Trick 'r Treat Spin-Off Unearths Sam's Shockingly Ancient Origin
Among horror fans, Trick 'r Treat's Sam has become a cult favorite character, but most fans don't know that he has a shockingly ancient origin. Michael Dougherty's horror anthology movie follows four different stories spanning a single night as different members of the community break the rules of the holiday. The one common element that each story has is Sam, an innocent looking trick-or-treater in a potato sack mask and orange outfit that observes the horrors of each story and even causes some mayhem of his own. He's become an iconic horror character over the years, but don't let his appearance be deceiving: he's actually much older than he looks.
Trick 'r Treat: Days of the Dead is a spin-off horror comic to Trick 'r Treat penned by Michael Dougherty, Todd Casey, Zach Shields and Marc Andreyko with art by Fiona Staples, Stephen Byrne, Stuart Sayger and Zid. Much like the film, it's an anthology that follows four sets of characters on Halloween... but with a major difference. Days of the Dead spans multiple time periods with the oldest being set in Ireland during the 17th century and the latest being sometime in the 20th century. This new direction for the series gives readers a chance to experience Halloween over multiple centuries, and it also gives a pretty surprising origin to Sam himself.
In the anthology's second story, "Corn Maiden," readers are taken back to 1853 and follow Sarah Bledsoe as she and her father travel west to expand a railroad. Along the way, they come across a tribe of Indigenous people. There, Sarah meets P'Wani after traveling into a cornfield and getting lost. The two girls quickly become friends and P'Wani talks to Sarah about her culture. As a gift, she gives her a doll, but fans of Trick 'r Treat will easily see that it's actually Sam. As P'Wani tells Sarah that "he is very old, and very powerful," it's confirmed that Sam isn't just any Trick-or-Treating demon. The fact that he's considered ancient in the 1850s gives off clues that Sam has been around for a very long time.
On top of this, the story that precedes "Corn Maiden" takes it even further. "Seed" takes place in Ireland in 1640 where an unnamed woman is accused of witchcraft. As she's burned at the stake with the man she loves, she looks into the woods around her, and sees Sam peering at her as the flames engulf them. She takes it as a sign that their death "is only the beginning of our journey... together." To her, Trick 'r Treat's Sam is a spirit that will guide them to happiness in the face of death. Sam's roots go back long enough for people to view him as both an omen and a blessing. He's a character that could go all the way back to the dawn of humanity itself.
Days of the Dead certainly did more than just provide a new set of stories for fans of the film. By taking place in certain time periods, there's also some surprisingly subtle lore thrown in that gives fans more depth into a story they love, and Sam's origin proves that. Taking a character that looks like an evil Trick-or-Treater and making him a spirit that was vaguely hinted at in the film but fleshed out more in the comic makes him an even better character than before. Sam's ancient roots make this Trick 'r Treat spin-off a necessity for fans of the film because it not only scratches the itch of more from this universe, but it also redefines its central ghoul as something older and more epic than the movie reveals.