Nearly two decades after Trick ’r Treat introduced horror fans to Sam, the embodiment and enforcer of Halloween’s traditions has become the holiday’s most recognizable icon. Now, writer and director Michael Dougherty returns to Sam’s universe with Trick ’r Treat: Witching Hours, the franchise’s first graphic novel in more than a decade. Its four new stories reunite Dougherty with longtime collaborators and take Sam into unexpected territory, including space.
We spoke with Dougherty about why the timing was right to revisit the franchise, the fans who have kept Trick ’r Treat alive, its enduring legacy, and the childhood memories that inspired his lifelong love of Halloween. We also discussed assembling the impressive creative team behind Witching Hours.
Trick ’r Treat: Witching Hours, published by Legendary Comics, is available on October 13.
HGL: This is the first time you’re revisiting Sam in a graphic novel in years. Why is now the right time to return to that universe?
Michael Dougherty: That’s a really good question. It has simply been so long since we added new stories. It’s hard to believe, but I think it has been 11 years since we published Days of the Dead, which was the previous graphic novel. Time really flies.
The Legendary Comics division brought up the idea, and I thought, “Absolutely.” If anything, I feel like we should have been cranking out more of these books every two or three years instead of every 10. Who knows? Maybe this will start that tradition.
HGL: I’m sure a lot of fans would appreciate that. It really is an enduring franchise, and it’s all because of one film.
Michael Dougherty: I would say it’s technically two films, because Sam was born in an animated short film called Season’s Greetings, which I made when I was a film student. That predates Trick ’r Treat by about a decade, and this year, funny enough, is its 30th anniversary. The timing of the graphic novel has nothing to do with that; it’s just a coincidence.
Sam was very much a passion project from the beginning. I drew that short film by hand over the course of nine months, back before computers entered the filmmaking scene. To me, it started with two films, and Trick ’r Treat, which came a decade later, was the natural evolution.
HGL: Since the beginning, especially since the feature-length film, how has your perspective on the franchise and on Sam changed?
Michael Dougherty: It has obviously evolved and grown over the years in really great ways. It happened very organically, and a lot of it was fan-driven. What I’ve enjoyed about watching Sam evolve is how much the fans have supported him from the very beginning.
I had a very bumpy road to even getting distribution. There was definitely a moment when we didn’t know if Trick ’r Treat would ever see the light of day. Back when it was made, there weren’t many horror comedies. I would say the genre wasn’t in a great place because everything tended to be the same. It was very dark. It was the torture-porn era, and studios were very risk-averse.
Then along came a horror-comedy anthology. I knew the horror genre was very cyclical, and we were stuck in Scream sequels, Japanese horror remakes, Scream knockoffs, and torture porn. I thought, horror-comedy anthologies are obviously going to come back around at some point, so why not get ahead of the curve?
RELATED: Sabrina the Teenage Witch Writer Corinna Bechko Talks Magic, Mischief & Salem (Exclusive)
Legendary always fully backed it. I’ll give them credit there — they never lost faith in it. But the regime that existed at Warner Bros. at the time got cold feet. What really kept the movie alive was the fandom. We took it to film festivals, where it grew and snowballed organically. These were the early days of social media, when it was still Facebook and the beginning of Twitter. Because of that organic fan growth, the movie took on a life of its own.
It still does all these years later. I love that it’s a series that simply isn’t going to die. It amazes me every year how much Sam rises from the pumpkin patch. I run into him in places I never expected. Neighbors have him as decorations on their front porches or hanging from trees. Kids show up on Halloween night dressed as Sam, and they aren’t doing it because I’m their neighbor. They don’t know who I am. I’m fairly anonymous in my neighborhood.
Last year, I was in New York for Halloween and went to the parade. There were about three Sams walking around.
HGL: I’m surprised there were only three! For Trick ‘r Treat: Witching Hours, you collaborated with an impressive team, including longtime collaborators. How did it come together, and what did each person bring to the project?
Michael Dougherty: It was really fun because I drew from a group of collaborators I’ve known for a long time. Breehn Burns was one of my main concept artists on the first film. We go so far back that we worked on Nickelodeon projects together in the late ’90s and early aughts. He has always been a trusted creative collaborator.
This time, I brought him in not just as an artist but also as a writer. We wrote the script for “Halloween Country” together. Then he took the ball and ran with it, doing the artwork as well. He’s one of the most amazing visual artists I’ve ever seen.
