Trick 'r Treat: Slice Visits the Set in Vancouver!
By: Slice
Trick 'r Treat
On Set in Vancouver, BC Canada
January 11th, 2007
By: Slice
 Maybe you’ve heard of Christmas in July, but something tells me Halloween in January isn’t so common. That’s just what I got to experience when I visited the set of “Trick ‘R Treat” in Vancouver in January 2007 on their 30th day of shooting. The Warner Brothers film, written and directed by Michael Dougherty (writer of X2, Superman Returns) and produced by Bryan Singer (Director of The Usual Suspects, X2, Superman Returns) and his team is described as: ”Set in a small suburban town, Trick 'r Treat explores Halloween traditions of the past and present while following a group of people trying to survive the most terrifying night of the year. From a serial killer who specializes in poisoning candy; to a group of mischievous kids who unearth their town's dark secret; to a young woman hunted by a masked stalker at the local festival; and a cantankerous old hermit dealing with a demonic trick-or-treater, the film is filled with horrifying twists, turns, dark humor, and strange creatures of every variety -- human or otherwise” (from imdb.com).
I pulled up to the soundstage where “Trick ‘R Treat” was filming at North Shore Studios with my handler Darren around 1pm. As soon as I got out of the car, I was standing next to a beat up short school bus with Ohio plates, which would all come into play as the day progressed. To begin the day, we walked up to the production office and met with Bridget, the Unit publicist, and Alex Garcia, one of the executive producers of the film. Alex gave me a tour of the office, most notably through a room covered in concept art from the film, all of which looked really exciting. I should just get it out of my system now, from my visit to this set, I’m really excited about this movie. From the tone, to the story, to the atmosphere, this film just looks right up my alley. With that being said, the concept art was all very visual and just about every frame had its own way of conveying the ideal feeling of Halloween. The first thing I saw was “Sam”, a little boy with a bag over his head, who is to be the icon character of the film. From what I gathered, Sam is one of the main elements that links all of the stories together, and there is more to him than meets the eye. Next, I took a look at art from the school bus sequence, the bus that I had just saw before, and needless to say, something goes wrong on these kids’ drive to school. I saw art from the quarry sequences, a set which seems to play a big part in the film and also some sketches from a sequence involving a big Halloween parade down the town’s main street which is at the heart of the movie. Some of the most impressive images were the ones that had the concept art next to a photograph of how it was actually realized in the film. One specific image that stuck was a drawing of a house decked out in Halloween decorations drawn by Dougherty and his team; next to it was the photo, and it was exactly the same, down to the most minute of details. Alex Garcia noted to me that Dougherty storyboarded about 90% of the film and from what I was seeing in this room, it looked his visions were really paying off.
 The last thing I saw in the production office before going on to the actual set was art from a sequence involving a forest, which lead to a story that seemed to be on everyone’s mind that day. Alex told me that before they decided to build a forest set on their soundstage, they were planning on shooting on location in Stanley Park in Vancouver, a very popular and well known park. A few days after they made this decision in December 2006, a huge storm swept through the park, tearing it to shreds and knocking down enormous trees. As sad as everyone was about the damage to the park, they all felt blessed about their last minute decision to change locations.
It was now time to see some of the physical manifestations of the art I just witnessed. We walked into the soundstage and I caught my first glimpse of Mr. Kreeg’s (Brian Cox) house; a character and location that look like they’re going to be on everyone’s mind far after they see the film. The sets on stage that day were Kreeg’s house and Mr. Wilkins’ (Dylan Baker) house along with their accompanying backyards. The first thing that’s going to strike you when see these houses next to each other is contrast, insane contrast. While Wilkins has a clean, white, “Norman Rockwell gone wrong” look to it and a fairly kept up lawn, Kreeg’s is the exact opposite: unkempt, gothic, run down, pretty much the stuff nightmares are made of. But the real catch here is this: they sit right next to each other. They shot the fronts of these houses at actual locations and then built sets of them for the interiors and backyards. I was lead through the front door and peered down the dark, brown, creepy hallway. To my right was the living room, which I’ll get to later. The staircase is huge and accentuated perfectly. I walked out the back door and to find one of the worst kept lawns I’ve ever seen, complete with sinister trees with jagged branches.
