Over the course of nearly twenty years, Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat has gone from a fumbled horror release to a bona fide cult classic. The film was initially set for theatrical release in October of 2007 (and even ran trailers promising as much in front of the August ’07 release of Rob Zombie’s Halloween), but in the final stretch, the plug was pulled and the film was shelved entirely. It wasn’t until years later in 2009 that the film finally saw release, albeit straight-to-DVD. Upon being given the chance to actually see the film, though, after so much time had passed, horror fans were resoundingly positive on the film and bemoaned Warner Bros.’ befuddling choice to shelve the film.
Since then, the film has accumulated a monumental presence as a cult film and an outright pop-cultural staple of the Halloween season. The film’s central antagonist, Sam, has become a horror icon in his own right, getting his own merch and even appearing at Halloween Horror Nights several times over. While there has been talk for years now of an official movie sequel, that has yet to come to fruition. However, there have been a string of successful comic books released, expanding the story and universe of the film, and one of the most recent of these is introducing a truly zany new element to the franchise: Sam is going to space.
The comic in question is the upcoming Trick ‘r Treat: Witching Hours, which releases this October. Like the film itself, the comic is an anthology of four separate stories, each likely to be connected through various in-universe references and payoffs. Of course, using the phrase "universe" there takes on a whole new meaning, as one of these anthology stories, titled “Harvest Moons,” is a science-fiction horror tale set in space.
The story is written by Dougherty himself and collaborator Curtis Waugh and tells the story of a space colony where a group of children discover that the tales of Halloween they have often heard are not purely fiction. The artwork of the story and the font choice, especially, is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s aesthetics, and the poster even features a direct reference to the filmmaker’s debut film, Dark Star.
All of this is supremely cool and fits incredibly well into the larger vibe of the Trick ‘r Treat franchise as a whole. This is a series with sentient killer pumpkin kids, ghosts, and werewolves; it’s well past the point of embracing genre tropes. So the idea of incorporating science fiction elements into the comics is a really solid, expansive idea that also allows Dougherty (who has directed fare such as Godzilla: King of the Monsters in the intervening years since the original film’s release) to incorporate some of his more present-tense genre interests.
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