Trick and Treats (2026) Review
Trick and Treats (2026) Review
Get ready for some Trick and Treats this spooky season with Eric Hector’s twisted horror debut, starring screen legends Malcolm McDowell and Gary Busey (Point Break, The Buddy Holly Story). Following its US release, the film arrives on UK digital on 19 October, courtesy of Miracle Media.
As the eighteenth-century English and American nursery rhyme goes: “Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn’t keep her, so he put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well.” Fast-forward more than 200 years, and Halloween finds a twisted jack-o’-lantern named Trick (voiced by McDowell) residing inside a decaying old biker clubhouse beside the highway. Pastor Joseph (Busey), convinced that Trick is the very pumpkin from the infamous nursery rhyme, attempts to steal it, only to fail spectacularly. His warnings are dismissed as the ravings of a madman, but a group of young friends are about to discover that there may be more to this paranormal pumpkin tale than they bargained for.
While celebrating Halloween, Ashley (Loren Ledesma) and her costumed friends stumble upon the roadside bar, where a gang of bikers takes them captive and threatens them with torture and death. With escape seemingly impossible, Ashley begins hearing Trick’s voice inside her head. Is the ancient pumpkin attempting to help her, or does this malevolent gourd have even more murderous intentions?
Relentlessly nasty and determined to make its audience uncomfortable, Trick and Treats offers precious little beyond a relentless barrage of screaming women, jeering men and enough deranged cackling to make Dr Evil sound positively restrained. Gary Busey’s appearance amounts to little more than an extended cameo, while Malcolm McDowell’s vocal contribution struggles to make itself heard above a soundtrack that seems to believe volume can compensate for everything else.
I’m no stranger to grim horror. Films such as The Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave have plumbed similarly unpleasant depths, but both offer a sense of catharsis through their eventual retribution. Here, however, the emphasis is almost entirely on subjecting the central female characters to prolonged abuse, with little apparent purpose beyond provoking a reaction. The near-constant telepathic exchanges between Ashley, the more resourceful of the captives, and Trick provide a thin narrative thread, but do little to alleviate the misery unfolding on screen.
There is something decidedly retro about Trick and Treats, from its special effects to its treatment of its female characters, who are sexualised before being subjected to an exhausting catalogue of male brutality. Unfortunately, nostalgia for a less enlightened era of exploitation horror is not enough to make this an engaging experience. It may not reach the extremes of the aforementioned films, but it also lacks their impact, leaving viewers with all the unpleasantness and precious little payoff.
Quite who the intended audience is remains a mystery. Horror fans can certainly stomach some grim material, but there is a difference between confronting the darker side of the genre and simply enduring an exercise in prolonged misery. Trick and Treats feels like torture for its characters and, ultimately, for anyone watching.
As the directorial debut of writer-director Eric Hector, it is an unfortunate misfire. And, just when you think the ordeal is finally over, the film appears to leave the door open for a sequel. Some treats are best left uneaten.
Verdict: A mean-spirited slice of exploitation horror that mistakes relentless nastiness for entertainment. Even a murderous pumpkin and two familiar genre names cannot rescue this joyless Halloween offering.
Trick and Treats arrives on UK digital on 19 October, courtesy of Miracle Media.
