Totally tubular roundtable dude!
TRICK OR TREAT
1986
Directed by Charles Martin Smith
A.K.A. The Power of Metal COMPELLS You!!
PlotMeet Eddie (Mark Price, Skippy of Family Ties fame!) He's your average 80's teen metalhead. He's got posters of heavy rockers all over his room, wears a denim cut-off vest, and is a loser at school. He also totally idolizes and identifies with Sammi Curr (Tony Fields, of obscure metal band Fastway, who provide about half the soundtrack here) who went to his high school. He's constantly battling Conservative parents groups and congressional councils (obviously paralleling the similar trials that the group WASP went through in the 80's.) and is supposedly a satanist. Also, he recently got turned down on the offer to play at the high school's halloween dance. One morning, Eddie turns on the tv to see a news story about Sammi. Of course he's interested, but is quickly horrified to learn that Sammi has commited suicide! Bummer! Distraught, he heads down to the local metal radio station, to confirm the news. His friend the DJ (Gene Simmons!) commiserates with him, but gives him a little good news: Sammi and his band recorded one last album, and made only one pressing--and the station is going to play it on Halloween at midnight, in tribute to Sammi. Just for poops and giggles, they're also going to play the first track backwards. The KISS-meister knows how much of a fan Eddie is, so he gives him the record, explaining they also got the reel-to-reel copy, and he can play that just as easily. The elation doesn't last long for Eddie, however, as he now has to hightail it to school. H e and his nerdy friend constantly get harrassed by the clique of popular kids, headed up by Tim (Melrose Place's Doug Savant!) One girl in the group, Leslie, actually kinda likes Eddie, though, and in typical 80's fashion, her trying to get him to join in the group ends up with him humilated and everyone upset. Later, at home and frustrated, Eddie plays the record. Being the astute fan he is, he notices some backmasking, and plays the record in reverse. This causes Sammi's voice to come on and start talking directly to Eddie. He tells him all sorts of stuff, and basically starts turning him into a satanist. He also tells him to get revenge on Tim, and alludes to eating lunch in the shop class as the first step. The next day, sure enough, Tim is found in the shop class messing around, and starts a fight with Eddie. SUddenly, a table mounted drill comes to life and nearly takes out Tim's eye. Freaked out, he runs away, and Eddie meanwhile gains confidence, and even starts persuing Leslie after all. For his next trick, Sammi has Eddie record the backwards track to a tape cassette and stow it in Tim's car. Tim's girlfriend inadvertantly listens to the tape and causes some ectoplasmic thing to come out of the stereo and first molest her, then melt her. Obviously, this upsets Tim. It also upsets Eddie, who decides that enough is enough, and doesn't want to hurt people. Sammi then makes threats about Leslie, to try to muscle Eddie into still doing his dirty work. It doesn't work, so in a display of many special effects, including veiny speakers, Sammi breaks out of the stereo, and is back in the flesh! He apparently can control and travel through electronic stuff and demonstrates by messing up some public access shows featuring people coming out against heavy metal (one of which is played by Ozzy Ozborne!) and killing the people through the tv.
What's Sammi's big plan, you might ask? Why to have a blow-out blast at halloween dance, then kill everyone there, of course! Warning: Face Rocking May Occur. |
RatingI give Trick Or Treat: 
Three and a Half Rotting Shambling Corpses.
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