A true one off: what promises to be the only Irish cinema outing for Michael Dougherty’s long-delayed directorial debut, an intertwining anthology of Halloween-related terrible tales – think John Carpenter’s Magnolia. A suburban couple (Tahmoh Penikett and Leslie Bibb) break Halloween tradition at their peril; a high-school headmaster (the great Dylan Baker) teaches naughty kids a lesson they won’t forget; True Blood’s Anna Paquin looses her innocence (yet again) in a memorable fashion; the legend of a missing school bus returns to haunt a gang of local kids and, best of all, curmudgeonly killjoy Brian Cox (and we do love Brian Cox) tackles a murderous Halloween imp. Let’s cut to the chase: this is a Horrorthon must-see, and an absolute delight. Why the suits at Warner Brothers, who produced the film, decided to shelve Trick ‘R Treat remains a mystery; we can only thank them for belatedly delivering an instant cult classic and arguably the finest cinematic ode to All Hallow’s Eve since Michael Myers escaped from Smith’s Grove sanitarium.