Starring Marc Price, Gene Simmons & Ozzy Osbourne

Quick Rating: **

An 80's hair metal horror movie.  How could this be bad?!  Oh, with Fastway
providing the soundtrack, it can be!  A high school metalhead who calls
himself "Ragman" (Marc Price, or as you might know him, "Skippy" from
"Family Ties"!) does not fit in at school.  He sits with the nerds, is
picked on by the jocks, and ignored by the girls.  The only one who
understands him is his idol, Sammi Curr, a death metal rocker, sort of a
generic late 80's lead singer.  Sammi was supposed to play the high school
Halloween dance, but the conservative teachers and parents put the kibosh on
those plans.  The popular kids are mean to Ragman (his real name is Eddie),
as they play keep away with his cassette tapes, or push him into a pool.
And Eddie can't take it.  As he writes to his idol, we learn he's thought of
suicide.  Then, just when life couldn't seem to get any worse, tragic news
strikes.  Sammi Curr has died in a hotel fire.

Devestated, Eddie visits his friend, local rock DJ "Nuke" (Gene Simmons).
How these two are friends, I'm not sure.  But Nuke has something very
valuable.  The only copy of an unreleased Curr album.  Amazingly, right
after Nuke tells Eddie that it's the only copy in the world, he tells him
that he's got a tape of it, too.  Anyway, Nuke gives this one-of-a-kind
album to Eddie, stating that Curr would have wanted him to have it.  Ha!

Eddie plays the vinyl album, notices backwards vocals, and decides to play
the album backwards.  The hidden message tells him to get revenge.  And
Eddie does.  He embarrasses the bullies at school, and gets away with it.
Eddie then strikes up a conversation with the record, which seems to be
possessed now.  One girl who listens to a tape of the album starts
masturbating as green vapor oozes out of her headphones and turns into a
giant-tongued rubber monster.  Turns out, anytime the record is played,
Sammi Curr (or his evil spirit) gets stronger, until Sammi himself comes
back, ready to kill!

This is exactly what you'd expect from an 80's metal horror movie.  Mullets,
denim, hairspray, and lots of music.  Gene Simmons has a small role.  As
does Ozzy, who plays an ultra-conservative TV reverand.  It's incredibly
cheesy.  I noticed one scene with a visible boom microphone.  Also, one
question I have...  If everyone picked on Eddie because he listened to heavy
metal, why did the whole school start "rocking out" when Sammi played at the
dance??  Anyway, you might enjoy "Trick or Treat", especially if you
remember the 80s.  It's "awesomely unbelievable!"


 

Quality: 3.5  Visuals: 3.5  Intensity: 5.0  
OVERALL RATING: 4.0