Letterboxd Reviews: Trick or Treats

While I'm glad I got the chance to see this, it takes fucking forever for Peter Jason's "mad as a hatter" revenge-seeking ex-husband to Carrie Snodgrass to get from the mental hospital he was committed by her to his former home in LA. Jacqueline Giroux has the misfortune of being assigned by her agency to babysit Snodgrass' little monster son (the director's kid), playing non-stop magic tricks and ghoulish pranks on her throughout Halloween night as trick-or-treaters continue to stop by the house for candy. Jason takes the wig and white uniform of a nurse, including adding makeup to his face in order to disguise himself for a majority of his trip to LA, actually robbing Paul Bartel (a bum in an alley!) of his clothes through a threat of violence (a knife he stole from a kitchen in a diner, the counterman with the coffee actually the director, Graver).

This film is like 80 minutes but it just feels so much longer than it is. Since so much of the film is Chris Graver tormenting Giroux with morbid gags like fake cutting off his thumb and mimicking himself in a pool drowned, it feels like a lot of padding with very little plot at all. There is one scene where Chris hooks up a line to the door knocker, pulling it from outside with Giroux answering to no one, until she storms off in a big huff. And the kid doesn't know when to quit. And there is this protracted scene involving a friend of Giroux's who drops by, an editor of horror films, commenting to another co-worker how much she hates the genre, not realizing she would be a prime example of a slasher victim.

Before Jason even escapes, you have at least three dialogue scenes in a room full of patients, with one behind him, imitating himself knitting Jason's gown. Graver must have called in some favors since he has David Carradine as Snodgrass's second husband (they are dressed the same, seemingly as magicians) and Steve Railsback as Giroux's theater actor boyfriend (he is bummed she can't see him play Othello in what looks like a lower rent acting job).

Eventually Jason enters the house and seems content to hang around, not in too big a hurry to go on the attack. Jason is primarily known as a John Carpenter supporting actor, notable in several of his 80s films. Here, he lays it on thick. Probably the most memorable scene in the film is Jason fighting with two mental hospital orderlies trying to straight-jacket him, as Snodgrass looks on, seemingly quite excited to be rid of him! A lot of it is how it plays out like some slapstick farce that goes on for minutes, with all three falling in the swimming pool. Thing about this film is Snodgrass is gone to Vegas so any revenge Jason desires will be aimed at the wrong person: Giroux.

I gave the film an extra half star because of the outrageousness of there being a guillotine in a kid's bedroom, actually used to stop Jason. The final image with the boy and a butcher knife had me just whatever...I guess it fits the tone of this silly movie.

Trick or Treats (1982) - January 17, 2022

** / *****