Is Trick 'r Treat Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot

A pumpkin blown out before midnight

The movie takes place on Halloween night in Warren Valley, Ohio, and the stories cross paths throughout. Sam, a trick-or-treater in orange footie pajamas, shows up to enforce the rules of Halloween. In the opening, Emma blows out her jack-o'-lantern before midnight despite her husband Henry's advice, and an unseen attacker kills her while she takes down the decorations. Henry later finds her body displayed among them. In the principal's story, school principal Steven Wilkins catches Charlie vandalizing pumpkins and stealing candy, and gives him a candy bar laced with hydrofluoric acid. Steven is a serial killer, and he tries to bury Charlie in his backyard while trick-or-treaters, his son Billy, and his neighbor Mr. Kreeg keep interrupting. Steven later guides Billy downstairs to carve a pumpkin, which is Charlie's severed head.

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Eight jack-o'-lanterns and one bad prank

Four teenagers, Macy, Chip, Schrader and Sara, meet Rhonda, who loves Halloween traditions. Macy takes them to a flooded quarry and tells the story of the Halloween School Bus Massacre: parents of eight children bribed their bus driver to get rid of them, and the bus was driven over a cliff and sank in the quarry. All the children drowned, and nobody wanted the bus found. Macy sets eight jack-o'-lanterns along the shore as a tribute, then she and the others dress up as monsters to scare Rhonda as a prank. This is the scene to brace for, and it arrives right after the prank goes too far. The actual drowned children, now undead, climb out of the water and attack the teenagers, and Sara is killed. Rhonda leaves the rest to their fate and pulls her wagon of jack-o'-lanterns away, where she exchanges a look with Sam.

Little Red Riding Hood has a bonfire to attend

Laurie, who is 22, shy about herself and visiting from out of town, goes out with her older sister Danielle and her friends Maria and Janet. The others pick princess costumes and Laurie dresses as Little Red Riding Hood. While the others go off with their dates to a party around a bonfire, Laurie skips it and spends the evening at the town festival. On her way to meet them, a man in a vampire costume attacks her. She arrives at the bonfire with the injured, frightened attacker, who turns out to be Steven Wilkins. Under the full moon the girls shed their clothes and skin and become werewolves. Laurie, whose virginity was a metaphor for never having killed, chooses Steven as her first, transforms, and eats him. Sam watches the werewolves feast on their dates.

A shotgun against a pumpkin head

Mr. Kreeg hates Halloween and dresses his dog up to scare trick-or-treaters off his porch. As the night goes on, strange things happen: his house gets egged, his lawn fills with ornate jack-o'-lanterns, and Halloween and Samhain greetings appear across his hallways and ceiling. Sam attacks him, and in the struggle Kreeg pulls off Sam's mask and sees a head that looks like a skull crossed with a jack-o'-lantern. Kreeg fires his shotgun into Sam repeatedly and knocks him down, but Sam still gets the better of him. When Sam tries to stab him, he hits a candy bar that had fallen on Kreeg's lap. Kreeg has accidentally handed over a treat, which completes the Halloween tradition, so Sam spares him and leaves. Photographs burning in the fireplace show Kreeg was the bus driver.