Trick or Treats

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. The tape box says this mess of a film runs 90 minutes, but the film really only runs 75 minutes. And even then you can feel the padding. Somehow or another Orson Welles got involved in this production.

**This review may contain spoilers** Linda (Jacqueline Giroux) is working as a babysitter for one of the most irritating kid (the son of the director by the way) I've ever seen on film. She does this only because the parents of the kid has a lot of money and she thinks she is going to get a pretty large amount of money for it. But what turns out as a nightmare by babysitting this annoying kid turns out even worse when a mental patient has escaped and he sets his goal towards the very same house that Linda and the kid is in. The mental patient does this to get his revenge on his ex-wife that sent him away to the "looneyhouse" several years earlier. Now this has to be one of the most boring films I've ever seen and that's simply because the pacing is so damn awful and the acting is absolutely horrendous. The only thing I was waiting for was at least one interesting death scene but not even that. It takes about 1 hour before the maniac arrives at the house and I just wanted someone to get rid of the damn kid.You do not care about any of the characters simply because there is barely any backstory to any of them not even the killer himself! If you wanna see about 4 minutes of David Carradine and 2 minutes of Steve Railsback sure there you go but there is not anything else to find interesting here... 1/10

this film is about linda an aspiring actress who goes to babysit on halloween night to babysit the kid is named chris who keeps pulling dark disturbing pranks on her a killer named malcom who is christophers real father comes over and terror happens the film is basically a clumsy mash up of fright 1971 halloween 1978 with a dash of nightmare 1981 i don't hate it but i don't love it either pros the final girl is likable even if she is dumb the acting is good halloween 1978 was good but it didn't feel like halloween this film has the halloween feel that film didn't have humorous at times cons poor lighting weak killer more comedy than horror low body count too many pranks and false scares i didn't like the end over oll you could at least see it once then buy a good movie but have this for a laugh at how chessy it is

It is unlikely there has ever been a horror film less effective than Trick or Treats. The killer is more annoying than scary, and the final girl is unlikeable. The film has little suspense, gore, or plot. The shots are badly lit, and mainly focus on the final girl's ass. The story takes place in Los Angeles, where a man is taken to an asylum by his wife so she get his money. Seven years later he breaks free to get revenge. However, the wife's away at a party in Las Vegas with her new husband and has left their son with a babysitter. The son is an amateur magician, and he proceeds to play tricks on the babysitter, until eventually the father breaks in and the babysitter thinks the strange calls and noises are the son's doing. The film was directed by Gary Graver, a cinematographer who worked with Orson Welles on many films and was apparently good friends with him. Welles is credited in the film as "Magic Consultant".

Apparently, if you're looking to take your other half out of the picture, all you need to do is call up the local nut-house, who will send round a couple of orderlies with a straitjacket to cart them away, no questions asked. That's what Joan (Carrie Snodgress) does to her husband Malcolm (Peter Jason) who spends the next four years in an asylum going genuinely crazy. Of course, there's always the danger that they might break out and go looking for a spot of revenge, which is precisely what Malcolm does, disguising himself as a female nurse to do so. When Malcolm finally arrives home, his ex-wife isn't there, having gone partying with her new man Richard (David Carradine); instead, he makes do with terrorising her pretty babysitter Linda (Jacqueline Giroux), who is staying the night to look after chubby, magic-obsessed, practical joker Christopher (Chris Graver), quite possibly the most obnoxious little s**t to have ever appeared in a horror movie. What sounds like standard '80s slasher nonsense feels like anything but, the entire cast clearly not taking matters very seriously (and who can blame them given the very silly script); unfortunately, despite what I can only presume are attempts at humour, the film is never funny enough to qualify as a comedy horror, and with zero scares or gore, no nudity, plus that really irritating kid grating on the nerves throughout, Trick or Treats manages to be an utter failure on practically every level. Even the utterly stupid, highly predictable 'shock' ending blows.

Believe it or not; I saw this on the big screen. And yes, it is a total yawn fest with only "scratch your head" cameos by the Names to give it interest. Seems the director came out of the Al Adamson school. It shows.

