Freddy's 31 Days of Horror Day 12: Charles Martin Smith's Trick or Treat
Not to be confused with the Michael Daugherty film, this bad boy was set in the rocking world of the hair metal eighties! It's directed by the guy who played Toad from American Graffiti who later went on to also make a Dolphin's Tale weirdly enough. You remember Skippy from Family Ties? Yeah that's Mark Price and this is one of his first big roles.
Eddie rocking alias "Ragman" is a social outcast at school for wearing torn jeans, denim jackets, long hair and rocking out with the likes of Twisted Sister and Anthrax! His favorite band however is the questionable shock rocker Sammy Curr, who grew up in the same town as Ragman and even went to the same high school. Eddie feels that Sammy is the only person who gets him and as he puts it, "I keep going on knowing you made it out. That you got to rise up and look down at the ant hill." In a montage we see just how bad these jocks and cheerleaders treat poor Eddie going as far as to locking him out of the locker room in the nude. Eddie is even more enraged that Sammy who was supposed to play the high school Halloween dance has been banned from playing. The first day of October hits hard for Eddie as it's announced that Sammy Curr died in a hotel fire. In his grief, Eddie seeks the council of local radio host and friend Nuke (Gene Simmons). Nuke reveals Sammy had one master copy left of his last album that the station is going to play at midnight on Halloween and he gives Eddie the master copy to help him overcome his grief. Things looking up, the girl of his dreams Leslie (Lisa Orgolini) begins talking to him and invites him to a pool party. Unfortunately Lisa is late and Eddie is left in the hands of his jock tormentors. Eddie goes home that night enraged and falls asleep to the record playing as he dreams of Sammy sitting in a satanic circle saying some incantation while the hotel and everyone inside burns to a crisp. Eddie swears the record is talking to him, telling him to take revenge, so the very next day he pranks the jocks that torment him and succeeds. Seeing it as a sign he begins talking to the record and plays it backwards as it talks back to him, calling out his name, Ragman! Eddie begins pranking them more and more listening to Sammy's instructions as the pranks get less and less fun and far more deadly. As Sammy begins to take over and resurrect himself using the album, Eddie begins to realize he's unleashed something far too Sinister for him or anyone else to handle. 
This flick is gory eighties rocking cheese at it's finest cooked to perfection with an original soundtrack by the band Fastaway,
who score each big scene with very self explanatory songs that are written specifically for whatever's going on in the scene and you can't help but raise your horns and watch the chaos ensue. As I said before you get Gene Simmons playing Nuke but even better is we get Ozzy Osbourne playing a televangelist who's rallying against rock music.
Sammy Curr's character is particularly crazy and badass. Think Alice Cooper's character comes off stage and in an electric and slasher like manner started frying people with electricity and literally melting peoples heads with his music. One of my favorite scenes really takes something near and dear to my heart. As a young rocker you get those older fuddy duddies who go on TV and spew out crap about how horrible your music is and how it's ruining the youth, yet those same people spouting about rock music ruining youth are not the best people themselves. Well Sammy gives you the sweet satisfaction of reaching into the TV and straight up frying said Fuddy Duddies. 
Sammy's biggest plan was to play the Halloween show and rock the house even after death. Oh he does and it is brutally epic. He explodes onto the stage and gets the crowd pumped as he destroys the place Carrie style until Ragman can figure out a way to stop him. This flick satisfies my two loves, good old school eighties horror and hair metal and it combines the two perfectly. If this movie was ever to be remade I would only want Rob Zombie to do it.
19 Days til' Halloween Halloween!
19 Days til Halloween! Silver Shamrock!