For two of the other stories, I brought in my Krampus co-writers, Todd Casey and Zach Shields, who I’ve known for 10 to 15 years. That was really fun because writing with them is more like hanging out. I guess the closest equivalent would be starting a band in the garage. We just have a great time.
RELATED: 5 Key First Appearances in Horror Comics: Patrick Bateman, Michael Myers & More
For “Harvest Moons,” I teamed up with my assistant, Curtis Waugh, who I learned over the years we’ve worked side by side is also a very talented writer. That one happened organically. It almost started as a joke. I said something to the effect of, “The last thing we want to do is send Sam into space like Jason, Pinhead, or Leprechaun.”
Then there was a long pause, and I thought, “Wait a second. Is that so completely absurd?” I also realized, when else am I going to get the opportunity to send Sam into space? The chances of that happening in a movie are slim to none because of budget constraints. We started riffing and came up with a story that strangely makes sense of how and why Sam would end up on an interstellar spacecraft headed toward a human colony.
HGL: As someone who recently bought a physical copy of Amityville in Space, I fully support every horror franchise going to space.
Michael Dougherty: I haven’t heard of that. Are you serious?
HGL: Yes! From Mark Polonia, an awesome SOV director.
Michael Dougherty: That’s amazing. I’ll look it up; Amityville in Space definitely got my attention.
HGL: You’ve called Trick ’r Treat a passion project. What has the franchise and Sam brought to your life, both professionally and personally, that makes it such a labor of love for you?
Michael Dougherty: That’s a great question. He embodies so much of what I love about the holiday itself. I’ve been fascinated with Halloween since I was a very little kid. I have clear memories of carving my first pumpkin — my first jack-o’-lantern — with my dad, and of my first time going trick-or-treating. They’re blurry memories, but they’re there. I remember asking my parents what Halloween was. I must have been three at the time, but I remember those moments.
Part of it may be because my birthday is only three days beforehand, on October 28. That stretch from the 28th to the 31st left a mark. Halloween and my birthday combined into “Birthdayween” for me. A lot of my birthday parties growing up either merged with trick-or-treating or featured a jack-o’-lantern birthday cake.
Then I went down the rabbit hole and learned about the true origins of Halloween. It isn’t just another shallow, consumerist holiday; it has these strangely ancient, mystical roots and superstitions. That made it even cooler.
When I created Sam, he was meant to embody everything I had learned. I realized there was an opportunity to create a singular mascot for the holiday that didn’t exist yet.
RELATED: Crystal Lake’s Linda Cardellini Explains How She Made Pamela Voorhees Her Own
Unlike Christmas, which has Santa Claus, Easter, which has the Easter Bunny, or St. Patrick’s Day, which has leprechauns, Halloween had a menagerie of monsters — vampires, ghosts, and so forth. When I was a film student, I thought, I could try to create this mascot. Why don’t I doodle him? Why don’t I make a student film about him? I’ll call him Sam.
I recently found my original syllabus from film school, where I had to outline my intentions for the project. Right there on the second line, it says, “My intention is to capture the spirit of Halloween.”
To then have the character genuinely embraced over 30 years — to the point that there are tattoos, flags, Halloween Horror Nights, the movie, and the comic book — is amazing. It’s so difficult to create something that makes an impression in today’s culture. We have so much entertainment that is ephemeral. It comes out, maybe generates buzz for a couple of weeks, and then it’s gone. Especially in the streaming era, things come and go.
To have something that persists and that people keep returning to means a lot. Sam has guided my life and career in ways I never thought possible. He introduced me to collaborators whom I cherish to this day and, obviously, opened doors for me. Every year, Halloween becomes something I look forward to more and more because of Sam.
HGL: I love that. Finally, I know the book has just been released, but I have to ask: what’s next for Sam?
Michael Dougherty: I will say, Sam isn’t going anywhere. Not only is there more life in the little guy, but we’ll be seeing more of him in various forms very soon. I know that sounds cryptic. But I think he has never been stronger, and we’ll see the results of that soon.
Support independent genre journalism. Horror Geek Life is powered by passionate writers, editors, and fans. If you enjoyed this article, you can help us keep the lights on by buying us a coffee.
As an Amazon Associate, Horror Geek Life earns from qualifying purchases. Some links may be paid affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
