Metal Cinema: Trick or Treat (1986)

 

  

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In Metal annals, there was this famous case, when a wife of a renowned politician, Tipper Gore (lol, how adequate) formed a committee with its goal to attack Heavy Metal (and later also rap) in 1985, blaming it for being the root of all evil in the world, which later resulted in the iconic sticker "parental advisory blah blah blah" which appeared on covers (albeit it wasn't introduced until after 1990).

Another major happening back then was the infamous '80s "Satanic Panic", aka sanctimonious offense at satan "appearing everywhere" in the media (real or imaginary), as well as writing pamphlets, warning about secret occult sects, which were sacrificing children for Moloch (which actually turned out to be true, alas). In other words, a modern kind of inquisition. And as you can guess, these two factors inspired our today's guest, the classic Trick or Treat flick.

Main character (Eddie) is an outcast listening to the only correct genre in the world, and has standard problems in high school (what else?). His hero and idol is the Shock Rocker, Sammi Curr, who wants to make a special gig for Halloween ball in his school. Why there? It turns out our Rockmeister finished the same school, to which attends our protagonist (what a lucky coinicidence).

Well, not quite, as the problems instantly start to appear. Due to the many controversies, Sammi Curr gets a ban on his gig, which is shown in a scene that is a notable nod to the legendary hearings of Twisted Sister leader for the aforementioned Gore's committee, where he explained what everyone should think about banning the art. To add insult to injuty, Sammi Curr dies mysteriously soon afterwards in a hotel's fire.

While grieving, Eddie visits local radio DJ (played by Gene Simmons), who gifts him a single with the final song recorded by Curr, which he plans to play on Halloween in honor of the deceased Rockstar. At house, Ed has a brilliant idea of playing the song backwards. And to the surprise of no one, all hell breaks loose. Ok, kinda loose, but you get the idea.

And that's more or less the general plot. Oh, and the genre of this movie is classifed as Supernatural Slasher. It's not some sophisticated, philosophical work of art with numerous twists and turns, but rather, a story following Hitchcock's method of building the suspense, up till the very end. It's very well made for a flick, and one can watch it with undeniable pleasure, and with a literal tongue in cheek.

Beside Simmons, we also get a cameo of an anti-Metal reverend, played by no other but King Ozzy (RIP) himself. According to rumors, his role was improvised. Among other trivia, it's notable to mention that the role of Sammi Curr was initially planned to be given to Gene, but as you can suspect, he didn't really want to take it, and chose to be a humble radio DJ instead. Apparently, Blackie from W.A.S.P. was offered the role as well, but it didn't work out.

The OP pic, which you can see above, is the cover for soundtrack, which was 100% performed by a rather forgotten band, Fastway, which was composed of former guitarist of Motorhead (Eddie Clarke), and former UFO / future Ozzy Osbourne bassist (Pete Way). They even did a promo video for "After Midnight", where this time, it was Clarke who cosplayed as Sammi Curr.

And that's all folks. A cinema just perfect for a saturday evening, with a bottle of beer and some snacks - not that I would recommend such unhealthy lifestyle.