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Film: Trick r’ Treat
Year: 2018
Director: Andrew J.D. Robinson
Writer: Andrew J.D. Robinson
Starring: Julie Landriault, Johnny Elston and Ricky Elston
Review:
This was another short film that the writer/director Andrew J.D. Robinson reached out to me to review. I was definitely interested as others from him I have really enjoyed. This is a two minute video for the Jakob Owens Short Horror Film Contest. The official synopsis is that aren’t trick r’ treaters supposed to say Trick r’ Treat?
We get a woman, Julie Landriault, going out to her car and finds Missing Posters of three young boys. There is no explanation, we don’t know who the woman is or what connection she has with the boys. I think that this makes the film quite eerie. For a short like this, it makes you want more and that was the feeling I got.
There is a ring at her bell for Halloween and I loved that the soundtrack for Night of the Living Dead was sampled. It makes the very normal thing of handing out candy ominous and uncomfortable. It is even more so what she finds outside of her door.
I read the rules to this contest after viewing this video and it made so much sense. There can be no dialogue. Even without reading them, I had an uneasy feeling. It works better for the video that we don’t know anything, as it allows the viewer to form their own ideas of what is happening. A lot of things went through my head as to what she finds outside of her door and what they have to do with the Missing Posters she saw earlier.
This actually hits home as the area I’m from three boys of similar ages went missing about 5+ years ago. It makes it even scarier as to what would happen if they just showed up at someone’s door. Not everyone might experience this same thing, but when dealing with art, we seem to make a connection.
Now with that said, I would recommend this short film, much like the other things that he does. He does a great job at building suspense in such a short time. This one is done with no back-story or dialogue of any kind. The effects that are used for what we see was well done. It is also shot very well. The soundtrack adds to it by giving that ominous feel. It is very simple, but I think there is enough here that it could be expanded into a much longer short if he so desires. If you have two minutes to spare, give this film a viewing. The link is listed below and it is on YouTube. I found this to be a good short film.
My Rating: 8 out of 10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcaKlgEFUVE