When two teenage boys destroy a man’s meticulous pumpkin display, he decides to play the long game and get his revenge in the most seasonal way imaginable.

Creative team

Co-writers/directors/producers: Anna Maguire, Stuart Spears

Filmmaker’s statement

Stuart and I met working at a bookstore in London, England and quickly bonded over our Canadian-ness. As the summer months turned to autumn, we began to bemoan the lack of enthusiasm around Halloween – our favourite North American-endorsed festival.

As I grew up in London, I was used to this rather lacklustre expression of teenagers dressing up in scream masks and trainers and jeans and demanding candy, whereas I was making a papier mâché head to dress up as the headless horseman and the like (and teased mercilessly!)

Stuart was less indifferent to this and so, with our shared love and knowledge of Tales From the Crypt, The Warriors, pumpkin carving and ’90s low-fi horror (Stuart’s knowledge was much more advanced than mine in this respect!), we decided to embark on a joint venture celebrating what we felt was a quintessential part of Halloween and our childhoods – trick or treating.

About Anna Maguire

Anna Maguire is a Canadian/British filmmaker and actress.

Her directorial debut Don’t Forget Your Mittens, a fantastical portrait of the trials and tribulations of growing up, premiered at the London Short Film Festival in 2014, and since then her work has been recognised at festivals around the world.

She was nominated as best director under the age of 25 at the 2014 Underwire Film Festival for The King and Queen of Halloween, which went on to win best film at the Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival. She was long-listed for the 2015 BAFTAs with her short film How (Not) To Rob a Train.

Her most recent short, She Would Move the Tree Rather More to the Middle, was commissioned as part of the Milan Festival of Letters 2014 and is her first film shot in Canada.

She has completed the Actor’s Conservatory at the Canadian Film Centre.

About Stuart Spears

Stuart was born and raised in Halifax, Canada and moved to London to study film at London Film School.

He has written and directed four shorts. He lives in London.