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Editorial · Ranked List

10 Movies Like Trick 'r Treat

By Alan Willey ·

Trick 'r Treat (2007) is the film people put on for Halloween night itself rather than for a scare. Michael Dougherty's four interwoven stories run through one small town over one evening, and we score it 1.0 on Fear out of 10, the lowest Fear score of the fifteen Halloween-tagged films we have scored so far. That number is not a criticism. It is the whole point of the film: dark comedy, practical-effects monsters and autumn suburbia, a mood rather than a fright. So these ten films are ranked by how close each sits to that register rather than by overall score. Krampus (2015) leads on a 7.1 ahead of An American Werewolf in London (1981) at 8.0, because Krampus is Dougherty's own follow-up, directed and co-written by him and scored by the same composer. An American Werewolf in London earns third on a different kind of match: it is the only other film we have scored that carries Trick 'r Treat's exact four-axis profile, Fear 1.0, Gore 5.0, Atmosphere 7.0 and Intensity 4.0. Everything below is spoiler-free, including how any of these films end.

  1. 01

    Krampus(2015)

    Michael Dougherty's next film after Trick 'r Treat, which makes it the obvious first watch. A family Christmas comes apart under a horned folk figure and a set of creatures built as puppets and suits rather than rendered. It runs the same trick as the anchor: take a holiday people already have feelings about and play it for comedy and menace at once. We score it 7.1 overall on a Fear of 0.5 and a Gore of 3.0, gentler than the anchor on both, with a 7.5 on Atmosphere. Douglas Pipes scored both films.

  2. 02

    Creepshow(1982)

    The anthology Trick 'r Treat descends from. George A. Romero directed, Stephen King wrote it, Tom Savini built the effects, and the whole film is staged as a 1950s EC horror comic brought to life: five stories inside a wraparound, lurid colour, monsters you can see the latex on. If the interwoven structure and the comic-book cruelty are what you liked, start here. Not yet curator-scored, so it carries no numbers.

  3. 03

    An American Werewolf in London(1981)

    The only other film we have scored that matches Trick 'r Treat on all four component axes: Fear 1.0, Gore 5.0, Atmosphere 7.0 and Intensity 4.0, on a higher overall of 8.0. John Landis swings between broad comedy and real cruelty inside single scenes, which is the same tonal move Trick 'r Treat makes between its stories. The transformation is still the reference point for practical creature work forty-five years later.

  4. 04

    Tales from the Darkside: The Movie(1990)

    Creepshow's closest sibling, and it shares a producer with it in Richard P. Rubinstein. Three stories inside a wraparound: an Arthur Conan Doyle adaptation, a Stephen King one adapted by George A. Romero, and a third from Michael McDowell. Broader and cheaper than Creepshow, with the same appetite for a nasty joke. Not yet curator-scored.

  5. 05

    Gremlins(1984)

    Joe Dante's Christmas creature film, and the other strong argument that a holiday setting does half the work for you. A snowbound small town, a suburban family, and a set of puppets that manage to get funnier and meaner in the same shot. This is the one to hand someone who wants the Trick 'r Treat register without the anthology structure. Not yet curator-scored.

  6. 06

    The Return of the Living Dead(1985)

    Dan O'Bannon's punk zombie comedy, and it sits on a Fear of 1.0, exactly level with the anchor. One long night around a medical supply warehouse and the cemetery next door, played almost entirely for laughs, with practical effects that are grotesque rather than frightening. We score it 7.5 overall, with Gore at 6.0 and Atmosphere just above the anchor at 7.2.

  7. 07

    Tales from the Crypt(1972)

    The British take on the same EC Comics source, made by Amicus in 1972: five segments inside a wraparound, five strangers who wander into a crypt, and a host with a story for each of them. Drier and more moralistic than Creepshow, and it plays its cruelty completely straight, which is its own register of dark comedy. Not yet curator-scored.

