A Belated Halloween Trick ‘r Treat Treat

Okay, so I’m a bit late with this one seeing as how Halloween is a few weeks gone now. But better late than never I guess.

If you haven’t seen it then Trick ‘r Treat is a little gem of a film; a heartfelt ode to the lore and myth of the 31st October, to the elements of that day which we are all familiar with. It’s an anthology, a portmanteau horror movie similar in vein to the likes of Creepshow and the lurid films made by us Brits in the 60’s and 70’s (Tales from the Crypt, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, Torture Garden, The Vault of Horror, Asylum, From Beyond the Grave etc.) But Trick ‘r Treat differs in that the four main stories are not separated and are all interconnected, taking place on the same night, in the same small Ohio town. If you watch one story carefully you will see elements of the other stories unfolding in the background as the timelines of the four tales are rather twisty and turny with the film ending essentially where it begins.

The four stories are:

The Principal
Child hating Principle Wilkins (Dylan Baker), gets up to some sadistic business on Halloween night involving poisoned candy, bloody murder and the carving of icky jack-o-lanterns with his impatient young son.

The School Bus Massacre Revisited
Five kids, Macy (Britt McKillip), Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), Sara (Isabelle Deluce), Chip (Alberto Ghisi), and Rhonda (Samm Todd), head for to the local quarry where Macy tells the local urban legend of "The Halloween School Bus Massacre". But as the group investigates the quarry, a ghoulish prank soon turns deadly for the terrified kids.

Surprise Party
Laurie (Anna Paquin), a young, self-conscious "virgin", goes into the woods after deciding to separate from her group of promiscuous friends. But deep in the woods a scary man in black attacks her, while her sister and her friends’ party nearby with various men they’ve picked up along the way.

Meet Sam
Mr Kreeg (Brian Cox), a cantankerous, Halloween-hating old man who lives alone with his dog, is trapped and stalked in his own home by a weird and creepy childlike figure with a burlap mask and a fiendish love for candy.

My personal favourite of these is Surprise Party as it is the most fairytale of the lot and ends with a great twist while also connecting effortlessly with one of the other stories. Oh, and Anna Paquin is in it and she’s great. But The Principle gives Surprise Party a close run, mostly for Dylan Baker who gives a deliciously sick yet charming performance as the evil Mr Wilkins.

All four stories are intertwined by location but what binds them all together is Sam, the childlike, burlap masked little devil who appears somewhere in each but features most prominently in the pre-title sequence and in the final story. Sam is essentially the spirit of Halloween, a creepy little sprite who lurks and watches and waits for people to make a mistake in their Halloween traditions and who then pays them out in the nastiest of ways. He’s a great little character who has no dialogue but is played with scary, malicious glee by child actor Quinn Lord.

Writer/director Mike Dougherty (X2, Superman Returns), who made his directing debut here, is a talented graphic artist with darkly playful sensibilities that remind of a young Tim Burton. He is also a friend and protégé of director Bryan Singer having written X2 and Superman Returns for the man with regular co-writer Dan Harris. Singer produced Trick ‘r Treat and as a first time director Dougherty must have studied his mentors directing style in great detail. For Trick ‘r Treat, like all of Bryan Singer’s own films, is beautifully made with excellent actors such as Brian Cox, Dylan Baker and Anna Paquin, and shot and edited with a steady, deliberate pace. It is also one of the most beautiful looking films of recent years. Glen MacPherson’s gorgeous photography bathes the film in a lovely Autumn gold hue which helps add to the fairytale feel along with the classy, detailed and stylised production design of Mark Freeborn and art direction of Tony Wohlgemuth.

Trick ‘r Treat was made in 2007 for theatrical release but for corporate reasons was eventually released straight to DVD late 2009 despite it already winning awards and critical plaudits. A crying shame as this little gem, along with John Carpenter’s Halloween, is the quintessential Halloween movie and deserves to be seen on a big screen with an enthusiastic audience cheering on little devil Sam in his gleefully sadistic mission.

In the end the best thing I can say about Trick ‘r Treat is that it is fun. It’s a lot of ghoulish, black humoured fun. It’s not especially scary. It’s not meant to be. It’s meant to be a celebration of the traditions and the fun of Halloween, a cautionary, spooky fairytale. And I reckon it gets it spot on.

Long live Sam.

Lording it over the Rings: Part 3 – Kings, Rings and All Good Things

The Return of the King

We come to it at last, the great battle of our time.

