Gory greetings Horroryearbook alumni! In honor of the holiday I present my all time favorite Halloween horror flick that doesn’t have the word Halloween in the title!
TRICK OR TREAT (1986)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0092112/
Marc Price, well known to 80′s TV lovers as the wacky next door neighbor Skippy from Family Ties stars as Ragman, a loser teenage metalhead who is tormented by bullies in school and spends his free time writing fan letters to his favorite rocker – the controversial and flamboyant Sammi Curr. Ragman idolizes Sammi Curr because Sammi went to the same shitty small town high school as a teen, and like Ragman he was hated by the students and staff. The bastards wouldn’t even let Sammi come back and play a free Halloween concert for the kiddies!
When Sammi suddenly dies in a mysterious hotel room fire Ragman is completely devastated. In sheer frustration, he rips down every heavy metal poster in his room. The shit really hits the fan when Ragman is given a rare test pressing of the unreleased brand new Sammi Curr record by his radio dj pal, Nuke. (played by non other than Gene Simmons from KISS!) Being a stereotypical 80′s metalhead, Ragman plays the record backwards and the vengeful spirit of Sammi Curr is unleashed!
Sammi’s voice, instructions, and and the supernatural power of his spirit help Ragman finally get revenge against all of the jocks and preps that had been pushing him around for years. A metal shop confrontation with the skinny leather tie sporting lead bully (who asks Ragman if he considers him to be a wussy fucking weak tit!) nearly ends in bloodshed, thanks to Sammi’s malevolent spirit. At first Ragman (I never get tired of typing that name!) loves getting the upper hand against the bastards that had been making his life miserable. But Sammi soon goes too far, and his sinister spirit manifests itself as a demon lizard that molests a topless skank in a car before melting her ears with the fire of his rock n’ roll!
Ragman then realizes that he’s really just a pawn in Sammi Curr’s deadly game of revenge against the school. Ragman’s dream of meeting his rock idol in the flesh becomes a nightmare when he watches Sammi’s charred corpse reach into a television set to attack his moral crusading critics. (Including Ozzy Osbourne himself in a hilarious cameo!) Ragman then has to race against time to try to destroy the record containing Sammi’s spirit before Sammi can resurrect himself in the flesh at the big Lakeridge High Halloween dance and make the entire school suffer…after midnight.
Trick Or Treat is the true definition of a heavy metal horror flick. It was clearly manufactured and marketed to appeal to the rabid legions of 80′s metalheads. The blistering heavy metal soundtrack is performed exclusively by Fastway. Previous to seeing this movie I had never really been too familiar with them, other than the fact that Fast Eddie Clarke from Motorhead was the guitar player. Fastway provides some really good tracks here, including the classic title track, After Midnight, Tear Down The Walls, Don’t Stop The Fight, and Get Tough. The music compliments the movie perfectly. Metalheads will also love Ragman’s bedroom in the movie, as it is full of classic heavy metal posters and records. There’s a great scene where Ragman’s mom leafs through his record collection and gets a steaming eyeful of his Megadeth, Possessed, and Impaler records!
Sammi Curr is played to perfection by the late great actor and former Solid Gold dancer Tony Fields. (RIP) Tony is absolutely electric in this role and even gets to break out some of his dance moves during the big musical number towards the ends of the film. Marc Price does a great job in the lead role but is a bit of a miscast as a metalhead, because he’s just too damn geeky. The positive of casting Marc on the other hand is that it’s completely believable watching him get his ass kicked. High school angst is the real star here. There is some heart string tugging drama along the way as Ragman is stripped and humiliated in gym class, and later shoved into a swimming pool with a backpack full of weights. You really do have to feel for the kid as he is continually humiliated throughout the beginning of the film.
There’s also a slew of very memorable lines in this baby, especially in the opening scene where we hear a beautiful letter that Ragman is composing for Sammi. “You did it man. You beat this fucking school…it’s like you say: Rock’s chosen warriors will rule the apocalypse. FUCK YEAH!!! This flick is fairly soft in the horror department. No blood, just lots of wacky demon hijinks including the aforementioned melting ears and the awesome sight of Sammi Curr reaching into a TV set and pulling out the shriveled and charred remains of an obnoxious anti-rock & roll crusading hag. The two biggest selling points of this flick were the special effects and the brief cameo appearances of Ozzy & Gene.
Sadly, Trick Or Treat didn’t exactly light the box office on fire, but it went on to be a cult classic on video. I’ve been a big fan of this one ever since I bought a used vhs copy of it around 1990 or so. Trick Or Treat is currently available on a cheap-o bare bones dvd from Platinum Entertainment. You can also find it in an amazing double feature dvd set along with the Charlie Sheen/Clint Howard classic THE WRAITH! Your head might explode from the sheer awesomeness of that double feature.
This dvd is better than nothing of course, but I DEMAND a special edition two disc release with commentary from Marc Price and director Charles Martin Smith and a bonus documentary on the career of Tony Fields! Someone, please make this happen as soon as possible!
Enjoy this kick ass video for Fastway’s Trick Or Treat!
HAPPY HALLOWEEN! KEEP THE BLOOD FLOWING!!!
