Trick 'R Treat is coming to theaters for the first time ever

Fifteen years after it was first released on home video (after making the rounds of the festival circuit, amidst a series of long delays), Michael Dougherty’s well-loved Halloween anthology flick Trick ’R Treat is finally about to receive a theatrical run. Per /Film, Warner Bros. has confirmed that Dougherty’s movie—which focuses on the grisly fates afflicting a number of Halloween rulebreakers on one particularly bloody October evening—will show up in Regal Cinemas this fall as part of a wider package of autumnal horror treats.

It’s never been entirely clear why Warner Bros. opted not to release Trick theatrically back in the day, especially after it picked up solid buzz from horror fans ahead of its release. In any case, it’s become a traditional Halloween classic for many, drawn to Dougherty’s pleasantly nasty collection of horror parables. (The great cast, which includes Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, and a very creepy Dylan Baker, probably didn’t hurt.) The film’s legacy has been strong enough that it made it into Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights a few years back, allowing the film’s “mascot” of sorts, burlap-clad kid Sam, to haunt people in the real world. (Dougherty, meanwhile, has done pretty well for himself; he got back into the horror game with 2015's Krampus—also about supernatural punishments being meted out to those who defy holiday tradition—and then moved into the very big-budget leagues with Godzilla: King Of The Monsters in 2019.)

Trick ’R Treat is one of several horror classics that Regal will be rolling out as part of its October programming; other movies include The Lost Boys, John Carpenter’s original Halloween, and a 25th anniversary release of Scream 2. The first showings of Trick ’R Treat are currently scheduled for October 6.