Trick (Blu-ray Review)
On Halloween night in 2015, Patrick “Trick” Weaver massacred his classmates at a costume party. After being arrested, he managed to escape police custody, but not before being shot five times by Detective Mike Denver. Everyone believes Trick must be dead, but when a masked killer reappears the following Halloween, and every Halloween after that, they realize the nightmare is not over. With Trick wreaking havoc and killing people in increasingly terrifying ways, Denver will stop at nothing to finish what he started and bring the carnage to an end.
Film 
Halloween 2015 was the sight of a massacre in which by Patrick “Trick” Weaver killed his classmates at a costume party. After being severely wounded, young ‘Trick continues his murderous killing streak every Halloween thereafter. Detective Mike Denver (Omar Epps) is on the case because it’s gone from a one-night isolated incident to a tradition of murderous insanity every year. Trick keeps coming back year after year to wreak havoc, and boy, does he wreak bloody havoc!
Okay, now that you’ve gotten the gist of the tale, I just want to go on record and say that Trick was one of the most insane horror films I have seen this year. I say that as a compliment. Trick is a ferocious slasher-horror film. In fact, the ferocious tone of the film is set, literally, within the first five minutes.
Trick is the third team-up from writer-director Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry, My Bloody Valentine 3-D) and screenwriter Todd Farmer (Drive Angry, My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Jason X). I get the impression that the boys just came together and said, “what if we made the most bat-shit crazy film we could think of and just film it?” I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall during the writing sessions. One of the films that Trick reminded me of was an older French film called Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse that starred Jean Reno and was written and produced by Luc Besson about fifteen years ago.
Trick was released earlier this fall on VOD but is set to hit Blu-ray & DVD this coming week, which means that folks will be able to bring the Halloween festivities over to the Christmas time holiday. Since I’m a Halloween holiday and horror nut when it comes to film, it’s always Halloween around here and I say that Trick has really hit on all cylinders. I hope more people get a chance to watch it on Blu-ray, so that we can get a franchise out of it. Trick demands it.
Video
Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Clarity/Detail: Trick on Blu-ray looks terrific. Contrast and sharpness levels are in great shape and I did not detect instances of artificial tweaking or boosting of those levels.
Depth: Since the film took place out in the open for most of its running time – it’s given this depth of perception that makes it look that much more expansive. The Blu-ray transfer gives it ample room to breathe.
Black Levels: There are a lot of dark interiors and exteriors but the black levels remained nicely balanced and without crush.
Color Reproduction: The color palette is quite colorful at times depending on which party Trick’s victims go or which fun houses his other victims go to. Banding was never a problem and there was no color bleed-through in those particular scenes.
Flesh Tones: Fleshtones were stable and consistent. No one looked too red or too olive.
Noise/Artifacts: There was no issue with noise and artifacts on this Blu-ray release.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Dynamics: Forget about Trick being the type of horror film to have a “low-key” lossless surround sound track. Trick bloody rocks hard in terms of sound design. I almost want to say that this is an “action-horror”film, because the Blu-ray elevates the madness to a higher level. If you saw this film on VOD then this Blu-ray will rock your socks off.
Low Frequency Extension: The LFE-subwoofer channel gave Trick some deep bass during the many scenes featuring horror and non-horror violence. It’s the kick in the pants the film needed and deserved, with regards to the lossless surround mix.
Surround Sound Presentation: Surround sound levels carried some weight since there was a lot of stealth activity in the background that was crucial to what was going on in the front. The surround directional effects also featured tons of action back there, with bodies and objects flying around all over the place.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue levels were clean, clear, and crisp. The screams of fear and dread were perfectly audible, as were the instances of character driven dialogue exchanges.
Extras
Trick has only one special feature and it’s that of a making-of featurette. It’s fun one and much longer than the typical featurettes out there.
- The Making of “Trick” Featuring Interviews with the Cast and Crew
Summary
Trick is one of the most surprising horror films of 2019! I was floored by its sheer audaciousness in terms of brutal violence and gore. This Blu-ray features stellar video and audio and one really cool featurette. The dynamic duo of Todd Farmer and Patrick Lussier have come up with what could be the surprise horror hit of 2019. I hope more people discover this little horror gem, because the boys are on to something here!
Trick is released on Blu-ray & DVD December 17, 2019!
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