Trick 'r Treat is a 2007 horror anthology film that celebrates the spooky holiday, Halloween. The film treats viewers to stories about ghosts, werewolves and serial killers. But there is one costumed individual who often sits on the sidelines, observing people's actions in the small town of Warren Valley, Ohio. That character's name is Sam. At roughly the height of a child, he wears an orange onesie with a large burlap sack covering his head. While he's an enigma, what he stands for in the film makes him stand out among all other horror icons.
In the universe of Trick 'r Treat, there are three traditions that must never be broken: always give out candy, wear a costume and never blow out jack-o'-lanterns before midnight. Should any of these traditions be disrespected, the culprit may suffer a deadly consequence at Sam's hands. The film's opening gives an example of that when a woman named Emma blows out a pumpkin before midnight, much to the annoyance of her holiday-loving husband. While he goes inside, Emma begins taking down decorations. After some time passes, her husband checks on her but discovers her body hanging on a post like a ghost with a large lollipop in her mouth. In those first few minutes, Trick 'r Treat establishes that there's more to Sam than meets the eye.
Sam's backstory is mostly unknown. However, the character's name is short for "Samhain," the original iteration of Halloween. His name's origin may also explain his supernatural appearance and abilities that appear later in the film. For most of the movie's runtime, Sam takes on a largely inactive role, watching the people around town. Some of his sights include a young girl leaving her tormentors in a ravine with the angry spirits of children and the vicious murder of a serial killer by a pack of werewolves. Because he is a reactionary character, Sam is only shown terrorizing someone near the conclusion.
When an older man named Mr. Kreeg doesn't give out candy to any of the trick or treaters, Sam decides to take matters into his own hands. Starting with putting jack-o'-lanterns on Kreeg's porch, Sam later torments the old man with a flaming jack-o'-lantern in his room and the classic "trick-or-treat" phrase written on his walls in blood. At this point, Sam gets physical as he and Kreeg fight from the second floor of his house to the first.
Kreeg rips off his burlap mask during the fight, revealing a pumpkin-headed creature who survives a shotgun blast from Kreeg. Until this point, the extent of Sam's strength wasn't known, but it quickly becomes clear that mortal weapons aren't a weakness. Just as he is about to kill Mr. Kreeg for breaking tradition, Sam's razor-sharp lollipop stabs a chocolate bar that landed on Kreeg's chest in the scuffle. Taking the bar, Sam equates the offering as an act of penance for not giving candy to the other kids and leaves just as quickly as he arrived.
Of all of the horror characters, Sam is the only one who doesn't kill for fun. He isn't stalking people from the shadows or naturally malicious. He is a supernatural personification of the spirit of Halloween and, at his core, wants nothing more than to observe the holiday and everyone around him enjoying it. But, like a vengeful god, the moment his traditions are broken, he exacts equal justice. It's his ideals that make him stand out from a crowd of other slasher icons.
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