Sam and Krampus are probably best friends.

Michael Dougherty, who wrote/directed Halloween horror flick Trick ‘r Treat and co-wrote/directed Christmas horror flick Krampus, has hinted in the past that the two films probably take place in some kind of shared universe, and it’s possible that we’ll see evidence of that in upcoming sequel Trick ‘r Treat 2. Then again, though you might’ve missed it, we already have.

I was watching Krampus last night with the commentary track on, and at one point Dougherty made mention of the Trick ‘r Treat connection. He noted that there are indeed Trick ‘r Treat Easter eggs throughout Krampus… but not all the ones he filmed ended up in the finished cut.

Dougherty explained on the commentary:

There are some loose threads to Trick ‘r Treat that hint at it potentially taking place in the same universe – but unfortunately some of the more direct nods to Trick ‘r Treat ended up on the cutting room floor.

Looking through the deleted scenes on the Krampus Blu-ray, it didn’t take me long to stumble across one of those excised homages. In one of the scenes, Max tries to comfort his cousins after all hell starts to break loose by offering them candy from his leftover Halloween stash, and if you look closely, you’ll notice that all of the candy in his little box is candy from Trick ‘r Treat.

Making Trick ‘r Treat, Dougherty and his team came up with a handful of faux candy bars to feature in the film – no real companies wanted their products on display in a Halloween horror movie – and two of those candy bars are in Max’s Halloween stash: Hollie-Ho and Lhotka’s. More importantly, there’s also something extra special in the box: one of Sam’s pumpkin lollipops!

We’ve uploaded and lightened up the deleted scene and a screen-grab for you below so you can see the tribute more clearly than it appears in the scene. Check it out!

*Art featured at the top of this post by Cody Schibi*