Dividing the two houses is a maroon fence with some holes in it that Kreeg uses to spy on some of Wilkins’ more suspicious actions. I walked around the fence to find Wilkin’s lawn which was in good shape for the most part, with the exception of a giant coffin (or body?) sized hole dug into the middle of the yard. This hole was dug into the actual concrete floor of the soundstage and from what I was told, it cost “a sh*tload.” I ventured around the soundstage a little bit more and saw the remains of both the quarry set and the forest set, which had already been wrapped but were being kept around in case any pick ups were needed. For those of you keeping track, that’s 2 full houses with backyards, a rock quarry, and a forest on one stage. I don’t know exact square footage or anything but I’d venture to say it was a good use of space.
 After exploring for a little bit, I was able to catch a Mr. Kreeg sequence being shot. Kreeg had let his dog out to do his business but when he opens the backdoor to get him back in, the dog won’t respond to him. Turns out that the dog is munching on something of the human persuasion in the corner of the yard, but when Kreeg walks towards his dog he gets quickly distracted by the noises coming from Wilkins’ yard as he does some business in his body-sized hole. At this point in the day, Dylan Baker who plays Wilkins wasn’t yet in the hole, but later he was down there in a white oxford shirt with huge bloodstains, shoveling away for some reason. At this point I left the set and went back to the production office to talk to production designer Mark Freeborn about the look of the film, an interview you’ll find packaged with this report. When I came back, things were in pretty full swing with Dylan Baker in the hole, but he was able to take a few minutes to talk to me and take me on a tour of his character’s house, which was a trip. When he climbed out of the hole, his hands were stained with fake blood so we did an “air hand shake” and he lead me into Wilkins’ house where we chatted for a few minutes (check out the interview) and he pointed something especially cool about the house out to me: the pictures on the walls were actually him as a kid, most notably a picture of him carving a turkey with grandpa in which the turkey had been digitally replaced with a pumpkin. The inside of the house lent even more to the “Norman Rockwell gone bad” motif, with it being very beige and clean and most of the appliances were classic 50’s looking machines. After this exciting tour, it was time for me to take a closer look at Kreeg’s living room and shoot my intro for the video footage with the EPK team.
The room ended up being even grosser and yet cooler than I thought. Every last detail was thought of in this room, from the cobwebs in the corners of the room to the cracks in the wallpapers; this living room was both classic and filthy. Some trivia for you because I don’t know how closely they’ll show these things in the film, but from what I gather, Mr. Kreeg smokes A LOT of Honey Rose Deluxe nicotine-free and tobacco-free cigarettes, with butts laying all over the room’s furniture. When it comes to alcohol, Kreeg seems to prefer Emperor Royal Russian Vodka. There were also pills, golf balls, and an Old Farmer’s Almanac scattered around the old man’s furniture. The EPK crew set up and I stumbled over my words a few times before I got out of the house in one piece. I went outside and noticed another version of the school bus from before, but this one was cut in half and had been submerged in some kind of swamp or pond as it was covered in algae. It was a pretty eerie sight to see. After a few minutes in the craft services tent, I got to sit down with Michael Dougherty for 20 minutes during what seemed like his only down time all day. As the day came to a close, it was a quick but exhilarating time on the set of “Trick ‘R Treat” and I really think this one has the potential to create some waves in the horror world. Overall, a great set visit but on the set of this Halloween-themed movie, only one thing was missing: candy. I just had to make do with Kreeg’s cigarette butts and the blood peppered all over the set.
OTHER FEATURES:
Interview with Star Dylan Baker
Interview with Production Designer Mark Freeborn
Interview with Writer-Director Michael Dougherty
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