George Romero, John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper Were Almost Involved in ‘Trick ‘r Treat’

In 2007, filmmaker Mike Dougherty delivered horror fans an anthology film that would go on to become a staple of Halloween, Trick ‘r Treat. The film marked Dougherty’s feature-length directorial debut, but early on in the process, some of horror’s biggest icons were almost involved.

Inspired by anthology classics like Creepshow and Tales from the Darkside, Dougherty’s film took a variety of different staples of October 31 to tell tales of terror. Ranging from exploring what happens when you get “tricks” if you refuse to give out “treats” to why you should always check your candy, Trick ‘r Treat captured many of the elements that make Halloween such a special and scary time.

The filmmaker recently revealed on the Post Mortem podcast how the film came to fruition and just how close the project was to tapping some of horror’s heavyweights.

“You need to be making movies.”

The concept for the film began when Dougherty was in college, making a short animated film about a masked character out for adventures on Halloween night, titled “Season’s Greetings.”

“One of the first people I ever sent [Season’s Greetings] to was Stan Winston. Surprisingly, he wrote back,” Dougherty shared. “He said, ‘Saw the short, loved it, if you’re ever in L.A., let me know.’ So I booked a flight to Los Angeles. He said, ‘Listen. You need to be making movies.’ I was an animator at Nickelodeon at the time.”

Winston was a legend in his own right, having worked on films like Aliens, The Terminator and Predator. Dougherty claims that Winston encouraged him to write the initial script for the film in 1999, almost a decade before the movie would eventually be released.

“There’s really something here…”

With it being one of the filmmaker’s earliest scripts, he took a few shortcuts to piece the project together.

“So I cheated. I took two short stories that I had written in college – they just happened to be set on Halloween night,” Dougherty confessed. “So I figured, I can always write two additional ones. So I just took these four short stories, set them on Halloween night, smashed them together and said, ‘Here’s my spec script.’ And Stan was the first one to read that. He said, ‘There’s really something here and I’d love to produce this.’”

Having a legendary producer on your side can come in handy, but there were still many obstacles in the way.

Patience Was a Virtue

Some anthology films have been made with a singular creative team behind each installment in the final project, but Winston hoped Dougherty’s script could go a more ambitious route.

“But the way he wanted to do it was traditional anthology, where you go out and get a director for each one,” Dougherty shared. “So he assembled, at the time, George Romero, John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper. What a lineup, right? Took it out…nobody wanted to touch it.”

After the disappointing attempt to bring the film to life, Dougherty focused on writing, crafting the screenplays for X-Men 2 and Superman Returns, both of which were directed by Bryan Singer. Once the filmmaker had more experience under his belt, he felt more comfortable about helming the project personally, with Warner Bros. eventually distributing his film.

While Trick ‘r Treat might not have brought together all the horror icons, it still became a cult classic that gains appreciation in each subsequent year.

[H/T Bloody Disgusting]