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I went to the United States as an exchange student for the first time, it happened on October 31st of that year: Halloween. It was also at that time that I first heard about the traditions of Jack-o'-lantern, jack-o-lantern, and Trick'r Treat, but I didn't know much about the origins and customs of this festival at that time. And the horror film Trick'r Treat, which was released in early October two days ago, taught me a lesson in an alternative way.
Let’s take a brief look at the origin of Halloween: Halloween originated from the traditional holiday of the British Celtics. On the last day of October, they believe that this is the end of summer and the beginning of winter. This day is an important symbol of the year. , Is one of the most important festivals, known as "Day of the Dead", or "Ghost Festival". All kinds of evil spirits appear on this day, and the souls of dead people will leave their bodies and wander in the world. The night of this day is especially dangerous. In order to scare away evil ghosts, Celtics will wear masks. Legend has it that when Catholic missionaries landed on the British Isles, in order to suppress this Druid tradition, which they regarded as heretics, the first day of November after this day was designated Halloween to commemorate the Catholic saints. , Hoping to suppress these ghost concepts. The theme of Halloween is often related to many common elements of Gothic novels or horror movies: ghosts, zombies, witches, vampires, werewolves, etc.
So how did Jack-o'-lantern, that is, jack-o-lantern come from? Irish folklore. It is said that an alcoholic named Jack the stingy once designed to trick the devil into a tree and carved a cross on the trunk to prevent the devil from coming down. As a result, the devil reached an agreement with him to ensure that he would never come to harass him. Be able to get out. After Jack died, heaven and hell refused him entry. The devil gave him a small piece of ashes and asked him to find a suitable place to rest, so he put the small piece of ashes in a white Luobu with many holes to make it burn longer. Later, the Scots imitated him by hollowing out kohlrabi and putting in candles. Irish people use potatoes or kohlrabi; England use beets. Later, I immigrated to the United States and found a better material-pumpkin. Therefore, most of the Jack Lanterns nowadays are made of pumpkins.
What about Trick'r Treat? This custom originated from the European Christian Church in the ninth century. At that time, November 2nd was called "ALL SOULS DAY" by Christians. On this day, believers trek through remote countryside, begging from village to village for "soul cakes" made of flour and raisins. It is said that the people who donated the cakes believe in the prayers of the church monks, hoping to receive the blessing of God, so that the dead relatives can enter heaven as soon as possible. This tradition of begging from house to house has evolved into a game where children carry pumpkin lanterns and beg for sweets from house to house.
All in all, pumpkin lanterns, candy for "believers"-that is, children, are all Halloween traditions. But no one has ever thought about what would happen if these traditions were broken. This is the story told in the movie Trick'r Treat. Unlike the previous Halloween horror films (typically the Halloween series), the story told in this film is completely centered on the core content of Halloween, rather than a perverted murderer or devil who happens to be killing on Halloween. Through four intertwined and four stories that took place on Halloween night, the movie brings the ghosts related to Halloween, namely zombies, vampires, werewolves, etc., into a small modern society very cleverly, with a little black humor. In the town, and more valuable, as a B-level horror film, the suspense is surprising, and of course it is also very well set in the story. You will never know the ending of the story at the beginning, because the movie is not Tell a story linearly, not traditionally around a certain murderer or survivor. The story shows a big puzzle-like plot. The puzzle is assembled by the director in a compact rhythm for the audience, and there is no one in the end. The traditional ending is an open ending, but it is definitely not the kind that makes the audience confused, but leaves the audience with a feeling of unfulfilled meaning. In addition to ghosts and monsters, the ugliness of human nature has also been shown to a certain extent in the movie. Pranksters and morally perverted murderers. Together with the devil, they constitute the protagonist of the movie, creating a person who seems to be between the world and the hell. Very evil, alternative, black town.
Another highlight in the movie is the performance of many child actors. I haven't figured out what kind of mental state these kids were in when they appeared in these R-rated horror movies. But for the audience, children appearing in horror movies are often a very important horror factor. However, as a horror film, the chase and kill scenes that must be shot in this film are still not much new. This may be regarded as a flaw in today's horror film, but it will definitely not affect your appreciation of this movie. In order not to be spoiled, I won't say more, and leave the fun to everyone.
Trick'r Treat can be a B-level low-cost production, but it is definitely not a B-scoring film. The film was originally filmed and ready to be released during Halloween last year, but Warner postponed the release for some reason. The outside speculated that it might be to avoid competition with Saw V. When I started, this film is the content itself, and there is no suspense to defeat the Saw series. Today, a horror film has been tuned to be extremely picky and numb in the taste of the public, and it can no longer win by the scary and disgusting effect of bluffing (I personally don’t recommend Japanese-style horror films, it is really torturing myself) , Should be like other excellent films, pay more attention to the storytelling technique and plot innovation, as well as the performance of the actors, etc., not just to create a horrible atmosphere or scare people, Trick'r Treat is a good one A horror film transformation attempt.
My rating: 9/10
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