  8. 08

    Fright Night(1985)

    A teenager decides the new neighbour is a vampire and cannot get a single adult to take it seriously. Tom Holland's suburban monster comedy lands close to the anchor on the numbers, at Fear 2.0, Atmosphere 7.0 and Intensity 4.0, with a lower Gore of 3.8. The reason it belongs here is the reason people rewatch Trick 'r Treat: monsters built in a workshop, and a film that finds them funny and dangerous at the same time. At 7.6 overall it is the second-highest score of the six films here we have scored.

  9. 09

    Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark(2019)

    Set on Halloween night in 1968 in a small Pennsylvania town, which makes it the closest literal seasonal match here after the anchor itself. Andre Ovredal directed from a Guillermo del Toro story, and the creatures are designed to be looked at rather than glimpsed. One honest warning: it is the entry on this list that is genuinely trying to frighten you, at a Fear of 6.0 against the anchor's 1.0, and its 8.0 on Atmosphere is the highest here. It is a single story rather than an anthology, deliberately so, but each monster gets its own set piece.

  10. 10

    The Howling(1981)

    The other 1981 werewolf film, and worth watching against the one at number three for how differently two directors solved the same problem in the same year. Joe Dante again, with a satirical streak running underneath a straight horror plot and a transformation built entirely in the room. We score it 7.4 overall on a Fear of 2.0 and a Gore of 4.5, which puts it just under the anchor on blood.

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Common questions

What movies are most like Trick 'r Treat?
Krampus (2015) first, because Michael Dougherty directed both films, wrote Trick 'r Treat himself and co-wrote Krampus, and Douglas Pipes scored both, and it applies the same holiday-horror recipe to Christmas. After that, Creepshow (1982) for the anthology structure and the comic-book staging, and An American Werewolf in London (1981) for the tone, which is the only other film we have scored that shares Trick 'r Treat's exact profile of Fear 1.0, Gore 5.0, Atmosphere 7.0 and Intensity 4.0. Past those three, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Gremlins and The Return of the Living Dead are the closest matches on this list.
Is Trick 'r Treat actually scary?
Not by our scoring, and that is not a criticism of it. We score fear separately from atmosphere, and Trick 'r Treat sits at 1.0 on Fear against a 7.0 on Atmosphere. It is the lowest Fear score of the fifteen Halloween-tagged films we have scored. What it delivers is mood: dark comedy, practical-effects monsters and a Halloween night that feels like one. If you want the season rather than a scare, that gap between the two numbers is exactly why the film works.
Why is Krampus ranked first when An American Werewolf in London scores higher?
Because this list is ranked by how close each film sits to Trick 'r Treat's register, not by overall score. Krampus scores 7.1 and An American Werewolf in London scores 8.0, and the werewolf film is the better film by our own numbers. Krampus is still the better answer to the question, because it is the same writer-director doing the same thing with a different holiday. If you want the list read as a quality ranking instead, start at number three.
Should I just watch the Halloween movies instead?
They are a different register, which is why they are not on this list. Halloween (1978) is a slasher that we score 8.4 on Fear, against Trick 'r Treat's 1.0. Both are set on Halloween night, but one is built to frighten you and the other is built to feel like the holiday. If the season rather than the scare is what drew you to Trick 'r Treat, the films above are the closer match. If it was the Halloween-night setting specifically, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark at number nine is the other film here set on the night itself.
Which of these are anthology films?
Three of them, and they are the closest structural matches to Trick 'r Treat: Creepshow (1982), five stories inside a comic-book wraparound; Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990), three stories inside a wraparound and a film that shares a producer with Creepshow; and Tales from the Crypt (1972), five segments from the same EC Comics source Creepshow was paying tribute to. Trick 'r Treat differs from all three in that its stories interweave and share one night rather than sitting end to end.
Which of these have you not scored yet?
Four: Creepshow, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Gremlins and Tales from the Crypt. They are on the list because the register match is unambiguous, and their entries claim no numbers. We only publish a score once one of us has watched the film in full, so unscored here means not yet watched by us, not judged and found wanting.