TRICK OR TREATS tries to be something but it miserably fails to be anything. Is it mainly trying to be some sort of slasher-inspired horror film using a Halloween-theme? Probably, but you can't really call it a horror movie. There's no suspense, no thrills, no gore, no memorable deaths, no nothing. Just a lot of talking, various hints at possible subplots that are no hints, really, but just goings-on that lead to absolutely nothing. Just a guy who escapes a mental institute to get revenge on his wife because she put him there. This is just a minimal plot-thread running through the film, as most of the other scenes feature an extremely annoying kid (the son of the lunatic) playing stupid Halloween pranks on his female baby-sitter. The chick fills her time with phoning her acting boyfriend (played by an under-used Steve Railsback, who's anything but memorable in this film) and telling the annoying kid stories like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". David Carradine plays the kid's step-dad and has, besides talking smooth to the baby-sitter, no reason to be in this film. Peter Jason (as the escaped lunatic dad), might come across as another familiar face (it should, actually, just watch some John Carpenter movies), but seeing him dress up as a nurse (with a bad wig) will just have you shaking your head, wishing this film would end. In all honesty, TRICK OR TREATS could have been an okay Halloween-themed horror flick if they had actually bothered to write a decent script. But it turned out a boring, uneventful piece of crap. With one of the most annoying 80's kids ever. Good Badness? No, simply no fun. 2/10 and 2/10

This bottom-rung '80s slasher follows a much-too-old babysitter being stalked by an escaped mental patient on Halloween night. Never heard that synopsis before. Anyways, I can't imagine anyone but the most avid slasher fan would even be on this movie's IMDb page, but even the biggest fan of slice-and-dice films is unlikely to get any fun out of this one. It's egregiously slow, with most of its running time dedicated to watching a child magician-in-training pulling cheap pranks on the babysitter character. The director didn't invest in any lighting equipment, making some of the proceedings all but impossible to follow. It's bloodless, breastless and suspenseless, which leaves the film an almost complete lack of entertainment. There's rumblings of the film being a satire, but most of the humor is relegated to a padding scene featuring film editors. And that is heavy-handed and overdone. The rest of the film is neither clever or entertaining enough to be humorous. Avoid, even though you do get about three minutes of creepy cougar David Carradine action. If you're looking for a cheesy, fun 80s movie for a Halloween night, 1986's TRICK OR TREAT is a much better choice.

Directed by Gary Graver, whose IMDb page is veritably packed with films like Sorceress, Sorceress II: The Temptress, Mortuary and Femalien II, this film concerns a babysitter, who is stuck watching a kid on Halloween while her boyfriend is in a play. Christopher, the babysittee, is a total asshole. I mean that — in a world of annoying horror movie children, he may be the most horrible ever. He keeps acting like he's cut himself or killed himself and she keeps finding him, cries and then he yells "trick or treat" and runs away. Meanwhile, the kid's dad, Malcolm (Peter Jason from They Live, In the Mouths of Madness and Prince of Darkness) was put into a mental asylum by the mother (Carrie Snodgrass, who allowed the production to use her home) years ago. He's broken out and is coming home to kill her. Except she's out with her new husband, Richard (David Carradine!) and only checking in via phone calls. Speaking of phone calls, Malcolm keeps calling home with threats. Oh yeah. Steve Railsback is the boyfriend. Paul Bartel shows up as a bum and literally chews up the entire scene that he is in. There's a movie within a movie that the babysitter's friend is editing. And Orson Welles is credited as the magic consultant. There is not a single likable person in this film. I wanted the kid to die literally from the minute he appeared on screen. The killer isn't particularly fearsome. And the tagline "…when Halloween night stopped being fun!" doesn't promise much. But I still find stuff to love in it, like the interstitial answering of the trick or treat door, hoping that something big is going to happen. And the movie within a movie's speech about transcendental meditation made me laugh. Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/12/trick-or-treats-1982/

Its tag-line "when Halloween night stopped being fun" speaks volumes about this dreaded film because I can't really see anyone finding any enjoyment in watching this trash. I had never watched this film until now and to be honest never even heard anyone talk about it so I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. The premise of the film is great with a perfect 80's VHS-cover a plot about an escaped mental patient about to seek vengeance on his family (not original but has worked before) and appearances by one of my favorite b-movie action-heroes David Carradine. But then I made the mistake of watching the actual movie and boy oh boy was I let down. The film starts of as a weird family drama and soon then later turns into some weird comedy about a boy playing pranks on his stupid babysitter. This goes on for an hour or something and when the horror actually starts you don't care and actually want the cast to get killed so the dreaded thing can be over with. The cast is set up of somewhat skilled actors but Gary Graver seems to have gone out of his way to create characters that nobody can like. The kid is an evil little brat that speaks with a freaky baby-voice, his mother is an egotistical and evil bitch and the babysitter seems to have the IQ of a donkey. To be honest the only lovable character in the whole film is the deranged father that's doing all the killings. Was this intentional or just poorly written? The only enjoyments one can get out of it is by watching it as a vigilante film and actually cheer for the killer as he gets back on society and the bastards who locked him up. But even then you'll probably spend half the movie hitting the fast forward button.