Trick 'r Treat

A school principal, a group of children at a quarry, a girl in a red cloak, and an old man visited by something small with a burlap sack.

Michael Dougherty structures it so the stories overlap in time and space rather than sitting in sequence, and characters wander through each other's segments, which almost no anthology attempts.

Sam, the sack-headed child enforcing the rules of the holiday, has become a genuine icon on the strength of about eight minutes of screen time.

Warner pulled it from release twice with no explanation, and it built its reputation entirely on festival screenings and disc.

The autumn photography, all orange and dead leaves and jack-o'-lanterns, is a large part of why people put it on every October.

The rules are the point: you do not blow out the candle, and you always hand out sweets.