Creature Feature



Sam from the movie Trick r' Treat



By AL J. Vermette



The Halloween-themed movie Trick ‘r Treat is the overall greatest movie ever to cover the fun dark holiday that has ever been made. It covers the holiday’s customs and traditions like no other movie before it and is just a fun delightful romp into what makes this holiday stand out and so much fun. This 2007 dark comedy anthology tells numerous stories all focusing on one Halloween night. Each of the stories is interwoven into each other as they overlap with one another telling one long cohesive storyline despite being their own stories within the main story. Tying this all together is a goblin-like creature known only as Sam, who shows up at the end of each story segment once someone has broken a Halloween tradition. He is portrayed in the film as the embodiment of Halloween itself as he solely upholds the holiday's myths and customs.


This child-size creature was created by writer-director Michael Daugherty long before helming Krampus and Godzilla: King of The Monsters where this film director is most likely best known for nowadays. Sam first showed up in his short film debut in 1996 with Season’s Greetings a short animated film featuring the little creature dressed in his tell-tale orange blanket sleeper footy pajamas with a large burlap sack over his large round head with buttons for eyes. Although the short film comes in at less than 4 minutes, the seeds of who and what Sam would become were already there just waiting to become something much more in the years ahead. Along with his signature outfit, Sam likes to carry a burlap sack full of candy along with a round orange lollipop with a jack-o-lantern face on it with a bite taken out of one side looking somewhat like a crescent moon.



When writing his debut feature film Trick ‘r Treat, Daugherty returned to the little character and used him to tie the anthology film together as the one common thread all the stories had collectively. He would show up at the end of most of each sequence but also held the lead in the last story where we got to see just what Sam looked like under his burlap disguise. At first in his costume, we don’t know who or what’s under the mask and so we think of him as any other trick or treater on the streets going from house to house. It’s not until the last tale that we learn that he is some kind of ghoul, goblin, or demon once his face is reviled from under the burlap façade. Once his face is revealed, we see him as a creepy creature so unlike his child pretense, we thought him to be. With slimy wet skin over a bony face that has the appearance of a skull and a jack-o-lantern combo that is creepy as hell. In a flash, once his mask is removed, his innocent childlike traits are stripped away and all we see is a monster.


His very name invokes the spirit of Halloween as Sam is short for Sam Hain of which means in ancient Celtic Pagan times as Samhain the origins of the holiday we now call Halloween. Sam as the emissary of Halloween follows a strict rule book from which he expects everyone to follow. On Halloween night you must always give candy to trick-or-treaters, you must always be in costume, and you should never blow out the candle in a jack-o- lantern before midnight. Being that Sam has been Halloween’s enforcer, it is clear that Sam has been around since Celtic times, maybe even been at the very first Samhain celebrations more than 2,000 years ago. Or he could be the next one in a line of creatures such as himself who carry on the task to protect the Halloween myths and customs all throughout time. He is to Halloween what Santa Claus is to Christmas in this world by Michael Dougherty.



In the movie, Sam is played by child actor Quinn Lord who was about 5 years old when the film was shot in 2005 only to be held over until its release is 2007. His pretrial of Sam got him to be nominated for the Young Artist Award for the best leading young actor in a feature film and was a launching point for his career. After playing Sam, Lord would go on to work on TV and film in such works as Web of Desire, Space Buddies, The Hole, The Possession, In Their Skin, and a host of other movie and TV roles. It is he that we see on the DVD cover art for the film as Sam is the face of the movie.


Although a squeal to Trick ‘r Treat is sadly yet to become a reality as of this writing, Sam has continued on outside of his film existence. In 2018, Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando Florida themed one of their haunted house attractions around the movie Trick ‘r Treat featuring Sam as its main draw. The little creature would turn up throughout the haunted maze as part of the movie-themed event. The Trick ‘r Treat house was just one of the numerous haunted mazes that year at the Halloween-themed attraction within Universal Studios Orlando theme park, but it was one of its very highlights and enjoyed by throes who attended.



In 2020, the retail holiday-themed store Spirit Halloween released a host of Trick ‘r Treat items featuring Sam and other iconic characters from the movie. Among stuffed Sam’s, tee shirts, and other tie-ins to the movie, a life-sized Sam animatronic was made available to the Halloween buying public. Since then there have been a few animatronic Sam characters over the last two years for sale from the Halloween juggernaut. So now you too can have your own Trick ‘r Treat Sam.


Despite the movie now being 15 years old, its influence has only grown over the years since its release and Sam is spearheading that interest. The movie is now regarded as the ultimate Halloween movie of all time kicking to the curb Hocus Pocus, Halloween Town and even the Halloween franchise itself. It’s the movie you have to see on Halloween night regardless of what else you have going on and the character of Sam is one of the reasons this movie is so beloved. He’s cute, scary and all about Halloween and what more can we horror fans ask for?