pumpktoberfest #43 - treat yoself.

film: trick 'r treat
beer: midnight sun brewing T.R.E.A.T.

OMG it's our final horror film-pumpkin beer pairing & our final post of the 2012 pumpktoberfest season! get all the crying out now, dude. there's always next year & we've got things to discuss here, important things like trick 'r treat, a straight-to-dvd horror film that came out back in 2009. it's the only directorial effort from by some guy named michael dougherty, a creepshow-style anthology pic with four different horror-filled stories. unlike creepshow, the stories here are loosely woven together, resulting in a pleasing "ooh, i've seen this stuff before" sort of feeling by the end. each story also includes an appearance from the "sam" character, a tiny, boylike figure who wears a burlap sack over his head.

for a film that went straight to dvd, it has a cast of actors who've since gone on to do some pretty cool stuff. there's true blood's anna paquin. there's dylan baker, who was awesome on season 4 of damages. there's brian cox, a scottish actor who's been around for FOREVS. there's even a brief part with tahmoh penikett, who you may know from dollhouse or battlestar galactica. who knows what happened but that cast couldn't stop it from being pushed back from a halloween 2007 release to a halloween '09 dvd release.

it opens on halloween night with a quick scene filled with lots of anxiety-building fake out horror moments. eventually, horror DOES happen & from there, the first story features dylan baker as a principal who has a run-in with an angry, trick-or-treating fat kid. my favorite segment is the second story, where a group of kids travel to a local quarry to investigate the local legend of a school bus full of mentally retarded kids that drove off the street & plunged into the quarry. i'm a sucker for films that show kids exploring spooky, unexplored territory.

segment three is the one with anna paquin. she's with a bunch of hot chicks & they're heading into the scary-ass woods to a party where she plans to lose her virginity. the basic concept is every anna paquin-stalker's fantasy but the end result is horrific...totally not what you'd expect. the final segment is the one that most prominently features sam, as he fucks with a bitter old dude (cox). by the end, all the stories are satisfyingly linked together & we even get to see what sam REALLY is. i won't ruin it, but i'll say this: pumpkin lizard. overall, it's a fun & ultimately entertaining film & i can definitely see why it's gained cult horror acclaim. pumpktoberfest may now be officially over, but that doesn't mean you can't check out trick 'r treat any time you'd like.

up in alaska, they have something like twenty hours of sunlight per day & sprinkle little bits of caribou on pretty much every meal. it's a pretty crazy existence, cut off from the continental u.s. & close enough to the former soviet union that back in the 80's, alaskans used to grab a beer, sit out on their respective porches & watch communism crumble just across the bering sea.

in the largest city, anchorage, they've got a brewery, midnight sun, that's been putting out flavorful, award-winning beers since way the hell back in 1995. they describe their approach as "art marries science," which is both corny & cool. for a few pumpktoberfests now, they've been brewing the midnight sun brewing T.R.E.A.T., a totally unique pumpkin porter that won a gold medal at the 2007 great american beer festival.

as craft beer continues to take over the u.s., midnight sun's beers have become more & more pervasive here on the east coast, which meant that i came across the T.R.E.A.T. in a handful of beer stores throughout the city. it's a porter that's somewhat similar to elysian's dark o' the moon, a beer brewed with pumpkin, cocoa nibs, cinnamon, cloves & nutmeg. it pours a jet black color, with a consistency that's rather opaque but more smooth than syrupy. there's not much pumpkin flavor to speak of, as it's dominated by smoky, chocolate malts that're complemented by occasional notes of cinnamon & nutmeg. it's a lovely beer. one friend described it as a "dessert beer," which is totally apt. it's just plain yummy...& a great way to close out pumpktoberfest 2012. til next year!