Trick 'r Treat

Whoever decided Michael Dougherty's cleverly assembled compendium of chills wasn't worthy of a cinema release should have their head hollowed out and hung on a gatepost.
 
Full of deliciously macabre tricks and treats, it shows wit and invention far beyond most of the crummy horror remakes that have come to blight the big screen in recent years. Forget Rob Zombie, this is what Halloween is really all about.
 
That's not to say the writer of Bryan Singer's X-Men 2 and Superman Returns doesn't have his influences. Produced by Singer - who helmed Apt Pupil - and taking the multi-storied approach of Creepshow and Cat's Eye, the spectre of Stephen King hangs over it like a white sheet going "boo!"

Halloween: the one night of the year when murderers and malevolent midgets and creatures of the night can come out and do their worst in plain sight.

It's a night when kids can stuff their faces without fear of rebuke... though one little chubster goes a candy bar too far at shady principal Dylan Baker's house.

It's a night when college girls can dress up like children and let their hair down... though Anna Paquin's Little Red Riding Hood is nervous about letting her wild sister choose who she does 'it' with for the first time.

It's a night for teenagers to scare gullible schoolmates with urban legends... though one little gang come to wish they'd never dredged up the 'Halloween School Bus Massacre'.

And it's a night when miserable hermits like Mr Kreeg (Cox) are even less likely to open their doors to strangers than usual... though some unwanted visitors are happy to let themselves in.

Light the jack o'lantern, open the sweetie jar and prepare to be impressed, because nothing is as it seems in Dougherty's short, sharp trip through the Twilight Zone.

Elliott Noble