Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday! For the final Saturday of Spook Season, I wanted to do a post on my favorite Halloween film of all time, Trick ‘R Treat! It truly captured the spirit of the holiday, it gave us four incredibly memorable stories, and it gave us one of the greatest demons in the horror genre!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com and IMDb.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• There was a joke around set stating how “no pumpkins were harmed during the making of this movie.” This was because most of the Jack-O-Lanterns were made of ceramic or foam.
• Because most of the filming had to be done at night, and children couldn’t work those hours, most of the young trick-or-treater extras had to be replaced by little people.
• There are many nods to legendary director, John Carpenter, throughout the film. For instance, Brian Cox’s character, Mr. Kreeg’s overall look was based on Carpenter.

• Another reference is when Mr. Kreeg sees Sam’s (Quinn Lord) detached hand crawling across the floor. He says, “You’ve gotta be f***ing kidding me,” which is a famous line from John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).
• Before filming began, settling on an official title proved to be very difficult. The initial titles include Season’s Greetings (which was the title of the short film Trick ‘R Treat was based on), Halloween Terrors, Jack O’ Lantern Tales, October the 31st, and Trick Or Treat. They changed it from Season’s Greetings because it sounded like a Christmas film instead of a Halloween film.
• The creatures revealed in the film were foreshadowed in the beginning by the newscaster (Caroline Redekopp). She states, “werewolves (the werewolves at Sheep’s Meadow), zombies (the zombie children at the rock quarry), and demons (little Sam, who shows up in every story to make sure the rules of Halloween are followed) of every variety have descended on the normally sleepy town of Warren Valley, Ohio..”

• C. Ernst Harth is known for his role as The Great Child in Thir13een Ghosts (2001). In this film, he makes a small appearance as Laurie’s (Anna Paquin) blind date, once again, dressed as a giant baby.
• Billy’s (Connor Christopher Levins) look for the film closely resembles Chucky (Brad Dourif) from the Child’s Play franchise, including red hair, overalls, and striped shirt.
• During the “Halloween School Bus Massacre” scene, the bus drives by a 1958 Plymouth Fury. Most horror fans know this car from the movie Christine (1983): another nod to John Carpenter, and also, Stephen King, who wrote Christine).

• Anna Paquin’s character, Laurie, was even named after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) from John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978).
• When Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith) tells her date to meet her at Sheep’s Meadow, this was a hint towards the film’s best twist. “A wolf in sheep’s clothing” becomes “A werewolf in Sheep’s Meadow”.
• While Danielle and Laurie talk on the phone, a remix of Cry Little Sister, the main theme from The Lost Boys (1987), is playing in the background of the party. This is another reference, considering both films contain a massacre at a bonfire.
• Near the beginning of the film, we see Mrs. Henderson (Christine Willes) at a party, where a man in a hotdog costume was dancing in the background. Later, when we see the werewolves at Sheep’s Meadow moving bodies around, we briefly see Mrs. Henderson folding up a hotdog costume. This indicates that Henderson is indeed a werewolf too, and she killed the man in the hotdog costume.