Where do you begin with The Return of the King? There is so much going on here, so many disparate and complex threads to be drawn together, so many character journeys figuratively and literally coming to an end. So much huge scope, epic conflicts and intimate emotions. And yet Peter Jackson weaves it all together in to a spellbinding and effortless narrative filled with so many incredible moments, sights, images and instances that it is almost overwhelming. Any one story thread or battle would be enough for just the one movie but here we have five threads – Frodo, Sam and Gollum in Mordor, Gandalf and Pippin at Minas Tirith, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli at the Paths of the Dead and Theoden leading the Rohirrim. And within the Rohirrim there is the separate story of Eowyn and Merry. And everything is now coming to a head. Gollum’s plan to retake the ring and kill the hobbits almost succeeds by his successfully separating Sam from Frodo and then leading Frodo in to the lair of the horrific giant spider Shelob. But he didn’t count on the unswerving loyalty of Samwise the Brave. In many ways Sam is the heart and the real hero of this story. He has no real reason to be on this journey except that he is a good friend and he made a promise. And it is his strength and his determination and his good cheer that makes it possible for Frodo to do what he has to do.

At the same time the armies of men are gathering to go to the aid of Gondor as its capital Minas Tirith is being besieged by tens of thousands of orcs and other nasties from Mordor. But even the large army Theoden and the Rohirrim have managed to assemble won’t be enough for the awesome task at hand. And as usual in this tale all seems hopeless. And it is at this point that another of Tolkien’s eucatastrophies occurs. Lord Elrond arrives with the broken sword Narsil reforged as Andúril – the symbol of kingship for Aragorn and the final sign that he must now accept his destiny as Isildur's heir, the one true king of men. And Aragorn finally does. And to prove it to himself and to the world he goes in to the paths of the dead and does what only the true king of Gondor could do.

The Battle of Pelennor Fields is the great military showdown between the race of men and the forces of Mordor. And it is a huge, wonderful, terrible, thrilling war beginning with the siege of Minas Tirith and then its invasion, which is eventually halted by the arrival of the Rohirrim and their gobsmackingly amazing charge led by King Theoden. But just when the men of Rohan and Gondor think the day is won…the second, even more terrifying wave of enemy forces arrive with the charge of the enormous elephant-like mûmakil. The moment King Theoden first sees them and realises what is happening is fantastic. That almost ‘what the f***k?’ look he gives before he gathers his senses and orders a reformed charge. Pelennor Fields is a stunning battle that lasts for a good portion of the movie but is always broken down in to smaller fights and personal stories within the huge mayhem. The best and most important of these being Eowyn and Merry and their confrontation with the Witch King, the leader of the Nazgul. This comes after the Nazgul sweeps down and plucks Theoden from the ground hurling him through the air to be pinned beneath his dead horse. Eowyn, armoured and helmeted, dives in to protect her king and uncle from the approaching Witch King. They do battle, seemingly one sided and – again - hopeless. The Witch King taunts Eowyn with the old prophecy that: “…no man can kill me!” After Merry distracts the villain with a knife in the leg, Eowyn pulls off her helmet, says, “I am no man” and stabs him in the face, killing him. YEAH!!! That is simply one of THE greatest cheer and punch the air moments in cinema history. What a woman! Of course it is followed by sadness as Theoden dies in her arms but he fulfilled his destiny and did the right thing for his people and the world entire, completing a wonderful character journey in the noblest of ways.

There is so much to talk about and wonder over in this film that I can’t possibly do it all here. But in the end Frodo gets to Mount Doom. And through an act of faith in his hobbit friends, Aragorn leads a last ditch attempt at distracting Sauron in order to give Frodo a chance to succeed in destroying the ring. Aragorn marches an army to the Black Gates and openly challenges the Dark Lord. And as the dread forces of Sauron emerge and surround our smaller army of heroes, the whispered, tender words of Aragorn as he glances back at Gandalf before charging the enemy come forth. “For Frodo.” *Sniff* The distraction works…but not before Frodo finally succumbs to the ring and Gollum tries one last time to take it from him. Both ringbearers, driven mad by its power, wrestle over possession and then tumble over the edge. And Gollum falls to his death happy to be reunited with his precious once more. Eventually, after seeming to threaten not to, the ring finally sinks in the lava of the crack of doom and is destroyed once and for all.

