Hey Michael Dougherty and legendary! Where the hell is TRICK ‘R TREAT 2!?

It’s Halloween season and what would another Halloween year be without mentioning the long-awaited anthology horror thriller, Trick or treat 2!?

This is one of my favorite horror movies of all time and I have watched it every year on Halloween night since it was released on DVD/Blu-ray. The sequel to this movie was officially announced ten years ago and the movie still hasn’t been made! I was attending a special screening of the film in Hollywood when Legendary Pictures president Thomas Tull announced the sequel. Then… nothing.

Over the years, director Michael Dougherty has offered updates on the film and said a year ago that it’s in “very active development,” but, you know, that hasn’t happened yet. At one point the director said that he would start working on it after he finished directing Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I have no idea what’s going on, but if the project is indeed in development, maybe now that the writers’ strike is over, it will happen.

I want a sequel to Trick and Treat! I want to see more Halloween stories! In 2019, Dougherty stated:

I feel like this has become the new Halloween tradition: ask Mike about Trick ‘r Treat 2! Listen, I’m intrigued by the idea and it’s completely up to Legendary. It’s been a few years since we initially talked about it and there has been a regime change since then. They still have the property and love it and there’s still a long line of merchandise and a continuing line of comics based on the movie, but the ball is in their court. The moment they say they’re interested and ready to go, we’ll see if the stars align.”

So it’s all up to Legendary, and if they really love the property, why didn’t they move forward with it? They just have to pull the trigger! Speaking about his plan for the sequel, Dougherty confirmed that none of the original cast members will return for the sequel, and explained:

“No, because I think this is very similar to the approach and style of American Horror Story. I prefer to stay consistent. If I bring the cast members back, it would be in the same roles, not that this is currently a plan within the piece . . For me, it would throw me off. I like American Horror Story. I think it works for them, but if we did that it would also feel like we were just ripping them off. If I learned anything from this experience, it’s all about patience and perseverance. “

Dougherty also confirmed that he has no plans to tell Sam’s origin story, which he has talked about in the past, and uses Freddy Kreuger as an example. He said:

“I think Freddy works, but at the same time we’ve never seen him [the origin], I presume. I think Freddy’s origin is an exception because he just made him scarier. Knowing who he was, this serial killer who went around killing children and was eventually beheaded by justice, only added to his mystery and his power. But I think one mistake they made was to keep explaining it. They kept adding more layers like, “Oh, he also made a deal with these three dream demons.” It’s one thing to create a fun, mysterious origin for a character, but I feel like a lot of movie studios over the years have had second thoughts about that.

“They start adding too much, to the point where all the layers overlap. Like with the Halloween stuff [in Halloween 5 and 6] where it’s like the sects, the curse and these tattoos. I thought, ‘What the fuck are you talking about?’ With Sam, there are definitely aspects of his lore and his mythology that we could delve into, and I hope to do that in terms of how he comes back year after year, where he goes and things like that, but I would never do anything sort of flashback to ancient Ireland and shows a child being sacrificed and throwing it to a pumpkin creature. That would just ruin the mystique of him.”

When talking about Sam’s origins, he explained that he would like to show him being born in a pumpkin patch. “There’s a beautiful painting by Charles Addams of a pumpkin patch… and you see hundreds of pumpkins, and you see one… and it’s carving itself.” This is a really cool concept! I would love to see it brought to life. In another of his updates, Dougherty said:

“It’s funny because when I had the idea to make the first movie, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we made this into a series?’ I’m a firm believer that October should be full of Halloween movies, or horror movies. That’s something that I remember from childhood. Horror movies and Halloween go hand in hand. And so the idea was, “Well, we could probably do a Trick ‘r Treat movie every year or every other year, and it would be some kind of new series of stories and characters. And the common link between all of them would be Sam. This was initially the plan, but then things changed as the first film had a strange and very delayed journey. I put those dreams aside for a while, so it’s nice to get back to that initial plan… I think so. It would be nice to make at least a trilogy. So let’s keep our fingers crossed. For me, I think each film should explore a different aspect of Halloween. I felt like the first movie was the traditional suburban Halloween that we all have memories of. Of. But as I’ve grown up over the years, I’ve lived everywhere from Columbus, Ohio, to New York, to Los Angeles, and I’ve found that holidays are very different depending on where you live. Or even periods of time. I don’t see why we should limit ourselves only to stories of the present. Halloween is a wonderful holiday because it evolves depending on where you live and the time period.”

He added: “There’s nothing I can reveal yet. It’s still very early in the process, but I can definitely say we’ll explore Sam more and maybe get into some backstory about who and what he really is.”

He went on to explain: “I think we’re going to shake things up a little bit. There are different archetypes that I’d like to explore, different types of monsters. We’ve covered werewolves, vampires and zombies, but there’s a whole host of different creatures there out that we haven’t dealt with, and I think Sam would probably be a very good friend with them. So I think it’s time to give them their time in the sun.”

The director also said, “Yes, there’s a long list of Halloween icons that we haven’t gotten to yet. You know, I wanted to have a story set in a pumpkin patch, and I couldn’t, or corn fields. Witches, ghosts, the list goes on and on of things that are really iconic to the holiday, but we could only fit a certain number of them into the first movie, so if we’re lucky enough to get a second movie, maybe we can start expanding it a bit’.”

He has a plan, I know he has the stories, and there must be a script by now! I just need this sequel to Trick ‘r Treat to happen. This could be a great horror franchise! It’s crazy that the studio hasn’t rushed to push this forward yet.