Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Trick 'r Treat
2007 · Michael Dougherty · Trick 'r Treat on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch the camera crane from one story into another across the street. (camera)
MacPherson's mobile camera dissolves the anthology's separate compartments, finding a new story already underway on the same block instead of cutting cleanly between them.
Payoff: The town feels like one continuous space even while the plot keeps jumping between people in it.
Notice every light source come from something in the scene. (light)
Jack-o'-lanterns, porch bulbs, headlights, and bonfire all function as the actual key light, pushing the whole film toward warm amber and pumpkin orange.
Payoff: The light itself makes orange the film's real signature, not just its decoration.
Notice how many characters are wearing some kind of mask. (staging)
Nearly every figure in Warren Valley is costumed, the ordinary suburban disguise sitting right alongside literal masks and monster suits without any visual distinction between them.
Payoff: A costume here tells you the truth about a character instead of hiding it.
Listen for Sam, who never speaks a single word. (sound)
Douglas Pipes gives Sam a children's-choir leitmotif instead of dialogue, his own sounds reduced to breath, chitter, and the scrape of a lollipop.
Payoff: The score does the talking for a character who never says a word himself.
Track how many separate stories are unfolding on this one night. (structure)
Four different tales share the same Halloween night and town, with objects, characters, and sounds passing between them instead of staying inside one story each.
Payoff: Watching for what crosses from one story into another is half the fun of the film.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch for what one story quietly hands off to the next, an object, a sound, a face.