• Sam from Trick or treat has gained immense popularity as a Halloween mascot and an iconic character comparable to Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees.
  • Director Michael Dougherty hints that Sam may be immortal, suggesting that he is the unstoppable force of Halloween who cannot die.
  • Trick or Treat 2 is in development and will explore new creepy stories, giving Sam a worthy adversary and potentially testing the limits of his immortality.

In pop culture terms, Sam from Trick or Treat immortal among Halloween mascots. The holiday horror film’s popularity has only grown since its release on home media in 2009, becoming a staple film to celebrate the spooky season, with Sam himself becoming an icon and a popular costume choice, mentioned in the same breath as Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. However, in the film’s story, it is entirely possible that the burlap-wearing joker actually cannot die. During the question and answer session after the film screening Trick or Treat for the horror series Scary Perry, director Michael Dougherty teased on Collider Perry Nemiroff that Sam could become the unstoppable force of Halloween.

Dougherty is quite cautious when it comes to revealing anything about Sam. He told Nemiroff that the knowledge of the demon really only existed in his head, deciding to let everyone else speculate on the secrets that lay beneath his burlap and pajamas. However, when asked if he could die, the director replied that in Sam’s case he was “leaning towards immortality”. This would fit with Dougherty’s description of him as a sort of folkloric creature. IN Trick or Treathe seems nearly unkillable, considering he survived being blown to pieces by multiple shots from Mr. Krieg’s shotgun (Brian Cox) without a single scratch. It seems like nothing can stop this good boy from keeping Halloween traditions alive. Moreover, Dougherty recalled a short film about Sam that he created for Fearnet, which explains how he is reborn every year before Halloween and Samhain:

“Yeah, because if he dies – actually, I want to tell you one thing: I like to think so – because we made a short film that kind of establishes that. Fearnet used to play the film for 24 hours on Halloween, so they commissioned me to create a series of short films to help promote it. And here is one short film that we showed, we called it Nov. 1, and it showed the aftermath of a Halloween party. You walk out into the backyard, see decorations, costumes everywhere, and then see Sam’s dead body. You see this withered, withered corpse of whoever Sam was in his pajamas, and you see pumpkin seeds and guts lying in the dirt, and then you see one seed sort of chuckle and embed itself in the dirt. So, in my opinion, it dies every November 1st, but with the help of some others certain seeds or guts are preserved, and then it grows again every October.”

Trick or Treat 2 will resurrect Sam for another Halloween

Sam in the movie Trick or Treat
Image via Legendary

We might finally get more answers about who Sam is and what he’s capable of. Trick or Treat 2. According to Dougherty, after years of languishing in development hell, the anthology sequel is closer than ever to emerging from the ground. In the same Q&A, he revealed that he had a “really great script” ready with the help of his colleagues. Krampus scribes Todd Casey And Zach Shields. Not only that, but it would finally give Sam a worthy opponent to rival Cox’s grumpy, Halloween-hating curmudgeon, and perhaps test the limits of the demon’s immortality. Above all, the sequel is a chance to discover new spooky stories in a different city filled with monsters, while the little pumpkin boy continues to bring joy to everyone’s celebration with lots of candy, costumes, and decorations.

Trick or Treat 2 There’s still a long way to go before it’s released, but you can always watch the original, in which Cox participates Anna Paquin, Dylan Baker, Leslie BibbAnd Rochelle Aytesthis Halloween, streaming on Max in the US.

Watch on Max

You can watch Nemiroff’s full conversation with Dougherty below.

Trick or Treat

In a small town on Halloween night, those who break the rules of the holiday do so at their own peril and risk.

Date of issue
December 9, 2007

Director
Michael Dougherty

Throw
Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, Dylan Baker, Rochelle Aytes

Rating
R

Main genre
Horror