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09/24/2026

Cult Classic: Trick or Treat Movie Screening with Marc Price. September 21, 2026

Cult Classic: Trick or Treat Movie Screening with Marc Price. September 21, 2026
It's the most wonderful time of the year - spooky Halloween season!
To kick off the festivities, McMenamins Mission Theater featured a screening of the 1986 cult classic Trick or Treat — a music, horror, dark comedy, supernatural movie. Not to be confused with the 2007 Trick 'r Treat movie release.

This '80s teen movie is the one of many familiar stories of a misfit kid, Eddie Weinbauer, aka “Ragman,” a metalhead, who gets bullied in high school by the popular preppy kids. Ragman eventually gets his revenge with a little supernatural help from his idol, recently deceased heavy metal musician Sammi Curr, who begins communicating with Eddie through his new record after returning from the dead.
(Has anyone tried playing their Ozzy records backwards in the past year?)

As the heavy metal urban legend goes, in the 1980s, if you played your metal records backwards, you could supposedly hear satanic messages. Some bands, like The Beatles and Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), experimented with backmasking and hidden messages, sometimes just to play around with the controversy surrounding rock and heavy metal.

Misinformation and fear surrounding these music genres spread, eventually leading to the formation of the PMRC, the Parents Music Resource Center. The PMRC tried to brainwash parents into thinking that certain types of music were evil and satanic.
The PMRC pressured the music industry to adopt warning labels, and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) eventually implemented the familiar “Parental Advisory” label. This "warning label" actually made it easier to find the most offensive albums that metalheads really wanted to listen to even more! The joke's on you PMRC!

A real treat before the movie screening was having guest star, actor/comedian Marc Price make an appearance. Marc played the lead, misfit, Eddie Weinbauer, aka “Ragman.”
Marc is best known as the awkward, lovable neighbor Irwin “Skippy” Handelman on the sitcom Family Ties, which still lives on in reruns. The show was very popular in the 80s.
Marc had us laughing with his stand-up comedy before the movie. He then watched the screening with us and added his own commentary along the way.
Who would have guessed that Skippy was such a metalhead? I am sure that Alex P. Keaton would not approve!
Marc's father was Borscht Belt comedian Al Bernie. Marc started performing stand-up with his dad when he was only 9 years old. Marc has also built an impressive career behind the scenes, working as a writer and producer on shows including National Lampoon’s Funny Money, Star Dates, Midnight Money Madness, and Green Collar Comedy Show.

The actor Tony Fields, who played the musician Sammi Curr, was also a talented dancer on the music and dance show Solid Gold, as well as in Michael Jackson's music videos “Beat It” and “Thriller.”
In the movie, you can see Tony putting his dancing skills to use during his concert performance.
Unfortunately, Tony passed away in 1995 at the age of 36.

Trick or Treat is one of those cult classics that most metalheads love due to the multiple metal bands who are represented throughout the movie with various band posters, T-shirts, and music.
The soundtrack is classic heavy metal at its finest. Fastway is the band behind Sammi Curr. Their vocalist, Dave King, is now in the band Flogging Molly — switching from heavy metal to Celtic punk, Irish folk music.
There are also some great special appearances by the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy ad-libbed his scene and plays an evangelical preacher who wants to ban heavy metal music, how ironic. Ozzy also makes an appearance at the end of the credits.
And Gene Simmons plays heavy metal DJ, "Nuke".
Which is pretty f***ing metal!
Rhet Topham, who wrote the story, and director Charles Martin Smith did a phenomenal job creating this movie.
It's always been special to see heavy metal being represented in movies.
Heavy metal, horror, and Halloween go hand in hand. It's the best season of the year!

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