Trick Star Tom Atkins Talks Collaborating With Directors and How He Celebrates Halloween

Throughout the ’80s, actor Tom Atkins collaborated with filmmaker John Carpenter on a number of projects, clearly demonstrating that, when he found a collaborator he admired, he would regularly work with them on projects. The upcoming Trick marks Atkins’ third collaboration with filmmaker Patrick Lussier after My Bloody Valentine and Drive Angry, confirming that he has found another director he will jump at the opportunity to work with. The actor has regularly been a fan-favorite leading man, as evidenced by films like The Fog and Night of the Creeps, with this new film offering audiences a memorable supporting role. Trick lands in theaters and On Demand on October 18th.

On Halloween night in 2015, Patrick “Trick” Weaver massacred his classmates at a costume party. After being arrested, he managed to escape police custody, but not before being shot five times by Detective Mike Denver (Omar Epps). Everyone believes Trick must be dead, but when a masked killer reappears the following Halloween, and every Halloween after that, they realize the nightmare is not over. With Trick wreaking havoc and killing innocent people in increasingly terrifying ways, Denver will stop at nothing to finish what he started and bring the carnage to an end.

ComicBook.com recently caught up with Atkins to discuss the new film, collaborating with Lussier, and how he personally celebrates Halloween.

ComicBook.com: Thanks in large part to starring in a number of horror movies, especially Halloween III: Season of the Witch, you get a lot of representation every Halloween from horror fans, with Trick continuing that Halloween tradition. How do you personally celebrate the holiday?

Tom Atkins: It is not as big a deal in my house as it is in many other people’s. I know, for a lot of people, it has become their favorite holiday of the year. Mine is still Christmas. And the way I celebrate Halloween around here is we get a lot of candy for the kids and hand it out and my wife and I usually wear those clear plastic masks that aren’t anything. They are really creepy. You must know what I’m talking about.

Kind of a face, but no face. They’re translucent. You can see through them. So we wear them at the door and it creeps out kids all the time. And put up decorations in the yard, the gravestones, “Keep Away” and cute, quippy, witty little sayings on them and light up the house and that’s it.

We used to go, but it was never on the actual day that the kids collected the candy, at Halloween, but we always went to a friend’s up the hill who had a big Halloween party. We would go there, but then they stopped doing them. Everybody grew up and got older and so they gave it up. I went one year as Amy Winehouse. I looked really bizarre.

Yeah, I can imagine.

I found these big high-heeled shoes to wear at Goodwill and I got a big dress and a big black wig, but I still had my mustache. I didn’t think about that. It wasn’t long after she died. I felt sad because I loved her music. She was a wonderful recording artist and pop star. She was delightful. I was sorry to see her go, so it was my way of honoring her.

This is your third time working with the director, did he explicitly write the role for you and you knew you had to take it or did you get to collaborate on the character, given your relationship with him?

I have never collaborated on a character in my life. Sure, I have my own input once we start going, but Patrick and Todd Farmer wrote that character for me. We’ve become such good friends. I love working with Patrick. I would go anywhere for him. It was My Bloody Valentine and then Drive Angry and now Trick. I love the character of Talbot, the old town curmudgeon with a heart of gold. I adore him. It’s obvious that Talbot adores the kids of the town and always has. But he would never show that. He would never act like that. I loved that character. He was great fun.

Later in the film, you wield a shotgun in a similar way to your character in Night of the Creeps. Was it written that way as a nod to that film or was that something that just happened on the day?

Patrick and Todd put that in, it was their weapon of choice also. So that’s the way that happened. That’s exactly what it was and that’s what we did.

Another beloved genre film of yours is Maniac Cop, which was confirmed to be getting a new TV series remake for HBO. Is that something you’re involved with?

I am not involved with it at all. And I think you are the first person to mention that. We’ve made all the best movies. We made all the best movies in the ’80s and I’m still making them and they deserve to be remade and turned into series. [Producer Greg] Nicotero is down there doing Creepshow in Atlanta and he assured me I would be in the next season of Creepshow, but I haven’t heard anything about Maniac Cop.

Here’s my story of Maniac Cop: Bruce Campbell and I see each other every once in a while at these horror movie conventions and we’re always laughing about what the hell is up with [director] Bill Lustig. Campbell says, “Tom, you were the hero of number one and you’re dead in half an hour, out the window, on top of a cab. I’m the star of number two and I’m dead in half an hour at a newsstand buying a magazine, stabbed to death for no apparent reason. What the hell is up with Lustig?” That’s our collective memory of Maniac Cop, though he may have had more memories because he was in two. I was only in the one.

*****

Trick lands in theaters and On Demand on October 18th.