Alright been wanting to do a couple proposals for a but had to little free time but here is one of them, this one is honestly one of the better horror films in recent years in my opinion and personally disagree a lot with the professional critics on it. Heads up to those who don't want spoilers as this will spoil the twist ending to cover everything. Given my favorite holiday is coming up, the genre and the theme of the film it seems like the perfect time for him to be proposed.
What is the Story
Trick is a 2019 horror movie that seemingly plays with the traditional slasher formula as after a high school student goes on a rampage out of nowhere, he is seriously wounded but body is never found. This young man soon becomes something of an urban legend/boogeyman as people claim to see him all over around Halloween, each time going on another killing spree for four years in a row by the time of the ending.
Who is Patrick "Trick" Weaver?
Patrick "Trick" Weaver is a teenager that wanted nothing more than to carve a twisted legacy and to hurt as many as possible, on Halloween he's shown wearing a two-sided pumpkin mask and playing a "spin the bottle" game with a knife, when it lands on another boy the group mildly tease him only for him to then stab the boy and kill four other teens only stopping when impaled by a fire poker to the stomach. This wound leads to him being apprehended and sent to the hospital along with a few that were hurt and the others who are being evaluated, upon the doctors removing the mask they find that Trick's face is covered in face paint, even now that he's handcuffed to the bed, he is refusing to talk to Detective Denver who tries ask why he did this. Almost immediately Trick seemingly picks the lock to his handcuffs and uses them to slit one officer's throat and goes on yet another killing spree throughout the hospital until eventually he is shot several times by Detective Denver until he falls out a window. When they go to look at the body it's mysteriously gone, while the other officers make it clear they think he is dead given everything, Detective Denver refuses to believe that's the case and wants to find out why the boy killed so many. As they investigate Trick's past, they find that no one has ever meet his family, he had no known pictures of his face and that his home address was to a dock. Soon after this the mask and knife have mysteriously vanished.
For the next couple years, we see footage on how people regularly claim to see Trick throughout New York near Halloween, each time a new mask and spiral design when not masked leading to slaughters, while most the officers seem to think it's just copycats and the original is dead only for Denver to keep reminding them that they never found Trick's body. When they confirm the killing weapon was the original knife it causes people to wonder a little more on if it is indeed the original. In truth Trick was crippled due to the severity of his injuries but has planned in advance in case of this so that he had followers act in his place who would dress like him, these followers had varied in ages and were of a variety of occupations. As the film progresses Trick has one follower kill two officers at a bar, personally manipulated two other officers to go into a trap he rigged with explosives in a shipping container and has two followers start killing some at a haunted maze in identical costumes. At first Denver and another officer suspect he's targeting a jock who claimed to of been the one to impaled Trick the first massacre only for the jock to point out that he only claimed that to be seen as a hero, in truth it was a young woman named Cheryl Winston that wounded Trick years ago. Denver and the officers soon find that Cheryl is working at a hospital where only for her to be held captive, when Denver and another officer arrive, they shoot one of the followers but seemingly to no effect. Denver is forced to tackle the follower out of a window onto a car which fatally wounds the killer. As Denver looks around, he sees several people dressed as Trick appear only for a man in a wheelchair to tell them to hide this killer's body, as they all remove their masks Denver realized one was the doctor who treated the real Trick, another was a fellow officer and the man in the wheelchair was the real Trick. Denver questions why they did this only for Trick to state he wanted to leave a legacy of fear and that what they did was a "gift" for everyone, the others seem to admit they enjoy that Trick had become a symbol for all of them to enjoy their sadistic impulses.
The group proceed to each stab Denver once to where he passes out before the officer tells them to leave as they believe is beyond saving. Trick is soon seen by Cheryl who notices a scar on his stomach so follows him, he quickly throws away the original mask and enters security to delete all the footage of the parking garage they stabbed Denver in. As Trick does so he sees Cheryl who is locked out, seeing it as a chance for revenge for making it where he can no longer walk thus actively kill as much, he opens the door trying to kill her. After a short struggle Cheryl was able to fatally wound him with his own knife, as he dies, he only can claim she's no better than him by claiming she's "one of us". While the original is dead his legacy lives on as his followers goes to recruit more people like them, the only side is the follower who was an officer is dead after he is found out and Denver survived with the intent of hunting them down with his partner and Cheryl who want to finally end the madness.
Heinous Standard
He easily sets it as not only is he the one we personally see kill the most people, he also is the one who set all the events into place plus it's clear he was the one calling the shots until he is killed. Even for horror he stands out as the first scenes he kills five people himself while wounding some others, gets a few more kills in the hospital immediately after and then arranged all the other kills along with killing at least one officer through a bomb. Even the stabbing of Denver is pretty bad as he makes it slow and essentially tells him "I wanted to be a real-life boogeyman, now I am one", Denver barely survives and realistically probably wouldn't had one of his followers not been killed.
Excuses and/or migrating issues?
None at all. They never give much of a backstory only ever describing him as an extremely intelligent young man that could make the teachers feel like idiots and was known to play tricks people to the point most knew him by his nickname. Detective Denver assumed he might have been bullied but this was quickly pointed out not to be the case as he was able to get along with most people. Trick himself never even tries to justify his actions, only saying the fear he is causing is a "gift" and that he wanted to create a legacy for himself built on fear as a seemingly immortal boogeyman that will never be forgotten. In short, he created a borderline cult of sadists who want to spread fear to stroke his own ego and ensure a twisted legacy for himself. It is also clear he doesn't care for anyone in the group as while he does help erase the footage of all of them in the hospital when one died, he just said causally they needed to get rid of the body so that "Trick" would appear immortal/invincible. In terms of personality as you can tell he has one. Despite not having much in terms of memorable lines and rarely talking he makes it clear he's got a goal and is out to stroke his ego.
Verdict
I think he's an easy keeper.