What happens when you take fundamentalist Christian's views of heavy metal music to the extreme? This little gem of a demon driven rock movie, that's what.

Metalhead Eddie Weinbauer is bullied by the “cool” jocks at school. Eddie escapes hi humdrum life by listening to the metal music of Sammi Curr, an alumnus of the very same high school. When Curr dies in a hotel fire, Eddie's world start to fall apart. Until he plays Curr's music backwards and gets instructions on how to exact revenge on his high school tormentors. Will Eddie take vengeance too far? And, where is this advice really coming from anyway?

Before delving too far into the actual movie, we need to take a look at what transpired in 1985 that inspired it. Tipper Gore, along with a few other wingnuts, banded together to create the Parents Music Resource Center. The PMRC hearings were held before Congress to get warning labels placed on records. Their major targets: heavy metal music and rap. Dee Snider, frontman of Twisted Sister, famously spoke at the hearings against the PMRC. News footage of Snider is recreated in the movie, as Sammi Curr speaks against the local city council who has banned him from playing the local high school.

That same year, two heavy metals acts are hit with civil lawsuits. Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest are both accused of inciting youths to commit suicide due to lyrics and subliminal messages in their recordings. Cover all of this with the usual religious zealots cries of backward masking in lyrics praising Satan, metal contributing to drug and alcohol abuse, juvenile delinquency, ad nauseam, and you have the anti-metal fervor the plot of this movie plays upon.

The movie does a great job of bringing those metal hater's fears to life. Weinbauer is the classic loner and underachiever, who has turned his bedroom into a heavy metal/hard rock shrine. This is a perfect launchpad for all the classic metal fueled fears – backward masking, anti-social behavior escalating to violence, and devil worship. Though the alcohol abuse an sexual promiscuity belongs to the in crowd, not the metalhead.

Trick or Treat was the directorial debut of Charles Martin Smith a.k.a. Terry the Toad from American Graffiti, but he's appeared in numerous films. It stars Marc “Skippy” Price, Lisa Orgolini, Tony Fields, Elise Richards, Doug Savant, and Elaine Joyce, with guest appearances by Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne and the boom mic. It also features a kick-ass soundtrack of original tunes from the heavy metal band, Fastway. I liked the songs so much, I got the CD.

Tony Fields portrayal of Sammi Curr contains a hell of a lot more dancing on stage than I'm used to a metal shows. And it seemed to have thrown off his lip syncing. Of course, he may have a touch time lip syncing before that. Upon further research I learned that Fields was previously a professional dancer, which explained the overabundance of dancing.

The movie was originally a vehicle to let Marc Price escape the "nice guy next door" image he acquired from playing the Irwin “Skippy” Handelman character on the popular Family Ties TV show. It featured “appearances” by Gene Simmons and Ozzy Osbourne. I know he wanted to be manly, but did we really need to see his ass within the first five minutes? I was beginning to think this was actually a David DeCoteau flick. Repackaged many years later, with Price not being a household name, and the DVD cover names the stars as Gene and Ozzy, and their images each figure prominently.

There's a nice balance of humor in the movie. I'm not referring to the unintentional laughs garnered from things like the boom mic appearance. There's some good lines and some funny scenes, too. Those of us with twisted senses of humor will get laughs out of at least two of the murder scenes. And the scene where Weinbauer's best friend, Roger, requires a vacuum cleaner is awesome. I do question the need for all the violence against kitchen appliances. At one point, Weinbauer wants to destroy all the electronic devices with speakers. I'm having a tough time rationalizing how that includes a toaster.

This was one of the early movies filmed in Wilmington, N.C., before it became known as Hollywood East. While not overly important, it did give a scene a rather humorous touch. It would seem that a local girl was hired to play the part of a trick-or-treater at the Weinbauer household. Her North Carolina drawl is unmistakable and really stands out compared to the other actors.

Trick or Treat is a fun movie and a true can't miss for metal fans. It's not really scary for a horror film, but we do have a supernatural antagonist that enjoys lighting people up. There's also the previously mentioned metal tunes, a fun plot, some entertaining death scenes & stunt breasts at a pool party. Some more gore would have been welcomed, but this stands up as a great 80s movie and one of the best heavy metal flicks ever.