In the 1980s, there was a phenomenon called “Satanic Panic”. The nightly news covered stories of ritualistic abuse at day-cares. People claimed to have uncovered repressed memories of being involved in black masses. Congress held hearings on the evil influence of heavy metal music. It was a strange time and in the midst of this, the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group produced and distributed a movie that utilized that panic as its premise. In reality, the panic subsided. The abuse reports and repressed memories were debunked, but in the world of this film, there was real reason to be afraid…

A bullied teen who loves Heavy Metal gets more bad news as his favorite artist dies in a fire. After getting the only copy of the artist’s final album from a local DJ, he discovers hidden messages when played backwards. The first message inspires him to set up a relatively harmless trap for his bullies, but things escalate. Eventually, the dead metal singer is resurrected and takes revenge on the town. This movie is yet another example of “Don’t meet your heroes”.

Marc Price plays Eddie as a normal teenager at first and it’s refreshing to see. He plays the character like he is a real person and not a caricature of a metalhead. He only starts to become more extreme as the demonic voice on the record exerts more influence over him. Tony Fields puts in an over-the-top performance as the deceased rock star. He was trained as a dancer and the physicality and theatricality shows. Unlike the hero, Tony plays his role as over the top as possible. A lot of the marketing pushes the presence of Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons in the cast, but they are just cameos. Simmons as a DJ and Ozzy, cast against type, as a crusading preacher.

The picture quality is very good, crisp and clear (unless there is fog or smoke). Some of the effects do not age well, like a green mist that emanates from the headphones and a lot of post-production lightning bolts, mainly being fired from a guitar or swirling around a teleporting demon. The practical effects look good though.

There are three full length audio commentaries: one with the director, one with the writer and the producer, and one with the authors of a Satanic Panic book. The director’s commentary is full of behind-the-scenes stories. One of my favorite parts was a a scene with special effect of a guitar flying through the air and the director muses “how did I film that?” The next commentary has a writer and a writer/producer that worked on the movie. The producer’s stories are much drier and probably only of interest to people who are interested in the business side of the film industry. The authors’ commentary focuses on the culture of the 80s and how the Satanic Panic gained steam and spread.

Special features:
The biggest special feature is a lengthy 81-minute feature on the making of Trick or Treat. Multiple people working on the film specifically mentioned the Congressional hearings spearheaded by Tipper Gore’s anti-explicit lyrics campaign. The director was originally an actor who had some second unit directing experience. The director of Wayne’s World was originally going to do the film, but it did not work out. Actor Marc Price was also a stand-up comic and actually performed locally during the filming. A lot of the crew had negative things to say about Gene Simmons’ attitude even while praising his performance as the local hard rock DJ. Simmons himself said that he wanted to play the DJ like Wolfman Jack, in homage to the famous disc jockey. When approached about the movie, Ozzy thought the idea of playing an anti-metal preacher was hilarious. The cast and crew had nothing but positive things to say about Tony Fields, who played the deceased rocker. He completely embraced the role but as soon as the cameras stopped would turn into a personable and charismatic guy. The soundtrack was done by Fastway, the leader of the band was former Motorhead guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clark.

The most emotional extra is a 15-minute tribute to Tony Fields, who died in 1995. In 2023, family and friends came together to share their memories of him. At an early age, he was a performer in anything his school would host. He became a Solid Gold dancer, was in some of the most played music videos of the 80s and was in the film version of “A Chorus Line”. When the people who knew him talk about his passing, it does become quite sad with many of the interviewees breaking down in tears.

The disc also includes a 26-minute episode from a series “Horror’s Hallowed Grounds” about the locations of horror movies. The film was shot in one town in North Carolina where the De Laurentiis Group filmed many films.
Other special features include an original music video, multiple original trailers, multiple TV spots, multiple radio spots, vintage Electronic Press Kit featuring snippets of interviews with Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons, and finally a stills gallery with or without an interview with photographer Phillip V. Caruso. It’s a decent length interview and of course, Phillip says Gene Simmons was difficult to work with. The physical release has a slipcover. Inside, there is a single 4k disc and a lengthy Synapse 2025 catalog.

The special features really flesh out the release and add a lot of value to an entertaining film. Being a big fan of metal myself, I paid attention to the references and was pleased with the authenticity of the depiction. Overall, this is a great quality release for an underrated 80s supernatural slasher.