The film is set during Halloween night in a small town in Ohio and, it's important to note, features four interwoven stories. If the viewer was not aware of this, they might be left scratching their head, wondering what the fuck is happening.

Trick 'r Treat reminds me of that cult favourite from 1982, Creepshow, written by Stephen King and directed by George A. Romero, but whose segments are all connected, in, dare I say it, Pulp Fiction-type fashion.

It's creepy, but mostly fun, with a few little twists and turns thrown into the melting pot to keep things interesting.

The movie is based on Dougherty's animated short called Season's Greetings, from way back in 1996. Since then, he has carved out a semi-successful screenwriting career, mostly alongside director Bryan Singer.

With Singer, who also produced Trick 'r Treat, Dougherty wrote the brilliant X-Men 2, or X2 (2003), but they paired again for the major disappointment that was Superman Returns (2006).

Trick r' Treat, which came next, was apparently scheduled for an October 2007 cinematic release but was pulled by Warner Bros. without any explanation. The film finally saw the light of day in October 2009, going straight-to-DVD.

Interestingly, wikipedia has noted 'Based on 17 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 88 percent, with an average score of 7.7/10'. I wouldn't go that far, but such marks highlight howe under-rated it has been - certainly in the eyes of Warner studio executives.

Dougherty has even revealed to MTV that a sequel is in the works. "Yeah, I have to say that the excitement over the past few months of watching the film grow has started to jumpstart some ideas, and I know how the next one ends,'' he is quoted as saying.

Dylan Baker (Spider-Man), Anna Paquin (The Piano, X-Men) and Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity, Troy) feature prominently in Trick 'r Treat, and all their characters feature one hell of a dark side.

(Spoilers ahead) Baker plays Steven Wilkins, the local high school principal who has a penchant for enticing some of his students to stop by his house with candy ... before brutally murdering them and burying their bodies in the backyard, comically, without the neighbours finding out. What he does with the heads leaves his victims with a hollow feeling.Think Jack'o'Lanterns.

Paquin is Laurie, in town with her sister and friends to soak up the Halloween festivities. Though the blood they leave behind will also need to be soaked up. Laurie, ironically dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, is under pressure from big sis Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith) to rectify her 'virgin' status - meaning she is yet to make her first kill as a werewolf.

Cox plays the grumpy old hermit Mr Kreeg who has an uninvited house guest in the form of a little trick or treater named Sam (Quinn Lord), a creepy little bastard who pops up consistently through the entire film, particularly when things turn ugly. Just as ugly as Sam turns out to be.

The character of Kreeg also plays a pivotal role in an earlier segment focussing on a group of teenagers who have a disturbing experience at the bottom of an abandoned rock quarry on the edge of town where a school bus crashed 30 years earlier.

Dougherty's film is quite slick and stylish with live-action scenes regularly transforming into the pages of a comic book, again, ala Creepshow, but in a very 2009 way. Well, 2007, anyway..

There's also some great references to other semi-recent cult classic horror movies such as The Thing - the look of Cox's character is even based on B-Grade directing king John Carpenter - Child's Play, The Lost Boys, The Howling, Pet Semetary, and of course Halloween, among others.

RATING: 6/10
Treat yourself to some horror fun. No tricks.