The lost-on-VHS slasher has finally made its way onto disc, and it’s never looked or sounded better!
One of the great things about being a physical media collector in 2025 is that we’ve steadily seen the release of “lost films” over the past decades–films that had collected dust on DVD, or even VHS, have been given loving restorations by a collection of different physical media companies who look to bring these forgotten gems back into the light. There are those select few films, though, that take on a borderline mythic status in the media limbo they exist in. They’re films that seem to have fallen between the cracks, complete mysteries that only exist on old fullscreen DVDs or janky VHS tapes; films, like The Keep, Martin, or Near Dark, that have never gotten the respect they are due. One film that stood on the Rushmore of “hidden gems” has finally found a home, though, as Red Shirt Home Video and Synapse have released Trick Or Treat on 4K UHD!
Released in 1986 (and languishing on VHS ever since), Trick Or Treat is a solid post-Nightmare On Elm Street slasher that fully understands the appeal of both slashers and rock n’ roll. Trick Or Treat follows metalhead Eddie (Marc Price) as he goes through his miserable life; constantly picked on by the bullies at school, a nonexistent love life, and thoughts of suicide abound. The only thing keeping him going is his love and admiration of Sammi Curr (Tony Fields), a satan-worshipping heavy metal singer who Eddie feels a kinship with. Eddie’s life seems to come to an end, though, when Sammi dies mysteriously in a hotel fire. To his great fortune, Eddie is given the only pressing of Sammi’s new album, but soon, strange messages start to come from the record, instructing him on how to get back at all his tormentors.
While never breaking any new ground, Trick Or Treat’s greatest strength is leaning into the straight coolness of heavy metal. The soundtrack is just straight shrieking guitars and pounding drums, and Sammi himself is a solid Freddy riff who knows how to blast out a badass guitar solo before blasting fools at a school dance. Two legends of rock also appear on screen, with both Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne making an appearance–Gene as a smooth-talking rock DJ, and Ozzy playing against type as a moralistic TV crusader against rock music.
There’s also something fascinating about the context of the era Trick Or Treat was released, as well as how hindsight has so thoroughly changed its genre. The film focuses a large part of its energy on the fear of both heavy metal and satanism. Outside of the bad influence rock music was seen to have back then (that party boy image has all but disappeared in 2025, huh?), 1986 was right in the thick of the Satanic Panic. It seemed like the entire country was terrified of Satanists, believing they were always just around the corner, looking to snatch up your kids and pets for sacrifice. The most famous case, which essentially ran throughout the 1980s, was the McMartin Preschool trial. It’s also no surprise that, less than a decade after Trick Or Treat’s release, the injustice of The West Memphis Three occurred.
In hindsight, watching something from this era of the late ’70s through the late ’90s, you almost forget that all these slashers almost always took place in a high school. Sure, there are a few outliers, but the majority of slasher victims were high schoolers. Then, 1999 comes around and Columbine happens. Seemingly overnight, this entire subgenre disappears. Even in its current form, the ages of pretty much all the victims across the board have been shifted up to college-age or early 20’s. I specifically kept thinking about that as we watch the town outcast vow to get his bullies back, and then starts hearing voices demanding he seek violent retribution. It’s very much not the type of film that gets made in 2025.
Specs:
I’m almost glad we had to wait this long to get this release, because the wait for 4K was well worth it. This thing is gorgeous and borderline unrecognizable for any of us who initially watched this on a worn-out VHS. The same goes for the sound, where you can clearly hear every last guitar riff, exploding amplifier, and killer vocals, versus the classic reverberating feedback you’d get from those ancient cassettes.
Along with a stellar presentation, this thing is genuinely chock-full of extras. There’s a lot of great stuff here, including several interviews, making-of docs, trailers, and even a music video. However, my favorite has to be Horror’s Hallowed Grounds, an ongoing series hosted by Sean Clark, who revisits filming sites of horror classics. Always fun to see where the (horror) magic happened.
Full extras breakdown:
- Audio commentary with director Charles Martin Smith, moderated by filmmaker Mark Savage
- Audio interviews with writer/producer Michael S. Murphey and writer Rhet Topman, moderated by film historian Michael Felsher
- Audio conversation with Paul Corupe and Allison Lang, authors of Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in The 1980s
- Rock & Shock: The Making of “Trick Or Treat”
- In The Spotlight: A tribute to Tony Fields featuring interviews with the late actor’s family and friends
- Horror’s Hallowed Grounds: The Filming Locations of “Trick Or Treat” With Sean Clark
- “After Midnight” music video
- Theatrical trailers, TV spots and radio spots
- Still gallery featuring option audio interview with still photographer Phillip V. Caruso
- Vintage electronic press kit
If you’re a horror fan worth their salt, you know how monumental this release is. Trick Or Treat has been a Holy Grail of nearly-lost films for a while now, and Red Shirt Home Video and Synapse outdid themselves in bringing this to the masses.
