CJG THE HATCHET MAN Horror Scene Dissection — Sam vs. Mr. Kreeg in TRICK ‘R TREAT, 2007. Happy Halloween! 🎃🎃🎃
Welcome back to CJG THE HATCHET MAN — your ultimate dissector of all things eerie, spooky, and occasionally bloody! Spooky season is ending soon and Halloween is upon us; so, time to give ol’ John Carpenter a break and spill the tea on a lesser-known treat!
Trick ‘r Treat (2007) Trailer #2 | Movieclips Classic Trailers
Writer/director Michael Dougherty took on Halloween long before he took on Christmas in KRAMPUS 2015 with 2007’s TRICK R TREAT, a fun EC Comics style anthology movie that owes a strong debt to CREEPSHOW as well as TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE, the horror series from 1983 to 1988 created by George A. Romero and distributed by Laurel Productions. All the four stories intertwine in some form or another with an emcee named Sam, a trick or treater in a burlap sack costume and pumpkin mask who turns out to be a pumpkin goblin of some kind. His M.O.: reinforce all the rules of Halloween, most especially when it comes to its traditions. Even if it means resorting to using his rather sharp lollipop on them and an arsenal of sharp weaponry.
It evolved from a short student animated film Dougherty created called SEASON’S GREETINGS that gave life to Sam, the Halloween mascot and give us four tales of horror, humor and sweet Halloween revenge — The Principal, Tale of the School Bus Massacre, Surprise Party, and Meet Sam.
Despite being a curio straight-to-video film although Warner Brothers studio had backed it — the film is now a staple in many Halloween Horrorthons, like mine. Now for the scene (plot will have to take a backseat for this). Clocking in an easy under 90-minutes, TRICK ‘R TREAT manages to be completely hilarious, horrifying and in some stretches, heartwarming; especially when dealing with a trio of college girls and their virgin friend (a well-cast Anna Paquin from THE PIANO, TRUE BLOOD) in setting up her first time — and completely subverts our expectations with the outcome.
The Evil Neighbor vs. The Childlike Menace
Trick ‘r Treat (2007) — Give Me Something Good to Eat Scene (8/9) | Movieclips
Mr. Kreeg (played by a wonderfully batsh*t Brian Cox) is a longhaired elderly coot with a pet terrier, Spike, who is always scaring off trick or treaters, that is until he comes across Sam. Mr. Kreeg’s refusal to give out candy and create discord in general, draws Sam’s ire and there’s a crazy showdown between Sam and Mr. Kreeg that manages to reveal Sam’s true form and rightfully puts Mr. Kreeg in his place with an arsenal of Jack o’ lanterns, cutlery, razor blades and disembodied parts.
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Dougherty doesn’t spare or waste a moment — as it is frenetic, funny, but very violent and scary and even bloody at times. We can’t exactly root for Mr. Kreeg, but we do feel the punishment and almost care enough to want him to be spared Sam’s wrath. Here’s some pros…
Practically Perfect. A Little Bit of Karma Never Hurt Anyone!
Sam is created practically with an actor in the suit (Quinn Lord, an actual child actor at the time) and the scene has an almost manic, visceral energy to it. Venerable Scottish character actor Cox (who starred in Michael Mann’s MANHUNTER and was our first ever Hannibal Lecter, was also BRAVEHEART, ROB ROY, and RED EYE, directed by the late Wes Craven) fully commits to making Kreeg super nasty and unlikeable and yes, since this is an anthology; we do get a full-on legitimate reason why Sam targets Kreeg after through another story. We learn Kreeg’s backstory as a school bus driver who was involved in an accident with a group of special children. It earns its scares and we enjoy a bit of Kreeg’s comeuppance. But…since nothing is ever really perfect…
Nitpick — Severed Kid Heads, Really/Didn’t We See This Already?
Main nitpick — it’s not a very new story and yes, it can be traced back to a TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE segment about an elderly man who fights off an angry trick or treater for his Halloween candy (actually make that two since it was a pilot episode and a Season Two episode that forced an elderly man to survive off of his candy and then dies from neglect)— but hey, new iterations are common in horror, so like I said — mere nitpick.
Also, since I didn’t dissect the segment with Dylan Baker as an evil principal who kills a rather annoying obese kid, quite brutally in fact; one wonders just how killing a child and severing its head is validated — but you know, horror movie’s gotta horror.
Conclusion — We Love Carpenter, Buuuuut….
We all love and need our Michael Myers fix every time October 31st nears, but TRICK ‘R TREAT still stands out as a fun alternative to John Carpenter’s classic movie and its franchise and can also be a catalyst for finding other anthology Halloween horror movies. HAUNT 2019, TALES OF HALLOWEEN 2015, ALL HALLOWS’ EVE 2013 and HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2024 all come to mind!
Their scene dissections may come next year. Stay spooky one and all.
NEXT SCENE — Introducing Angry Pirate Clark in BACKROOMS, 2026!
