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The No. 23 spot was a last-minute change because I only recently saw “Trick ‘r Treat.” It’s not only perfect for this list, but a perfect Halloween movie. Not since John Carpenter’s “Halloween” has a movie centered around my favorite holiday worked.

“Trick ‘r Treat” tells four different horror stories, but what sets it apart from, say, “Creepshow” is that they’re all intertwined. Director Michael Dougherty used some fantastic flash back/flash forward tricks to achieve this. It’s cool to see a character you’ve already been introduced to walk by during another’s story (which happened earlier in the evening).

We meet a school principal who is a secret serial killer, a group of tweens who pull a prank that goes too far, a group of horny (or is it hungry) college girls (including “True Blood’s” Anna Paquin) on the prowl (literally) for men, and a hermit with a secret past who is finally facing karma. There’s a little bonus of a story, too. A fifth story if you will. A woman who hates Halloween blows out the jack-o-lantern before the evening is over and must face the consequences.

Since this just came out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week, I’ll refrain from any real spoilers, but I will say the movie is very smart and scary. We’re introduced to a new monster that will undoubtedly be ruined by many sequels.

“Trick ‘r Treat” 2009

Best Scene (spoiler alert): There’s an amazing scene involving Paquin and her friends. They’re around a campfire and Marilyn Manson’s version of “Sweet Dreams” starts playing and we find out the girls aren’t just innocent college co-eds. There’s a transformation that is worthy even of “An American Werewolf in London” fans. See clip after jump.

Did you know? The film was scheduled to get a theatrical release in 2007 but was tabled. It again happened in 2008. It was finally released straight to DVD, which was clearly a huge mistake. The movie has a 100 percent fresh rating on rottentomatoes.com and has been very well received by fans. The studios should really be kicking themselves.

SPOILER CLIP

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See the rest of the 31 Great Horror Movies.

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