Trailer Park of Terror

After a promising, stylish opening involving the shotgun slaughter of an entire trailer park, I settled in for what I thought was going to be a great little movie. It had a lot going for it in the early stages - superb production values, tight direction, good actors, and a steaming hot southern-rock soundtrack. It even flaunted the classic old tropes of the severe line of thunderstorms moving in to isolate the area and the hick locals telling the protagonists to avoid taking *that* route. So much potential!

But as we all learned at school, potential energy must be converted into kinetic energy in order for work to be performed... and, frustratingly, Trailer Park of Terror just stayed right on the starting line and didn't really go anywhere until the end credits rolled.

The big problem is that the movie has no sense of direction. It just doesn't know what it wants to be. Instead of finding solid footing, it tapdances clumsily from one style of horror to the next. Ghosts one moment, zombies the next, torture/slasher grindcore the next.

Likewise, it can't find an even tone either - it's funny one moment, and too disturbing to be funny the next. Exciting one moment, and meandering the next. Scary one moment and painfully awkward the next.

It never manages to merge these components together into a cohesive whole the way other successful comedy horrors have done (i.e. Severance, Behind the Mask, Undead, Dead and Breakfast, Bad taste etc.) and the end result seems empty and pointless as a result.

In conclusion, if you're a hardcore gore fanatic, it might be worth a rental as there is enough here to satisfy, but if you like even the tiniest bit of plot and development in your horror, leave it on the shelf.

Although Trailer Park of Terror, a horror/comedy aimed primarily at a teen audience, fails to offer much in the way of either scares or laughs, it does manage to deliver quite a lot of graphic nastiness, plus a little bit of sheer lunacy, thus making it just about worthwhile viewing for fans of gore and cinematic craziness.

Based on a comic I've never heard of, this bloody piece of supernatural hillbilly horror sees a bus-load of delinquents, en route to Jesus Camp, making an impromptu visit to a trailer park after their bus collides with a lorry. On arrival at the park, the group are greeted by busty blonde Norma who provides them with shelter for the night; unfortunately for the gang, Norma is actually a ghost who, along with her dead trailer park trash pals, is condemned to collect souls for the devil.

With such twisted moments as a zombie hooker giving hand relief to a teen before yanking off the poor guy's todger (when she 'pulls off' a customer, she REALLY pulls him off!), a bloke being skinned and boiled alive by one particularly nasty ghost who prides himself on his prize jerky, some splendidly sordid sex scenes, and a mouldy rock 'n' roll spook who plays a mean guitar, Trailer park of Terror can never be accused of being boring, but never amounts to anything more than a throwaway slice of splattery silliness.

5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

Hicks and horror sure seem to go hand in hand. Being at the mercy of stereotypically sleazy and sadistic backwoods boors has been a theme in movies going back a long way; as the hayseed horror hosts at the beginning say, we have Herschell Gordon Lewis and "Two Thousand Maniacs!" to thank for that. Our protagonists this time are a troubled bunch of kids being chaperoned by a well meaning pastor; they have a bus accident in the rain and come upon the trailer park of the title, which the audience already knows, from watching the extended prologue, has a tragic history. Now the undead redneck residents are going to have themselves some fun torturing these poor dumb schmucks. At least with this gang, there's no guarantee of who will make it out alive if indeed anybody does. Based on the comic book series of the same name, this production sure creates just the right look for this show, with some juicy atmosphere. The music is pretty kick ass, with the character of Roach, played by Myk Watford, sometimes breaking into song. Country music star Trace Adkins, who co-stars as the mysterious stranger, also supplies the ditty "Welcome to Hell". Rabid horror fans will dig the shameless, in your face gore fest that "Trailer Park of Terror" ultimately turns into. The cast is populated with some familiar faces and some not so familiar: Rob Zombie regular Lew Temple is Marv, super sexy Nichole Hiltz ("May") is the young Norma who sets the plot in motion, extremely delectable stunt woman / actress Michelle Lee is Miss China, the lovely Priscilla Barnes ("The Devil's Rejects", 'Three's Company') the ill-fated Mama, Duane Whitaker ("Pulp Fiction", "From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money") the creepy Sheriff Keys, and ubiquitous "Hey, it's that guy!" actor Tracey Walter is the "ancient" trucker. Provided all of this is to your tastes, this is a good deal of depraved, demented fun, that's pretty relentless once it really gets going. An undeniable highlight is seeing one of the victims being flayed and eventually deep fried. "Trailer Park of Terror" comes highly recommended. Eight out of 10.

Wow! This movie totally took me by surprise. Initially I bought it because it is a zombie movie, but I had not imagined that the movie would be this cool. If you liked "Shaun of the Dead", then you definitely want to check out "Trailer Park of Terror".

The story is pretty straight forward, and as you would expect of any horror movie; something sinister happened in the past, then many years pass by and a bunch of teenagers find themselves in the location of the grizzly deed that happened many years in the past. And then it all takes a turn for the worse. Enter the hillbilly zombies!

"Trailer Park of Terror" combines three great things into one great movie; humor, gore and really amazing zombie make-up. I was in awe at the effects of this movie, and it was really obvious that Drac Studios are really knowing what they are doing. Hats off to them for the amazing effects they have pulled off on the zombies in this movie. That make-up and special effects alone make it worth sitting down and watching the movie.

And the music score/soundtrack for this movie was really great as well. Very well picked music that worked well for every scene. And the song that the zombie was singing when he was on top of the trailer, that was just phenomenal. It was so well placed for the movie and the timing of the story.

The cast they put together for this movie was nice as well, though I didn't really recognize anyone here. But that doesn't matter, because they did great jobs, and it is refreshing to see new faces in movies every now and then. And I must say that it was really the zombies that carried the movie, because they had so much personality, and they were hilarious. (Plus their make-up really helped them well along the way.)

"Trailer Park of Terror" is really a gem much like "Shaun of the Dead" in the zombie genre. There is a lot of humor in this movie, so don't except to see a Romero style zombie movie here.

I am a huge fan of zombie movies, and once in awhile I stumble upon a zombie movie that perfectly incorporates comedy into an otherwise gore-stained and serious genre. "Trailer Park of Terror" is a definite MUST watch for all zombie fans.

Which isn't that much to be honest, but it still is a nice movie to watch. Especially if you like horror movies. It doesn't give you anything new, yes, but it's nicely told (edited) and shot, there are some nice effects in it and it even has some funny characters. That should indicate that it's not a straight horror movie then, so if you like your horror straight and absolutely derived of any "funny", than this isn't for you ...

If, on the other hand, you don't mind a bit of (crude) humor, you will like this movie. Again, maybe not love, but at least like. The decision is yours now ...