One of the most frequent questions I am always asked being the host of the greatest movie podcast ever (opinions may vary) is “What’s your favorite movie?” That answer has been the same since I was 11 years old. But it also isn’t as easy to explain why I love some movies more than others.

As an art form, movies are by their nature interpretative. Some people will point to a film’s box office total as a barometer for a film’s quality, this might not be true again because although it might be popular to the masses it might not appeal to you. I am looking at you Avatar, which is not one of my favorite films, not by a longshot.  

Also, if the film wins an Academy Award for Best Picture, that hardly means it’s one of my favorite films, looking at you The English Patient, in fact I hardly agree with the Academy. Having said that, I am sure that some people love Avatar and The English Patient. And that’s what makes movies so great.

I, also am not a professional critic. I love film. I try and find merit in all film. As a host of a podcast that attempts to give every movie a chance, I believe that is the best way to approach movies, let the lights go out and try and enjoy yourself. You might find a “diamond in the rough.”

When thinking of my favorite movies to share with you, my loyal listeners, I thought 100 wasn’t going to be enough. So, I am proud to present my 150 Favorite Films, right now. These will change, I know they will.

See you at the movies!

***Spoilers Ahead!!!***

93. Trick ‘r Treat (2007) Directed by Michael Dougherty

The Movie: It’s Halloween night. Emma (Leslie Bibb) and her husband Henry (Tahmoh Penikett) return home after celebrating the holiday. As they return home, Emma is already over Halloween and blows out the candle jack-o-lantern. Henry tells her that she shouldn’t do that, there’s rules. Emma ignores him and quells his superstitions by telling him to go and put on a dirty movie and she will be up soon.

Emma commences in taking down the decorations. Emma is attacked by someone, or something.

Henry wakes after he passed out and goes to the front yard looking for Emma. He finds her. Underneath a sheet. Dead. Murdered with a lollipop sticking out of her mouth.

We next pick up Charlie (Brett Kelly) as he wakes down the street, knocking over and breaking jack-o-lanterns. Charlie does not care for the rules of Halloween and steals candy from a bowl that asks to only take one. Charlie is caught by his principal, Mr. Wilkins (Dylan Baker). Mr. Wilkins lectures the boy and gives him a candy bar. Charlie eats the bar and soon vomits and dies. We learn that Wilkins is a serial killer and he laced the candy with cyanide.

Wilkins drags Charlie’s body inside and is interrupted by trick-or-treaters. There is one peculiar trick-or-treater, Sam (Quinn Lord). A child with a round burlap sack and orange footie pajamas.

Wilkins takes Charlie’s body to the backyard and attempts to bury it back there. Wilkins is interrupted by his son Billy (Connor Christopher Levins) and his cranky neighbor Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox).

As Wilkins finally finishes burying Charlie, he hears Mr. Kreeg yell for help. Wilkins ignores him and continues inside his home. Mr. Kreeg is then attacked, by someone or something.

Wilkins goes downstairs with his son Billy and he tells them it’s time to carve jack-o-lanterns. Wilkins raises his knife and stabs it into his son! Or does he? The knife instead goes into Charlie’s severed head. Charlie is the jack-o-lantern that Wilkins and Billy are carving.

A group of teenagers are trick-or-treating and collecting jack-o-lanterns for a scavenger hunt. Macy (Britt McKillip), Chip (Alberto Ghisi) Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) and Sara (Isabelle Deluce) have bigger plans too. They meet Rhonda (Samm Todd) who loves Halloween and they take her to the local quarry. There Macy tells everyone about the “Halloween School Bus Massacre.” The story is about special needs children and a bus driver who was paid by the parents in town to “get rid” of he children. When one of the children realizes that the bus is not going where it is supposed to, attempts to turn the bus around. The bus out of control drives off a cliff and sinks into the quarry. The bus driver escapes his death. The children do not.

