TRICK 'R TREAT 2 Director Discusses What We Won't See in the Sequel

Earlier this month, we learned that director Michael Dougherty was still developing his long-awaited sequel to Trick ‘r Treat. This sequel should’ve happened years ago, but better late than never! I’ve been very curious about what Halloween stories Trick ‘r Treat 2 will tell, but the director of the movie recently talked about it and discussed the things that we won’t see in the movie.

One of the first things brought up in an interview with Nerdist was that Dougherty confirmed that none of the original cast members are coming back for the sequel. When asked about it, he explained:

"No, because I feel like that's very much American Horror Story's approach and style. I'd rather stay consistent. If I'm bringing cast members back, it would be in the same roles, not that that's currently a plan within the piece. To me, it would throw me off. I do like it in American Horror Story. I think it works for them, but it'd also feel like we're just ripping them off if we did that." He later added, "If I've learned anything from this experience, it's all about patience and persistence."

I think that’s the right move to bring in a whole new cast for a collection of all-new scary stories. Dougherty also confirmed that he doesn’t have any plans to tell the origin story of Sam, which he’s talked about in the past. He said:

"I think Freddy works, but at the same time, we never saw it [the origin], I guess. I think Freddy's origin is an exception because it only made him scarier. To know who he was, this serial killer who went around killing kids and was eventually beheaded by justice, only added to his mystery and his power. But I think a mistake they made was they kept explaining it. They kept adding more layers like, 'Oh, he also made a deal with these three dream demons.' It's one thing to create a fun, mysterious origin for a character, but I feel like a lot of studios over the years have sort of overthought it.

"They just start adding too much to the point of it being layered with all the layers. Like with the Halloween stuff [in Halloween 5 and 6] where it's like cults, and the curse, and these tattoos. I was like, 'What the fuck are you talking about?' With Sam, there are definitely aspects of his lore and his mythology that we could expand on, and I hope to in terms of how he comes back year after year, where he goes to, and things like that, but I would never do any sort of flashback to ancient Ireland and show some kid being sacrificed and throw him to a pumpkin creature. That would just ruin his mystique."

When previously talking about Sam's origin, he did explain that he'd love to show him being born in a pumpkin patch. "There's a great Charles Addams painting of a pumpkin patch... and you see hundreds of pumpkins, and you see one...and it's carving itself."

I’d love see that concept brought to life. It seems like it would make such an awesome visual! On his previous update on the project, Dougherty said:

"It’s funny because when I first dreamt up the idea of making the first film, I thought, “How neat would it be if we made them a series?” I’m a firm believer that October should be filled with Halloween movies, or horror movies. That’s something I remember from childhood. Horror movies and Halloween, they go hand-in-hand. And so the idea was, “Well we could probably do a Trick ‘r Treat movie every year or every other year, and that it would sort of just be a new batch of stories and characters. And the common link between all of them would be Sam.” Initially that was the plan, and then things changed as the first film had a very delayed, strange journey. I put those dreams on hold for a little while, so it feels good to go back to that initial plan. … I think it’d be great to make it a trilogy, at least. So fingers crossed. For me, I think every film should explore a different aspect of Halloween. I felt like the first film was the very traditional, suburban Halloween that we all have some memory of. But as I’ve grown up over the years, I’ve lived everywhere from Columbus, Ohio to New York to L.A., and I find that the holiday is very different depending on where you live. Or even time periods. I don’t see why we should be limited to just present day stories. Halloween is an amazing holiday because it evolves depending on where you live and the time period."

He added: "There’s nothing I can reveal yet. It’s still really early in the process, but I can definitely say that we’ll be exploring Sam more and maybe getting into some back story of who and what he actually is."

He went on to explain: "I think we’ll shake it up a little bit. There are different archetypes I’d like to explore, different types of monsters. We covered werewolves, vampires, and zombies, but there’s a whole slew of different creatures out there that we haven’t tackled, and I think Sam would probably be pretty good buddies with. So I think it’s time to let them have their time in the sun."

Hopefully, he actually gets around to making this movie!