It’s Too Late For A Trick ‘R’ Treat Sequel

The underrated horror anthology Trick ‘r’ Treat is a scary, funny delight, so why is it too late for director Michael Dougherty’s Halloween movie to receive a sequel? Despite being shot in 2007, Trick ‘r’ Treat did not reach viewers until 2009 when it was released straight to DVD. However, much like fellow horror-comedy The Cabin in the Woods, Trick ‘r’ Treat’s lengthy spell in development hell did not stop the anthology horror from becoming a cult classic among genre fans.

It’s not hard to see why aficionados of the horror genre gravitated toward Trick ‘r’ Treat. Its six segments are the sort of darkly funny mix of horror and comedy the legendary horror anthology series Tales From the Crypt regularly provided in the early ‘90s, featuring of inventive gore and jump scares, but always tempering the scares with sardonic wit. Trick ‘r’ Treat’s blackly comic tone kept the movie from becoming too mean-spirited, while its gruesome content ensured Trick ‘r’ Treat was never too light-hearted to take seriously either.

Understandably, horror fans have long wanted a follow-up to Trick ‘r’ Treat, even more so since director Michael Dougherty’s Yuletide horror Krampus proved a critical success in 2015. There were rumors of a sequel circa 2013 and every year there are renewed calls for a belated follow-up, but there are a variety of reasons this wouldn’t work out. Despite Trick ‘r’ Treat being a stellar anthology horror and the box office success of holiday horrors like Halloween Kills proving that veteran horror franchises can be profitable, the time for Trick ‘r’ Treat to receive a sequel has unfortunately already passed.

Trick ‘R’ Treat Came Out At The Wrong Time

A scary and funny horror anthology set on Halloween night, Trick ‘r’ Treat was nigh-on impossible for studios to market in the mid-’00s. At the time, the genre was dominated by PG-13 teen horror, slasher remakes like Friday the 13th or torture-centric efforts like Hostel,  leaving no place for Trick ‘r’ Treat’s unique tone. While there are few movies like Trick ‘r’ Treat being released theatrically in 2021 – and even Dougherty’s original went straight to VOD and DVD back in 2009 – there is an appetite for horror-comedy on streaming services. Shudder’s Creepshow TV series has a semi-comic, campy tone similar to that of Trick ‘R’ Treat and had proven a hit with critics, meaning the film might have fared better if it were released later. However, arriving alongside the likes of Friday the 13th’s 2009 remake ensured that Trick ‘r’ Treat had no place in the horror genre at the time of release, even though Dougherty’s anthology is a stronger movie and is more fondly remembered than many of its box-office rivals at that time.

The Anthology Horror Boom Has Been And Gone

Trick ‘r’ Treat may have been instrumental in bringing back anthology horror, but unfortunately, that trend has since been and gone. Anthology horror movies had a major revival a few years after Trick ‘r’ Treat’s release, with the V/H/S series, Southbound, and both ABCs of Death movies being hits. Each of these was imbued with Trick ‘r’ Treat’s combination of Tales From the Crypt-style black comedy and slick contemporary horror aesthetics, meaning Dougherty’s film may well have influenced those later releases. However, the middling response to Holidays and XX proved the cinematic anthology horror trend had a sell-by date, much like the found footage boom before it.

Since 2012-2016 saw a revival of the format in feature film form, recent years have seen the number of new anthology horror releases dwindle again. 2015’s Tales From Halloween, which had a premise very similar to Trick ‘r’ Treat, received lackluster reviews while 2013’s All Hallow’s Eve offered similar shocks but its reception paled in comparison to that of its standalone non-anthology follow-up, Terrifier. The revival of the slasher subgenre – evidenced by everything from 2018’s Halloween to 2021’s Candyman or even 2022’s Scream legacy sequel – largely replaced the anthology trend, meaning a Trick ‘r’ Treat would now be arriving in as inhospitable a market as its predecessor did.

Anthology Horror Has Moved To TV

As proven but the success of Slasher, American Horror Story or the aforementioned Creepshow, there is a range of successful small-screen anthology horrors which prove the subgenre has transitioned back to television for now. The anthology horror format has switched venues twice before, with TV shows like the original Twilight Zone being popular in the ‘60s before movies like Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow made the format cinematically viable during the ’70s/ ‘80s. The unexpected success of HBO’s Tales From the Crypt TV show also meant that anthology horror returned to the small screen throughout the ‘90s with Monsters, Tales From the Darkside and The Outer Limits before the 2010s saw a return to big-screen anthology horror. Now, streaming has returned the format to television once more, meaning the Trick ‘r’ Treat franchise may have, once again, missed out.

Trick ‘R’ Treat Could Spawn A TV Series

However, all hope is not lost for fans of Trick ‘r’ Treat. Rather than a straight sequel, Trick ‘r’ Treat could easily spawn a TV series set in the world of the original that tells a larger number of interconnecting stories. This would allow the creators of the franchise to tell more ambitious, sprawling tales while also taking advantage of two distinct trends. The popularity of numerous horror franchise’s television adaptations, proven by the success of Chucky’s SyFy TV series, could help Trick ‘r’ Treat find a whole new audience on the small screen. Meanwhile, the aforementioned boom in the popularity of anthology horror means television audiences are used to the format and would be eager to see a new blackly comic horror series in that vein, where cinema audiences. As such, Michael Dougherty’s Halloween-set cult classic can still be revived if Trick ‘r’ Treat receives a TV series spinoff, rather than a direct movie sequel that would arrive too late to cash in on the anthology horror craze.

About The Author

Cathal Gunning
(1448 Articles Published)

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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