Trick

Director Patrick Lussier (My Bloody Valentine), and co-writer Todd Farmer have dabbled with the stalk and slash formula to create what is in the end a brutal, primal horror that has a stab count as high as I can ever remember.

Trick is the given name of killer Patrick ‘Trick’ Weaver (Thom Niemann) who at a Halloween party masked up goes off the handle at a party stabbing everyone he find, until he is stopped by someone else stabbing him. In the hospital he also sets about stabbing anyone in sight, leaps into the local river and is presumed dead, as no one could have survived the freezing water. That was all in 2015.

However come the next year another masked killer appears in a town further down the river, and goes on a spree. And the pattern repeats to the present day. With the pattern established there are dedicated detectives after him Mike Deenver (Omar Epps) and Sheriff Lisa (Ellen Adair) and an attack survivor Cheryl (Kristina Reyes) out to try and stop him. Being 2019 Trick has gained a sizeable following on the net too.

The film does try to do something new or at least spruce up the subgenre. It doesn’t quite do that as for all the good ideas, such as they play with the notion of a supernatural force between Trick having a accomplices, which for a while holds up, it starts to unravel, as it gets towards the end. And it's not long before the viewer will be spotting the setup of a franchise, which comes across as a tad cynical and smug.

It's a pity as the writers had made some attempt to comment on our present society and how anti-heroes can so easily be set up then used by others to manipulate the masses.

The performances are ok and it moves along at a zippy pace so it doesn’t in any way hang around. Not as bold as it likes to appear but some may find more of a social theme in it while I would suggest the majority will look on it as a good ‘n’ solid, nasty horror film.

Trick had its UK premiere at Arrow FrightFest Halloween on 2nd November.