The film opens at a Halloween party in 2015. A group of teens, including Cheryl (Kristina Reyes), Nicky (Kya Brickhouse), Troy (Max Miller), and the eponymous (Pa)Trick (Thom Niemann) are playing spin the bottle. When Trick lands on a dude, he inexplicably starts murdering people. Detective Denver (Omar Epps) and Sheriff Jayne (Ellen Adair) shoot him multiple times, but no body ever surfaces. Subsequently, each year on Halloween a massacre with a similar MO takes place. It looks like Trick is alive and stabbing.
The movie starts out weird and snowballs into ever-increasing weird. Now I don’t mean weird like avant garde or experimental. I mean all of the characters making absolute batshit decisions, like Cheryl and Nicky fleeing from Trick to the hospital, where Cheryl abandons the injured Nicky to have a heart to heart with her father. Characters are hastily introduced, like Nicky’s…siblings? Niece and nephew? The dialogue referring to them is so vague that the relationship is never fully explained. Then they disappear without any impact on the plot.
Speaking of which, the dialogue is often exceptionally bad. One of my favorite quotes: Denver– “He murdered [name redacted] with a gravestone of a fed I got killed. Who does that?” Then there’s this exchange between Denver and Jayne: D– “And yet he’s the poisonous fog that rolls in and kills everyone without rhyme, reason, or remorse.” J– “You’re confusing evil with crazy.” “D– “I know crazy. Cops are crazy.” J–“You’re right. Cops are crazy. I play Tuesday-night hearts with cops. I eat with cops. I bowl with cops. I fuck cops. We may be crazy, but we’re not alone. But Trick is. His crazy is alone and methodical. He can join a Nazi group on Facebook, even build his rep in the feeds, but not as himself. No, the only ones he shows himself to are those hunting him.” Okay, one more random quote: “Enjoy the fun in this piece of shit.”
Because the film has no logic, reason, or much in the way of themes (it tries to convey something about how people blindly follow social media), it’s pretty unpredictable. Most of the characters are still somehow quite likable. I love that the main protagonists are a Black detective, a tough female sheriff, a Latina woman, and a Black woman. Also, Jayne’s second-in-command is played by Dani Shay, a nonbinary actor. Deputy Green is a small but memorable role.
I recommend Trick wholeheartedly; gawk at the wondrous diversity coupled with questionable writing!
