Popular Reviews of Treat

Treat is a designed by incompetent committee mess. It has nothing coherent to say about parenthood, bullying, the insularity of small towns, or being a sacrificed scape goat, all half baked ideas that are brought up and then never explored fully. It feints toward being like Carrie but then it doesn't. The horror plays at a level that feels almost child friendly. This needed to be angrier, nastier, and have the whole town involved. Emblematic of the incoherence of the whole effort is the repeated use of "I Found" by Amber Run, where the lyrics don't at all relate to anything in the audio drama.

This podcast blueballed me out of catharsis. I was left feeling so emotionally constipated I went out of my way to make an account here to leave a rant - I mean, review. The production budget is high, with good voice actors and professional sound design - but the plot is awful and all the characters suck (except Robbie). I'm annoyed that it was advertised on a podcast that I actually like. [Spoilers]Everyone is unnecessarily cruel to the main character, Allie, and this never gets resolved. She never learns to stand up for herself. It is almost comical how much she gets kicked when she's down, by everyone, including family members. The only person she exerts power over is her little brother Robbie, by talking over him and interrupting every time he has a good idea. The phrase "For once in your life, Robbie, just do what I say" is repeated at least 3 times throughout, and each time he does what she says. He tells her to stand up to her bullies and punch them in the face so they'll finally leave her alone -- "shut up Robbie". He warns her that her boyfriend who tried to get into her pants by buying her McDonald's and wine sucks - "shut up Robbie". He asks to call their absent dad since she's too scared to - "No Robbie I'm calling my boyfriend first and I'll do it later". "But he's my dad too--" "NO, shut up Robbie!" She calls and learns that her dad sold both their souls in exchange for his own escape - "Sorry Robbie he didn't pick up." He asks to call again -- "Can't Robbie, I lost the phone". He's supposedly the one person in her life who doesn't treat her like dirt and she can't be bothered to return the favor (she claims she does, in a voiceover, but it is NOT shown at all). It's like they wrote him to be an annoying little brother archetype, except they ended up making him more competent and sympathetic than the main character.This is a coming-of-age journey where the main character takes her bullies with her in the backseat and the whole time they're bitching at her and telling her to kill herself. This is not even an exaggeration. You've got her main bully and ex-bff, Shannon, who makes a post on social media making fun of Allie's "dead" dad (he isn't dead, he just abandoned his family -- idk which is worse to make fun of) and subsequent "daddy issues". This is on the morning after Allie's mother got brainwashed by a supernatural evil and tried to kill both her children with a kitchen knife. At first, you think Shannon is going to get some kind of karmic retribution because Allie sees the supernatural evil heading to her house (and spreading across town). She even gets a brief moment of joy about this -- but then she meets up with her boyfriend, and Shannon is his +1. The social media post is not mentioned and he tells Allie to be nice to Shannon because her mom just tried to kill her. Allie is so glad to have such a nice, caring boyfriend, but doesn't know why it hurts to see him being nice to Shannon -- uhhh, I dunno, maybe it has to do with her airing out your fatherly trauma in a public forum that the whole school can see? Immediately after enduring motherly trauma?She aches to have a single person she can count on completely. Robbie doesn't count, because he depends on her and I guess there's no such thing as mutual reliance. She finally calls her dad and to tell him the hugest understatement in the world that "Things are really bad here...please come get us." She makes it sound like her mom yelled at her, instead of tried to kill her with a knife. Luckily, he understands exactly what's going on and gives her some plot exposition (but, no, he's not gonna come back for them). Bad Guy used to be an actual Jesus, raising babies from the dead and putting doctors out of business. This made the town look bad, somehow, so they ostracized him and tried getting him to leave by setting his house on fire. Despite this, they continued letting him drive the school bus (???? WHY) and he took off with everyone's children and turned them into Jack-O-Lanterns. Now, every 10 years, he asks for one child to be sacrificed to his pumpkin patch. In return, the town is blessed with perfect health, and perfect lives. It's like Omelas, except the blood sacrifice is less frequent, and as a bonus, he only ever takes the kids who are already outcasts. This year it was Robbie. But wait... then why is he also after Allie? Well, turns out dad was only able to leave safely because he sold BOTH his childrens' souls in return. Oh. Ok, well if she can't count on dad she can at least count on her nice, caring boyfriend, right?To no one's surprise, it turns out her boyfriend is cheating on her with Shannon. She finds out while face to face with the Big Bad, the Piper. It's implied it was a spur of the moment thing due to shared trauma bonding, but there are lots of hints of it beforehand - the way he "protects" his girlfriend from her by saying "Hey, ease up Shannon" in the most limp fish tone imaginable, hearing Shannon laugh after their Halloween date (as if she was nearby and watching - he had planned to get more "intimate" with Allie but was thwarted by the presence of her little brother - implying that the both of them plotted to get her naked just to torment her further), and her own little brother warning her that he's a