This finale is incredibly powerful and so emotionally charged with all the pieces coming together – chiefly Gollum’s part in the story finally proving to be so crucial. Gandalf always said he had some part to play but didn’t know what. Now we do. For Gollum was fundamental to the ring being destroyed. It was his obsession and love for it that finally made it possible. Like Isildur before, Frodo also fails at the last step and is taken by the ring. And in the end it is both Gollum’s and now Frodo’s blind greed and obsession that leads to the rings end. A moral there if ever I saw one.

The film then goes in to its most controversial stage – the multiple endings. I know these annoyed lots of people at the time. But they never did me. These scenes are crucial. We have invested hours and hours and - at the time of release - three years in this story and these people. We need…we deserve to see them through to their proper ends. Aragorn meets his destiny and is coronated as king and reunited with Arwen. The moment where he says to the hobbits “My friends…you bow to no one.” And then he and everyone else kneel before them just gets me every time. The arrival back in the Shire is important to the story as we have to be reminded what the hobbits have been fighting for, what Frodo ultimately sacrificed himself for. And then we go on to the Grey Havens where the last of the Elves, Bilbo, Gandalf and Frodo will depart Middle Earth for good, sailing for Valinor, the eternal world across the sea. This is where Frodo informs Sam and Merry and Pippin that his life is now over with nothing left for him in this world anymore. It is sad and yet comforting in a way as Frodo hands his story i.e. life to Sam who gets to finish it, to live life as Frodo couldn’t. This is shown perfectly at films end, just as Tolkien did in the book, with Sam arriving back home, back to the unchanged and lovely Shire to be greeted by his wife Rosie and their little children. And it is right there in that perfect moment that this huge millennia spanning saga of good and evil, of war and sacrifice ends with the simplest of happy words from Master Samwise. “Well, I’m back.”

The Return of the King is a powerful, stunning and emotional film and a perfect crowning (pun intended) finale to this story. It is crammed full of incredible moments both huge and tiny. Of images and acts that make you want to cheer and with words and deeds and sacrifices that make you want to shed a tear. It is full of dread and terror and carnage yet also hope and light and love. All the characters shine and the ones we have come to care about get to complete their journeys in the most appropriate and fitting of ways. Technically it is a stupendous effort. The filmmaking talents involved were firing on all cylinders with a special shout out to Howard Shore for his gorgeous trilogy of music that culminated in a well-deserved Oscar. The scale of this production and of the story being told is massive with the siege of Minas Tirith and the Pelennor Fields battle being jaw dropping and ridiculously thrilling. But the telling is truly in the characters and through the timeless themes of friendship, loyalty, helping those in need and never giving in to despair. Of living with the natural world and not trying to control and dominate it, of being stewards of our (middle) earth and not its masters. Similar tales and themes and ideas are ingrained in our collective consciousness and told and retold throughout generations – most recently with Avatar. And as much as I love Avatar, the complexity, the emotional depth and the genius of character and storytelling shown in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is second to none. I can’t wait to see what Jackson and Del Toro give us with The Hobbit.

Here are just some of my favourite moments in this film in no particular order:

The lighting of the beacons - an epic rousing sequence consisting of only visuals and music that ends with Aragorn rushing to tell Theoden that Gondor calls for aid. And Theoden replying “And Rohan will answer.” YES!

Eowyn in disguise grabbing Merry to head to battle

Faramir’s hopeless charge to Osgilieth

Gandalf’s beautiful speech to Pippin about how death is not the end

The Witch King perching on Minas Morgul as the hordes of Sauron begin to march forth

Gandalf riding out to save the surviving Gondorian soldiers with his beacon of light

Aragorn taking Andúril from Elrond

Gimli nudging Legolas’ bow as he fires an arrow at the Corsairs - accidentally killing Peter Jackson

Theoden’s speech to his men and the charge of the Rohirrim – one of the greatest sequences in movie history

Sam vs. Shelob

Theoden sees the second wave approaching

Eowyn vs. the Witch King “I AM NO MAN!”

Faramir’s loving gaze at Eowyn

“For Frodo.”

The surviving Fellowship coming in to Frodo’s room and Frodo’s look as Sam comes in last

“My friends, you bow to no one.”

“We set out to save the Shire, Sam. And it has been saved - but not for me.”

“Well, I’m back.”

And…

The beautiful drawings under the end credits and Annie Lennox’s equally beautiful and fitting closing song ‘In to the West’