Trick 'r Treat: The Lore and Legends of Halloween (2009 Video) User Reviews

Trick or Treat

[Michael_Elliott · 31 July 2015]

The Lore and Legends of Halloween (2009)

*** (out of 4)

This documentary runs a few minutes shy of 30 minutes and it works as a history lesson on Halloween as well as a making-of featurette on the film TRICK 'R TREAT. We get interviews with filmmaker Michael Doughtey as well as cast members like Dylan Baker and Anna Paquin and there are also interviews with Halloween experts like Lisa Morton and David J. Skal.

Overall if you're a fan of the film or the holiday then you're going to enjoy this piece, although there's no question that 30 minutes isn't nearly enough time to really get into details. The History Channel made a documentary called THE REAL STORY OF HALLOWEEN, which takes a more direct look at the holiday so it's worth watching. This here has a lot of nice stories about the making of the picture as well as the various ideas that went into the screenplay. The director talks about certain events from his own life that got influenced into the film. Overall this is a fun featurette.

Halloween begins.

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 6/10 · 16 February 2022]

'Trick 'R Treat: The Lore And Legends Of Halloween (2009)' is a short documentary available on the home-video versions of 'Trick 'R Treat (2007)'. It explores the origins of our most honoured Halloween traditions and relates this knowledge back to segments from the film itself, combining behind-the-scenes footage with historically educating interviews. Via a mix of talking heads, on-set footage and stock images, the piece weaves a tale of Halloween that stretches back to the holiday's very origins. It takes a deep dive on some of the specific elements that make up the spookiest day of the year, revealing their supposed true meanings and exploring how the final film weaves those into its more supernatural elements. It is a bit basic, with information that feels as though it comes straight from a Wikipedia page, but its experts are charismatic enough and the interviews with its cast and crew imply a lot of enthusiasm for the material. It's a good opportunity to take a peek behind the curtain of a popular horror anthology and to learn something about a holiday that is typically associated with little more than costumes and candy. It runs a little long and is almost a little dull at times, especially when it comes to its overall presentation. However, it's entertaining enough for what it is. It does feature footage of Bryan Singer, though. 6/10.

You get what you came for

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 16 October 2015]

"Trick 'r Treat: The Lore and Legends of Halloween" is exactly what the title says: a documentary that runs for slightly under 30 minutes and tells us a lot about Halloween, especially about how this famous annual event is used in films, especially horror films, over the decades. There are interesting interview partners here such as Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin or Bryan Singer, which is always nice, but to me personally this documentary just didn't become interesting at any point. The reason is probably that Halloween has never been of great interest to me and it's also not a big deal in my country. Apart from that, I just don't find pumpkins delicious and horror films are not my favorite genre exactly either. If you have different perspectives in these areas, then you will certainly enjoy this documentary more than I did.