Parents' Guide to Trick or Treat

This film pulls you in so many different, unexpected directions, to call it just a crime thriller is an injustice. Trick or Treat certainly has the look and feel of British gangster movies like Guy Ritchie's Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch -- although the action here takes place in the seaside town of Blackpool. But a better comparison would be to David Fincher's The Game. Like that movie, nothing is quite what it seems. Set on Halloween, there's an overriding creepiness that adds to the mystery. It's also violent, but at the same funny. Add to that the exploration of masculinity and men's mental health and you can see why it's so difficult to pigeonhole it as a crime thriller.

The movie is led by real-life brothers, Craig and Dean Lennox Kelly, who play Greg and Dan Kielty respectively. Greg is a new father who is seemingly depressed and missing his former carefree life. It's to Kelly's credit that Greg remains sympathetic and relatable when he could just as easily come across as simply selfish and immature. For those familiar with British movies and TV, there are a number of cameos throughout. These are often fleeting, which only adds to the unsettling mood of the movie. There's the occasional plot hole, but given the whole movie feels like a dreamlike -- or nightmare -- sequence, they don't deter from a rollercoaster of a movie that will keep you guessing to the very end.