On the new Trick ‘r Treat 4K Ultra HD edition — out today from Arrow Video — writer-director Michael Dougherty provides an update on the long-gestating sequel, first announced all the way back in 2013.
In a new commentary moderated by Dead Meat’s James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca, Doughtery confirms that he wrote Trick ‘r Treat 2 with his Krampus collaborators Todd Casey and Zach Shields and it’s already storyboarded, but getting it made within the studio system is complicated.
“It’s tricky, because I think we really did capture lightning in a bottle with this one, and it nearly killed me. What a lot of people don’t realize is that the bulk of our favorite horror movies, especially the ones that introduced new horror icons, were all independent movies,” Dougherty explains, citing the likes of Halloween, Friday the 13th, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
“There aren’t the typical metrics that a studio can point to to make it an easy ‘yes.’ Something I was adamant about in the sequel was that it has to retain this nonlinear storytelling, [and] it has to retain that weird mix of horror and comedy,” he notes.
Dougherty continues, “I want to do it. It’s not dead by any stretch. We have some momentum moving in the right direction for sure, but I’m also of the belief that I’m not going to compromise or make sacrifice just to make a sequel. It has the be under the right conditions with the right resources. Otherwise, I will be content with just letting this be this weird little movie that fought its way through a lot of adversity.”
He adds, “But I’m very, very happy with the script for the sequel.”
In the meantime, Sam will return in the four new stories in the upcoming graphic novel Trick’ r Treat: Witching Hours.
Stay tuned for a full review of Trick ‘r Treat on 4K UHD later today.
