MovieChat Forums > Trick or Treat (1986) Discussion > No matter what anyone says...

No matter what anyone says...

posted 18 years ago by sargesmash
16 replies | jump to latest

This movie is a classic. Yeah, maybe it isn't the greatest film, and a lot of people say it sucks, but at least it's original. Look at the crap Hollywood is putting out today, there's nothing original and when they can't think of nothing else, they dig up an old movie for a remake, or steal from Japanese horror (The Ring, The Grudge...etc).

The great thing about Trick Or Treat is, you couldn't re-make it today with a new cast set in today's environment because the culture, the music, and the look is so different today than 1986 when it was in theaters.

Back in 1986, it was uncool to be a "burnout" like Eddie Weinbauer. But today, twenty years later, it's cool to look unkept and dirty. Back in 1986, heavy metal music was controversial, socially unacceptable and considered "evil". Today, you see and hear worse stuff on evening television.

Are there even "jocks" or "preps" in schools anymore? Are there "headbangers" or "burnouts" anymore? This film is like a time capsule to 1986. If you weren't wearing Guess Jeans, using mousse in your hair and wearing Polo cologne, you probably were picked on a lot. That's how it was in my school. So I can relate with Eddie, and watching the film brings back a lot of memories of the day!

[–] hellcopinc 18 years ago

You're right a remake set in 2006 would not work at all. Kids of the 80's had a different view on life and the world. Eddie is what eventually became Grunge in the 90's. If the story progressed he would have listened to the Seattle stuff and still wore the same clothes. Times have changed. Politcally correctness and tolerance would allow for Sammi Curr to do and believe what he wanted as long as a law wasn't being broken. It is no longer shocking to hear about Satanic music.
A remake set in 1986 would work if it had the right authenticity and feel. A sequel would work to continue the story. Eddie's kid finding a tape. A kid finding Sammi's lost album on the internet. With all the "retro" craze and VH1 it could make for a good sequel. It could work for a sequel for a headbanger of the 80's to find the "lost album" while looking for music for his high school reunion and have to deal with Sammi Curr without bringing Eddie in at all.
I would like to see a continuation of the story. I saw this movie when it came out and have the soundtrack still to this day. I liked the story and could relate to the Eddie character. Too bad I can't write a story and sell it to Hollywood. It would'nt take much of a budget.

[–] sargesmash 18 years ago

Some really good ideas there, and some very good points! Nostalgia for the 80's seems to be high right now, with Hollywood digging into the 80's vault (Miami Vice movie...etc). Although Trick Or Treat was just a tiny piece of the 80's in comparison, it still was a great story, with some great characters. It has a cult following, and a sequel would probably do well, even if it was only aired on VH1 or something of the like.

Although it could work without any of the original characters, Glen Morgan (Roger) is probably the most successful of the cast of that movie, now he's a director, and was behind movies like "Final Destination", perhaps he'd be interested in directing and starring in a sequel. Marc Price would probably jump at the chance to portray an older and wiser Eddie. What about Gene Simmons as Nuke? His character mysteriously disappeared in the movie.

I don't know, this is just one fool's hope that maybe they'd do something. It's fun to speculate. Besides, if they can make countless Friday the 13th and Nightmare On Elm Street movies, why not bring back Sammi? But who would play Sammi? Tony Fields unfortunately passed on. Nikki Sixx would probably make a good Sammi. I'd be interested in writing a treatment.

[–] Jo_8 18 years ago

I bought this film a couple of weeks ago and thought it was ace. It shows how i feel at work, everyone dressed posh, then theres me. haha
I nearly fell of the bed laughing when i saw Ozzy, then heard what he was saying, hahaha, he's the king of all things rock'n'roll.
I enjoyed watching it, just didn't take it as a serious film. All rock music fans should own it and enjoy.
:)
xxxxx

[–] ivc7-1 18 years ago

Great soundtrack and amusing movie. There is much, mcuh worse out there.

[–] mantisjdg 18 years ago

This movie is a guilty pleasure for me. I was born in 1982 so I don't remember much from the 80's, but this movie is a total nostalgia trip for me.
It makes me sad that I missed that entire decade and had to grow up in the $hitty, grungy 90's
Give it a rest people, there is no way a remake or even a sequel of this movie would work today.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DemonGate 18 years ago

Well...I for one think that a sequel set in 2006/ 2007 with the original cast could work...as long as the emphasis of the movie was a little less about the style of the music and more about what supernatural feats Sammi is capable of. Can you imagine the sh!t fight Eddie would have with an all-new evil Sammi Curr and his 'Industrial Light and Magic' spawned abilities? Cool!

"Suck my nose till my head caves in!" - Glen (The Gate)

[–] sargesmash 18 years ago

Special effects are all well and good, but if there is no story, then it's just another "Blair Witch Part 2".

Look at the Star Wars prequels: Unlimited budgets, the most up-to-date special effects...but zero story.

I absolutely HATE computer animation!

[–] DemonGate 18 years ago

"Special effects are all well and good, but if there is no story, then it's just another "Blair Witch Part 2".