jerk. Allie is infuriated, but not nearly enough. Her boyfriend, the one guy who was supposed to love her and be on her side after being betrayed by her own father, held hands with her worst enemy RIGHT BEHIND her WHILE she was confronting the monster who wanted to kill everyone? Who does that?! WHILE she's face-to-face with a monologuing monster??? You're just going to hold hands not even 3 feet away???? She's mad, the listener is shocked at the audacity and it seems like something pivotal is going to happen... but then Robbie pulls up with the car and all of them get in. All three. She's mad, but not enough to set some goddamn boundaries.Dad told her the Bad Guy's weak spot (burn the pumpkin patch!) so Allie tells Robbie to drive there. Despite never discussing her dad's phone call with anyone else (remember, she told Robbie he never picked up), her (ex)-boyfriend and Shannon seem to know exactly what he said in it, and they're Team Piper.Shannon calls Allie a "self-righteous bitch" WHILE in the back seat. Robbie tries to stick up for his sister by saying he's sick of how Shannon treats her and threatening to leave Shannon's skank ass behind. Of course, Allie can't stand up to anyone except her little brother so this is when she tells everyone in the car to "Shut up! Just shut up!" Her ex says burning the patch is a bad idea because it could "start a forest fire" (YES, his parents also tried to kill him and YES, this is what he is concerned about). He tells her to just do what the monster says and sacrifice herself, because if it's not her, it's going to be himself, and Shannon (and everyone else). This is supposed to convince her, somehow, as if she hadn't just been betrayed by the both of them (and everyone else). That's right, his answer to this fucked up trolley problem is literally "It's just one person every 10 years, if its that vs. the whole town then there's really no question!" Just do it Allie! Just kill yourself! For me and Shannon!Shannon pipes in by saying that this is exactly what she meant by Allie being a self-righteous bitch because Allie isn't thinking about how everyone ELSE'S lives will be ruined. Of course, Allie's life has already been ruined by Shannon, so it's really a net benefit for the town if she goes. Not once does Allie turn the question around on them, to have them consider if they were to be the "one person" every 10 years. In fact, she doesn't even seem to understand as all she can say in response is "What are you saying Neal?" INFURIATING.As the Big Bad approaches, Neal addresses him DIRECTLY by saying "Look, man, I tried to stop her..." Neal and Shannon belittle and betray her during the whole ass journey RIGHT UP TO the climax and the listener just has to DEAL WITH IT as she tries to save their lives.Which she does incredibly easily. The Piper offers zero resistance to her as she soaks his patch in gasoline and sets it alight. He just stands there and politely asks her not to. The moral of the story turns out to be "If you're going to bully someone, make sure you actually end their life" as she finishes what the town started 40 years ago. Cue triumphant soundtrack and upbeat epilogue. I guess the writers were trying to say that it's more noble and heroic to save the lives of the people you hate? Even as they tear down your self-esteem the whole way, to your face? But remember, Allie had zero issues burning down the pumpkin patch. In fact, her biggest obstacles were her shit ex boyfriend and ex bff trying to feed her to the monster themselves after hitching a ride with her. This means that the town could have easily ended the curse if they wanted. The Piper had mind control and a school bus full of monsters, but if he doesn't harm the blood sacrifices then anyone could have just sent their child in with gasoline and a lighter. But they didn't, because in return for the sacrifice, they got 10 more years of "perfect" living. I don't know about you, but saving this town does not feel noble or heroic in any way. Especially when she tells the body horror, mind-controlling monster puppeteer that "he can't do anything [to her] that everyone else hasn't already done!"There is no emotional payoff, there is no catharsis. Allie doesn't even get an apology from Neal or Shannon after saving the day. Their relationship doesn't even last; they break up in a few months, meaning Neal betrayed Allie for the most trivial reasons. In the end, nothing changes. Allie straight up says everything got back to normal real quick, and no one even talks about what happened. Allie and Robbie still have no friends except each other, and are STILL bullied in school. Yeah, after all that, nothing improves for them. But wait, who's that at the door? It's her father! That's right, the man who offered up Allie's soul, unprompted, is back to ask for forgiveness. The same man who did absolutely nothing to help them during the chaos, refusing to even drive back into town and pick them up, now claims that he felt bad and wants to be in their lives again (after Allie removed the danger he sacrificed her to avoid). Cue sappy piano music. She hugs him and lets him in, to no reaction from her little brother (whom he also sacrificed) or her mother (who had him listed as "coward" in her phone contacts). Did the writers forget that Allie isn't the only person he needs to apologize to? Probably, and on top of that, when Allie feels justified anger instead of happiness at his return it's implied that it's because she's under the influence of a supernatural evil.This whole ass story is toxic. It's a tribute to low-self esteem and endless gaslighting. It's like someone saw the film Trick 'r Treat, thought the school bus of zombie kids was cool, but got really pissed off at the part where the girl sacrifices her bullies to them so they had to write this unsatisfying mess to make a point about "doing the right thing, even when it's hard!"