Terror no Dia das Bruxas

First off, I do find Patrick Lussier to be a talented guy. This was the fourth film I've seen of his, after Dracula 2000, My Bloody Valentine, and Drive Angry. I would rank Trick last out of those as I was a bit turned off by this film.

The movie opens with a Halloween party that gets gruesome after a kid named Trick starts slaughtering his acquaintances only to meet his match at the hospital at the hands of a detective played by Omar Epps, only the killer disappears, Michael Myers style. In each of the following Halloween's, the murders pop up again. Is it Trick, or is it a copycat? Only Epps believes that his nemesis Trick is continuing the onslaught.

My biggest problem with this film is the villain, and his continuous battles with Epps and his police cohorts. Trick wears a mask and paints his face and wears a hoodie. He looks more like a punk than a monster, and his constant twirling of a knife becomes bothersome. He also has a knack to run away from those pursuing him and their gunfire. He can slip out of their grasp like a fish.

Trick does have its moments and features plenty of blood for horror fans. Omar Epps is good in the lead and Tom Atkins is always welcome in a genre that he is no stranger to.

Trick ran in a whopping 1 theater here in Detroit and has not shown up in box office reports.

This movie made no sense, none whatsoever from the get go. There is no plot, no character or story arc. Just someone running around killing random people. No backstory, no character development seriously what was this crap?

For this genre, slasher/horror, I guess it's an okay movie. There will never be gems in this genre and this one isn't one either, but it's watchable if you like a bit of gore and a dumb mindless story. Because that's what it basically is, a vilain that looks like he can't be killed or injured, a bunch of cops that outdumb each other constantly, a whole bunch of bad decisions, mixed with a lot of slashing and blood, and you get Trick. Too bad there are so much dumb scenes otherwise it could have been better.

The first half of this movie is decently good relative to the budget. The quality in the second half of the movie drops off exponentially as it runs. The movie then commits suicide by dragging the ending out to ridiculous lengths.

Half way through the movie - 6 3/4 way through the movie - 5 Interminable ending - 3

All considered, this movie is a ~4

Trick won't win any awards anytime soon, but it's far from the disaster many people have been making it out to be. I walked in expecting the worst, but the first 20 minutes genuinely gripped me and even made me jump once. As the film continues, it mostly becomes a Dr. Loomis vs. Michael Myers storyline with Omar Epps' frazzled detective trying to make sense of how a seemingly normal teenage male could survive a few gunshots and a fall off a hospital roof and still continue to kill people every Halloween for a number of years. Could it be a copycat killer? You'll have to stick with Trick to find out and, once you do, you'll most likely be let down.

While most of the film plays out like a supernatural-tinged slasher, the last 15 minutes of the movie, where the film finally reveals what's really been going on, is likely to inspire many groans and rolling eyes. There's a piece of an interesting idea in there, but it's not as well-executed as it could have been. There's a final twist at the end that's really a groaner and makes no sense whatsoever.

The acting is at least passable for most of the film and it's nice to see genre icon Tom Atkins getting something to do every now and then. It also might be one of the better of the recent "the corpses in this haunted house are real" movies that seem to be coming out all the time. There's some good suspense here and there, too, so Trick is far from a complete waste of time.