies always act surprised when the people they pick on suddenly snapnand strike back? Look at what happened innColumbine. Interesting how this seemingly cheesy, b-movie exemplifies this type of situation perfectly, and in thatnsense can help us understand the dangers of pushing someone just a little toonfar, suddenly this silly movie suddenly becomes relevant  in a strange way.  

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nI like how the film addresses that bullshit idea about ‘satanic’nmessages in heavy metal records when you play them backwards. Sure, maybe bandsndid it, but the only did it to spike up their sales and create controversy,nthere was nothing satanic about it, they was just messing with people. It wasnall about the money. But films like Trick or Treat exploited that angle andnmade the fantasy a reality. It reminded me of The Gate (1987), which also had ansimilar premise. On that one two best friends open the gate to hell in theirnbackyard by playing a heavy metal record backwards, amongst other things. Theynalso used this idea in Amityville 2: The Possession (1982). On that one, anteenager gets possessed by demons while listening to heavy metal music and thennproceeds to murder his whole family! So yeah, this idea was running rampant innthe collective consciousness of people back then. Actually, religious zealotsnprobably still believe in this.   

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nOf course Heavy Metal has always gotten a bad rap. Rock andnRoll by nature is rebellious, what heavy metal did was take it to next level.nIt was angrier, sexier. It’s an amplified version of Rock and Roll, which isnwhy it’s associated with rebellious behavior. The idea that listening to angrynmusic will turn you into a killer is debated as much as the idea that watchingnviolent horror movies will turn you into a violent person. This film exploresnthese themes, but indirectly, I’m sure this is not what the filmmakers wherenpurposely trying to talk about. Let’s face it, parents have always been horrified at heavynmetal, for example, there’s  scene in which Eddie’s momntakes a look at her sons heavy metal record collection and is horrified by the covers, then she accidentally sets off thenstereo and starts hearing heavy metal. Her face says it all! It’s anhilarious scene, I thought “lady, it’s just music, take a chill pill” or lower the volume, but sheninstantly goes nuts and seems to forget how to turn down the volume. I think it’s funny how heavynmetal horrifies some people in the same way that horror movies do, some peoplenjust can’t take it. My advice is, you can’t take the heat, get out of thenkitchen!

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nIn terms of effects, this film is just fun. I mean, I loventhe idea of Sammi Curr somehow materializing himself through the stereonsystem. The whole thing with the purple electricity that surrounds Sammi Currnwas so old school, yet it made for cool visuals. On this one there’s lots of cheesynlightning effects and I just love those, they remind me this movie is from then80’s. There’s this cool scene where green smoke oozes out of these head phonesnas some hot teenage chick is listening to heavy metal and the green smokenundresses her, then the mist turns into some cheesy ass monster puppet thing, Inlove that stuff! Another plus is there are lot’s of inside jokes for heavy metal fans, like fornexample Ozzy Osbourne playing a televangelist talking about “Rock Pornography”. Ha! OzzynOsbourne playing a televangelist talking against heavy metal? Hilarious! Also,nthis movie is perfect for Halloween watching. Aside from the fact that it’s allnabout demonic things coming out of your speaker system, Eddie lives in a housenwith these two giant Halloween pumpkins on the front steps, he looks like he lives innHalloween Land. And so I highly recommend watching thisnone come Halloween night.  

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nFinal words is that after watching this cheesy heavy metalnmovie for a while, I started to realize that this movie is actually kind ofnawesome. I mean, the idea that an evil heavy metal god comes back from thenafterlife through your speaker system is just so rock and roll, so metal. Ofncourse the protagonists name is Eddie…like Eddie Van Halen or that characternfrom the Iron Maiden album covers? So, as you can see, there’s lots of heavy metalnreferences everywhere. Finally, the ending was awesome, a heavy metal concertnin a High School Halloween Party! Sweet! The kids all dig the heavy metal, but suddenlynbam! It all turns against them and Curr starts blowing kids away with supernatural electricity coming out of his guitar? I thought it was strange how he lives for rock andnroll but then blasts away his audience? That didn’t make much sense to me, butnwhatever, logic was never in the cards while watching this movie. This is definitelynthe best of all these heavy metal horror movies! Glad I finally got to watchnit. Highly recommend it if you want to go back to the 80’s, heavy metal style! Bynthe way, I didn’t know this until I watched this movie, but toilette water is deadly for evil demonic heavy metal singers, thought you might want to know that. This movienis hilarious, had a blast with it.

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