True! But 'Trick or Treat' is unique. I fully believe a 2007/8 'Trick or Treat' sequel could work, but only if it was made subtly enough (effects wise) to allow the story to shine through...unlike 'Star Wars Ep.I: The Phantom Menace' which not only relied heavily on special effects shots, but actually damaged it's plot by using too many of them. I'm not saying that 'Trick or Treat 2' should go WITHOUT special effects...but, unlike some of today's other remakes, maybe minimizing them would allow the film makers to create a good storyline like the original film had...and avoid a "Blair Witch 2" situation altogether.

Comments?

"This is an 81 Honda...how dare you!" - Vince (Employee of the Month)

[–] sargesmash 18 years ago

I doubt there will ever be a sequel, but if they did, I'd have to agree. Use special effects circa 1986, and don't use any damn CGI.

[–] delicreep 18 years ago

The use of the word "true" to qualify a certain group has always struck me as absurd. It's also sadly ironic in its elitist bigotry, especially when used to describe types of music spawned by people escaping the rules and tropes of more traditional forms of expression. Music fans listen to music. "True" fans of such-and-such music only listen to/accept what is approved of by their peer group, and mock that which is not in a lemming-like fashion.

Oh, and Trick or Treat is a very silly movie. You should read the director's "it's not a horror movie" views in Fangoria when it was being filmed. Pathetic. When your only "novel" idea is to cast Ozzy Osbourne as an anti-metal crusader, you know the bottom of the barrel is not much further down. I guess ToT is goofy fun, but nothing special.

[–] DemonGate 18 years ago

"When your only "novel" idea is to cast Ozzy Osbourne as an anti-metal crusader, you know the bottom of the barrel is not much further down. I guess ToT is goofy fun, but nothing special."

Obviously you haven't seen any of Keanu Reeves' work. :-D

"This is an 81 Honda...how dare you!" - Vince (Employee of the Month)

[–] bdrbrown1-1 18 years ago

I'd love to see this remade, but keep it in the 80's unlike they way they f#cked up Miami Vice's remake. I was a burnout from the mid 80's and that movie reminds me of a period of my life I dont remember very much of. It was filmed in Wilmington NC. I live in Charlotte and drove down in 1989 and saw the school building it was filmed in.

[–] donotbugme 18 years ago

Okay, admittedly the music scene has changed. So has what is culturally acceptable in schools. But, what hasn't changed is that American schools are still full of those that don't "fit" and the jocks or 'cool kids' that prey upon them.

Maybe now it's the emo's or the goths, but someone is still getting picked on.

Besides, no one new needs to kill himself in a sequel. Sammi's music was played over the radio in the days before Napster. Undoubtedly it was being recorded by several fans as the DJ announced he would play it over the radio at Midnight, days in advance I think it was. There's no reason some metal head or otherwise disenfrachised kid wouldn't jump at the opportunity for a rock-n-roll demon to help them settle a score.

[–] le_chiffre-1 14 years ago

"Maybe now it's the emo's or the goths, but someone is still getting picked on."

From what I can tell, it's white kids being picked on by black or hispanic kids. We can expect to see this trend continue as whites become a (hated) minority in America.

The movie American History X touched on it a bit, but of course gave the issue a politically-correct spin, as is to be expected from a Hollyweird production.

[–] le_chiffre-1 14 years ago

"This movie is a classic. Yeah, maybe it isn't the greatest film, and a lot of people say it sucks, but at least it's original."

It dragged a bit near the end, but I didn't think it was too bad. It was better than I expected. Nothing deep, but it was entertaining.

"Are there even 'jocks' or 'preps' in schools anymore?"

All the jocks listen to punk and metal now. Hell, even in the 80s a lot of jocks were into metal and smoked weed. At least at my school they did.

I used to get picked on by the headbangers at my school because I listened to punk, industrial, goth, and so on! When Nirvana became the biggest band of the 90s and Kurt Cobain was deified as the Jim Morrison or John Lennon of his generation, what was once underground became the new cool. Now it's to the point where if you don't have your anus pierced and aren't a crack addict by the age of 15, you're a damn square. Well, maybe not quite, but it's getting there.

"This film is like a time capsule to 1986."

Definitely! What I thought was cool was all the analog technology in common use that you don't see very much of anymore. Records, cassettes, turntables, Walkmen, the open-reel tape decks at the radio station...

It's funny to think that just 3 or 4 years after this movie came out, records almost totally vanished from the market to be replaced by CDs. And now CDs are being replaced by iPods and mp3s (though records seem to be making a small comeback).

Not two hours ago I picked up an old Fisher cassette deck that someone had put in the garbage. People can't even sell these machines anymore, so they're just throwing them away.

Another reason this movie couldn't be convincingly made today is because the technology in it is pivotal to the storyline. Digital doesn't have the same mysterious allure as analog; reversing a wavefile in an audio editor on a laptop isn't as cool as spinning a record backwards.

The little television clips in the background were an interesting reminder of the political climate at the time this movie was made. Trick or Treat was made around the time that Tipper Gore and the PMRC were holding congressional hearings into rock music, and bands like the Dead Kennedys were being prosecuted for obscenity.