Trick or Treat (1986)
Directed by Charles Martin Smith
My two biggest passions are slasher movies and 80s hair metal. Well Trick or Treat might not be fully a slasher movie, it does have a lot of 80s Metal in it. Years have gone by since I first heard of this from a friend in high school. It has been on my radar for a long long time, but DVD releases I’ve heard were bad and it never pops up on streaming platforms. Luckily there are amazing people on Youtube that devote their time to uploading 80s horror movies, so I finally got a chance to view this. Also thanks to Short Bus Cinema Podcast for refreshing this movie into my memory.
Trick or Treat stars Marc Price, no not the awesome point guard from Cleveland Cavaliers fame, but good ol’ Skippy Handelman from Family Ties! He is a big metal head named Eddie, who is obsessed with Sammi Curr, the lead singer of his favorite band. Eddie is constantly bullied at school and music is his escape, but when Sammi dies in a fire, Eddie grieves greatly. A radio DJ (played by Gene freaking Simmons) gives him the unreleased final song Sammi recorded. Eddie plays the record numerous times and realizes there is a secret message when played backwards. The message summons the spirit of Sammi and soon Eddie has the help of an evil spirit to deal with the bullies and anyone else in his way. Once Sammi’s powers bring him back from the dead, its up to Eddie to even things out.
The soundtrack is badass, what can I say. The bulk of the music is from the band Fastway (Say What You Will, is a jam look it up), there are a few other songs thrown in from other artists. The movie is really a love letter to 80s metal. During the movie you see numerous posters, albums and tshirts of great metal bands. Along with Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne is also in the movie as a reverend, which honestly is hilarious. The acting is pretty good, Marc Price really was a good actor and still had that frantic attitude that he had as Skippy in Family Ties. There are so many scenes of him losing his mind that its both great and hilarious.
If you love classic metal, and 80s horror then you’ll love this movie. If you don’t care for either of those, then we can’t be friends sorry. I was happy to finally watch this and it was worth the wait. The movie does drag a little at times but all in all it was a fun hour and a half. I give Trick or Treat a B+, go check it out on Youtube, if you don’t mind grainy VHS rips (honestly that’s how you should watch this type of movie).
31 Horror Movies 