- Town miser Gideon Hackles spends Halloween hiding IOU's in his house, which he then rigs as haunted and invites local kids to search for the IOU's so he can scare them. This year, he gets his comeuppance.
- The lonely and stingy Gideon Hackles is a rich man in town where most residents owe money to him. He does not spend any money with him despite his wealthiness. In the Halloween night, he hides IOUs in his house and invites the kids of his debtors to search for them. While the children are looking for the IOUs, he scares them. But this night, he has a surprising visitor.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Tales from the Darkside (TV series 19841988)
Trick or Treat (Pilot) (#1.0)
Gideon Hackles (Barnard Hughes) is a miser, the wealthiest person in the valley. He's a cruel old man whose favourite season of the year is Halloween. He's been lending money to the inhabitants of the valley for 67 years, since he earned his first penny when he was much younger. He always wants to colect money, and never spend it. For example, he even makes his guests pay for the coffees. He shows them all the IOU he has been collecting through the years.
Hackles loves Halloween so much, that he offers an opportunity to get rid of their debts to those indebted to him who have young children: every year, children can go trick or treating to his home, enter it and look for the yellowy IOU's of their parents. If a child is so corageous as to get the IOU, the father of that child will be released from their dues as soon as they destroy the papers. Only children can get into Hackles' home, decorated accordingly. He hides the IOU's, but any intelligent person who doesn't fall for Hackles' tricks can find them.
That night, the first child is Bessie (Eevin Hartsough). Mr Hackles hides in a room from where he can watch he tries to enter his home, control all the dummies and elements he's created to scare the children away, and even open and close the front door of his home at his will. Bessie enters the home, while her mother (Nancy Ellen Sutherland) waits outside, twisting her hands in agony. There is an owl inside, and mannequins with distorted faces, and Bessies leaves the home terrified. Her mother hugs her and they leave, while Mr Hackles looks at them smiling.
Timothy "Timmy" Muldoon (Patrick Wilcox) is the second child. His father, Victor, (Eddie Jones) has been teaching him that "spirits do not exist" so that young Timmy can enter the home and find the IOU's. Timmy is scared inside, because of the noises, open windows, the owl and the crow, but when he is about to leave through the front door he thinks about it again, slams the door shut and repeating the mantra "spirits don't exist", enters the home again. He finds some of the IOU's hidden in a hole in the wall on one of the rooms, but Mr Hackles shows him the huge face of a monster, and Timmy can't resist it anymore, and he leaves in panick. His father hugs him as well, sensing that his son has been really close to getting it.
There are two more children (Jessica Rene Carroll & Joshoua Miller) who try to get the pieces of paper, and then there is another boy, the child of a farmer, Atticus Kimble (Joe Ponazecki) whose first year has been terrible because of the bad harvest. He's used his farm as colateral, so unless he pays his debts with Hackles, he will lose his farm. However, this father is more sensible. He rejects to let his son Billy (Knowl Johnson) try to get his IOU's, as he things that Hackles wouldn't offer a way of redeeming the debts so easily. However, the son really wants to try. Hackles says that he never lies, and points to the Muldoon father as an example of a father who forces his child to get into the Halloween game of Hackles.
Another person appears at Hackles' front door. He doesn't want to open the door, as the opportunity is only for children, not for adults. This adult is dressed up really convincingly as a Witch (Frances Chaney). However, when Mr Hackles goes to shoo her away, the witch ignores him and levitates. He gets scared and tries to hide within his home, but the devil (Ed French) traps him in hell.
Atticus and Sarah (Brenda Currin) agree not to let Billy go to the Hackles home. Notwithstanding that, Billy leaves in the night and goes to the Hackles', dressed in his farmer everyday clothes. When he arrives, he tries to be courageous.
This time things go different: it's the witch who opens up the door. Billy doesn't even have to enter the home. The witch levitates again and many IOU's, wads of money, coins and jewel are travelling by the air with her. As she leaves in the full moon, she throws sackets full of money onto Billy's hands.
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