5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A baby sitter is stuck watching over a young brat on Halloween night who keeps playing vicious pranks on her. To add to her trouble the boy's deranged father has escaped from an asylum and is planning on making a visit.
Starring: Jacqueline Giroux, Peter Jason, David Carradine, Carrie Snodgress, Steve RailsbackHorror | 100% |
Dark humor | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A $55,000 budget doesn’t buy much, and such financial limitations are on display in 1982’s “Trick or Treats,” which is writer/director Gary Graver’s chance to participate in and lampoon the horror gold rush of the decade. It’s a cheap chiller from the Orson Welles collaborator/adult film helmer, who’s basically trying to slap together a simple slasher offering for the masses, putting very little thought into the details of the production. “Trick or Treats” isn’t scary, but it’s not always trying to creep viewers out, remaining in a weird holding pattern around potential areas of entertainment, determined to be about nothing when more ambitious writing could make something out of this weirdly inert endeavor.
Listed as a "Hi-def master from the original camera negative," "Trick or Treats" makes its way to Blu-ray with an AVC encoded image (1.78:1 aspect ratio) presentation that was originally offered in a 2015 release. "Trick or Treats" isn't a pretty picture to begin with, and the viewing experience isn't much better, with appreciable Halloween lighting and colorful costumes on kids and adults. Skintones are natural. The feature is dark, and delineation is satisfactory, doing okay with shadowy encounters and limited lighting. Detail is passable, exploring softer facial surfaces and textured clothing, along with interior decoration and magic contraptions. Grain is often chunky. Source is in decent condition, but scratches and speckling are common.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix isn't sophisticated, leading with louder dialogue exchanges, which offer excitable performances to set the chiller mood.
Scoring cues are quite random and basic, but offer satisfactory support. At the 11:51 mark, the film slips out of sync for a few lines, perhaps due to
some source damage.
Subtitles are not offered on this release.
Graver is goofing around with "Trick or Treats," but he's not entirely committed to the comedy aspects of the feature, hesitant to satirize horror when trying to work up some thrills himself via Malcolm's return home. "Trick or Treats" is a confused picture, and a tedious one too, with Graver pushing unlikable characters involved in ridiculous situations, adding a touch of self-referential commentary to stay above a genre he clearly wants to profit from.
2011
Collector's Edition
1981
Limited to 1000 Copies
1978
2012
1982
2019
2018
2019
2014
1982
1981
Welcome to Spring Break / Kino Cult #9
1989
2013
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1980
2013
30th Anniversary Edition
1981
The Horror Star
1983
Limited Edition
1982
1985
Limited Edition - 1,200 copies
1986