The children take an elevator down to the shore of the quarry and Macy places on the ground eight jack-o-lanterns. One for each of the victims of the crash. The kids split up and as Rhonda and Chip wonder off together. Suddenly, the dead children start to attack Rhonda who is terrified and in shock on what she has seen.

But it was all a prank. Rhonda was part of a cruel joke played on her by the other kids. Schrader tells the others that their prank has gone too far. Macy ignores him and kicks a jack-o-lantern into the water.

The actual dead children rise from their watery graves and have their sights set on the pranksters. Rhonda gets to the elevator, shuts the door and leaves the other children to their fate.

Rhonda leaves the quarry and sees Sam. He nods at her.

In downtown Warren Valley a group of twenty something women are looking for costumes and boys. Laurie (Anna Paquin) doesn’t seem interested in either. Laurie’s sister Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith) pleads with Laurie to find a date for their party. Danielle and Laurie are joined by their friends Janet (Moneca Delian) and Maria (Rochelle Aytes). Laurie reluctantly agrees to go to the party. Her sister and her friends are princesses. Laurie chooses “Little Red Riding Hood.”

Laurie’s friends find dates and head towards their party in the woods. Laurie stays behind for the town festival. Laurie leaves the festival and as she walks to her party she is attacked by a “vampire”.

Laurie arrives and throws the “vampire” by the bonfire and tells her sister that he bit her. The “vampire” is unmasked revealing Wilkins, who earlier had killed a woman at the festival.

Laurie and all her friends rip off their clothes and their skin to reveal they are werewolves. And they eat all their dates. Sitting on a log Sam likes what he sees.

Back in town, Mr. Kreeg the grumpy neighbor to Wilkins hates Halloween. He dresses up his dog to scare away any trick-or-treaters that might come to his door. Kreeg however won’t escape this Halloween unpunished. Supernatural happenings are terrorizing him at his home. His house is egged, his lawn is full of jack-o-lanterns and the inside of his home is scribbled and marked by Samhain and Halloween words.

Kreeg is soon attacked by Sam, who was hiding in Kreeg’s bedroom. The fight wages on with Sam cutting Kreeg’s ankle and other nasty things. Sam and Kreeg’s fight takes them downstairs where Kreeg unmasks Sam. Underneath Sam’s burlap sack is a face that resembles both a jack-o-lantern and a skull. Kreeg is able to shoot Sam whose blood looks like the inside of a pumpkin.

Sam doesn’t die though. His body comes back together and attacks Kreeg one last time by stabbing him in the leg with candy. Sam leaves Kreeg alone as he has done his Halloween tradition of handing out candy. Sam puts his mask back on and leaves.

Kreeg’s night isn’t over. After being attacked by Sam, Kreeg is now handing out candy to trick-or-treaters. The doorbell rings again and at his door are the dead children from the bus massacre. Kreeg was their bus driver and at long last he gets what he deserves as the children kill him.

Why I Love Trick ‘r Treat (2007): One of the great travesties in the last 20 years in the film world is the way Trick ‘r Treat was treated before it was released. Regulated to direct to video, and not until 2 years after it was completed. The film however was so good that it won over the horror movie crowd and has become a Halloween staple in my family.

From an icon in the making of Sam and the fun way the film presents an anthology everything works. And there isn’t a weak story in the bunch. A lot of times with anthologies one segment might not be as good as the others. Not the case with Trick ‘r Treat. All of them are fun with clever twists.

There’s gore. There’s laughs. There’s bad people getting what they deserve. I am so amazed and happy when Halloween rolls around and there is as much Sam merch as there is of Freddy, Jason and Michael. He has the strength of only one film, but that film has gained so much of a following that you cannot ignore it the way Warner Bros did when it came out.

All that being said the movie is great. Dougherty understands the genre so well. His camera moves where it needs to. The fun reveal of Sam at the end of all the stories and the way it all ties together is part of the enjoyment from the film.

Trick ‘r Treat is my favorite anthology film. It is funny, scary and gory. Add in a classic movie “villain” and you have a Halloween classic that I watch every year.