 Rock's Chosen Warriors Will Rule the Apocalypse! Released in 1986, "Trick or Treat" tackles the subject of Satanic heavy metal music (remember the days?) in a rather lighthearted way. Marc Price (the geeky Skippy from "Family Ties") plays metalhead Eddie Weinhaus (something like that), if you can imagine that. Seems that Eddie hasn't lost ALL of Skippy, since he's basically a teenage metalhead geek. The jocks beat him up, the women scorn him, his only (apparent) friend is an even MORE geeky guy (whose name I forget), and he can only find solace in the music of Megadeth, Exodus, Ozzy, etc.. needless to say, THIS reviewer identified with him. (you think I'm joking) The film lightly spoofs both the pretentiousness and goofiness of 80s glam-heavy metal as well as the anti-rock moral crusades of the religious wrong. It seems that Eddie's biggest hero is fictious rock star Sammi Curr, who seems to be mostly modeled after Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. (remember them?) It seems, however, that Sammi died in a hotel fire a few days before Halloween. Eddie is, of course, heartbroken - like a lot of kids, he felt that Sammi truly felt like he did. On top of that, Sammi was FROM Eddie's hometown and went to Eddie's high school, long before he made it big as a rock star; ergo, he really feels Eddie's pain (so to speak). So Eddie, heartbroken, manages to get his hands on demo recordings of Sammi shortly before he died, given to him by DJ "Nuke" (played by Gene Simmons of KISS). Knowing what a huge Sammi fan Eddie is, Nuke lets Eddie take the record (he already made a backup tape). Eddie runs home and immedately throws the record onto his turntable (this is from the mid-80s, remember). Well, soon enough, Eddie begins to pick up backwards messages on the record.. Sammi communicates with him whenever he plays the record backwards. It seems that Eddie was scheduled to play his old high school's Halloween party, but was rejected due to his obscene stage shows and controvertial image. While putting aside questions that really ought to be answered, namely why an apparently world-famous rock star would want to waste his time with a gig at a high school he attended 20 years ago, we find that, seeing as how he's dead, he needs to seize a soul to play at the gig.. guess whose? But Eddie manages to get smart before Sammi takes his soul.. Sammi, of course, manages to get out anyway and wreaks havoc, before Eddie can finally destroy him for good. This was, surprinsingly enough, not that bad a film. It was silly and goofy (hardly "horror"), but I think that was the point. If you remember the heavy metal glam scene from the 80s (Motley Crue, Ratt, Dokken, W.A.S.P., etc..) then this will bring back memories. Oh! It also features another cameo by *my* rock n' roll hero, The Ozzman Himself, as Rev. Aaron Gilstrap, an anti-rock and roll crusader. And Ozzy rules, damnit. About the author: The real-life Eddie - I swear, my freshman year in high school closely resembles much of this.. well, aside from the whole soul possession thing, I guess. You may read another review, submit your own, or return home. |
