🎃 Trick R Treat - Sam - Living Dead Dolls 🎃

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I've always had a thing for Portmanteau Anthology Horror Films, some of my favourites were made by Amicus Productions such as Asylum, Dr. Terror's House of Horror, Vault of Horror and Tales from The Crypt (not to be confused with the T.V Series). 

I love the way they tell the individual stories and link them together with a common thread. Amicus and Hammer Horror do this particularly well and unlike some, it doesn't seem forced.

It's very rare that I find a modern film in this genre that gets it right most have one or two stories which really leave their mark on me and the rest are just at best so-so or worse absolutely crap.

                             

So it was a nice surprise to discover how good Trick R Treat is, although not scary it is one of those films that I can happily watch again and again, it never gets old for me, and has many concepts and is so aesthetically pleasing that it really gets my creative mind going.

The stories in the film are tied together in a very unique way, time wise, the characters are shown in the background (starting their own Halloween stories) as another story is the focus by the end of the film all the fragments and stories tie together perfectly.

One recurring character is "Sam" he appears in each of the film's five stories, taking the form of a Trick or Treater until his real purpose is revealed.

He wears an orange footed pyjama suit with a burlap hood covering his face, carries a burlap sack to hold his "Treats" and is often seen with a pumpkin shaped Lollipop which he holds in his little hand as he wanders around, taking note of the film's events.

Sam is the keeper of the customs of Halloween and punishes those who he deems to have broken the rules of the holiday for which he is named. Throughout the film there are many instances of people committing these indiscretions and being punished by Sam because of it.

The Rules of Halloween:

1) Always give sweets to Trick or Treaters - Sam has a sweet tooth!

2) Always wear a costume - Sam hates people who don't get into "the Halloween Spirit"

3) Never extinguish the flame of a Jack-O-Lantern before Midnight. This rule includes destroying pumpkins - Sam has an afinity to pumpkins, you'll find out how later!
4) Always Respect The Dead.

The Living Dead Doll depiction of Sam is 10 inches high and wears his trademark grubby romper suit. It comes with a removable mask made of burlap, a mini Lollipop with bite mark in it and his "Treat sack" exactly as he appears in the film.

My Son, knowing how much I love the film and Sam in particular, bought me this adorable little man for Christmas 2016.

The only difference between the film version and Mezco's version is his hands, which sadly are plain white on the doll but look like normal children's hands wearing burlap finger less gloves in the film.

I will be fixing this on my Sam as soon as I get the chance!

His mask is removable and once removed reveals Sam's true face; his creator Michael Dougherty describes him as being "a cross between an embryo and a pumpkin". 

For me this is the perfect description, the more I look at him, the more I see the merging of both, not only in terms of his face, but the whole of his head.

He is just as cute from behind too, not least because his romper suit has a little bum flap but you can also clearly see the pumpkin shape of his head too!

When viewed from above you can see his little head even has a little stalk on top of it just like a pumpkin. Although unlike a pumpkin his head is not bright orange and the stalk is not green, this not only adds to the "realism" of him but is also very much inline with the film character which he represents.

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