Trick or Treat Reviews

TRICK OF TREAT is a fairly clever sendup of both heavy-metal music and the paranoid parental-action groups that want it banned. The first directorial effort by actor Charles Martin Smith (AMERICAN GRAFFITI; NEVER CRY WOLF; STARMAN), the film stars Marc Price (Skippy of TV's "Family Ties") as Eddie, an alienated, nerdy high-schooler whose only refuge is head-banging. When his idol, heavy-metal rocker Sammi Curr (Tony Fields), is killed in a hotel fire, Eddie becomes despondent. He visits his DJ friend Nuke (Gene Simmons of the group KISS), who gives the nerd the last, unreleased recording by Sammi, and when Eddie plays it backwards he discovers those evil satanic messages that the television evangelists claim warp young peoples' minds. Sure enough, Eddie unleashes the fire-scarred spirit of Sammi Curr, who becomes the dream weapon of every nerdy high-schooler as he helps Eddie get revenge on the preppie jock types who torment him. While not exactly frightening, TRICK OR TREAT is a well-meaning, humorous look at the kind of rock music that isn't worth the attention paid to it. Smith (who appears on screen in a cameo as a schoolteacher) pokes fun at all groups equally, including the television evangelists, by casting heavy-metal head-banger supreme Ozzy Osbourne as the TV preacher leading the witch-hunt. Smith's direction borrows heavily from other horror films, mainly HALLOWEEN and CARRIE, but he does show a sensitivity toward humanity sorely lacking in most modern horror films.