Year released: 2008
THE CHARGE: Offering a double-wide dose of delightful dread.
THE EVIDENCE: In case you haven't noticed by now, I watch a lot of horror flicks. My wife is kind enough to sit through most of them with me. And when we popped the tantalizingly titled Trailer Park of Terror into my DVD player, we did so with the lowest of expectations. With a title like that, how could we expect anything but a laughable and ultimately forgettable b-movie? So imagine my surprise when, about a half hour into it, I turned to my wife and asked, “Is it me or does this movie actually NOT suck?” She answered, “It’s not just you. This really is GOOD!”
The movie doesn't start off promising. A little blonde hottie named Norma is in her trailer getting ready for a date. Her beau is from the other side of the tracks - the good side. And when he shows up looking all clean and spiffy, he's subjected to scorn by Norma's redneck neighbors and eventually not-quite-accidentally killed. Norma storms off in a huff, I guess because calling the police might chip one of her freshly manicured fingernails.
Then Trace Adkins appears. Yes, Trace Adkins the country singer. And shockingly, his appearance transforms the movie. He gives a jaw-dropping performance as a man who may be the devil himself, giving Norma a speech about salvation and handing her a shotgun which she takes back to her trailer park and goes postal with in a stylishly shot rampage.
Fast forwarding to years later, a group of high school students are on a field trip with their teacher when their bus crashes during a thunderstorm. Looking for help, they stumble upon an abandoned trailer park that isn't as empty as they think. Norma's still kicking around and so are a lot of the people she killed.
Hell hath no fury like a redneck low on Skoal.
It sounds like the set-up for yet another typical teenagers vs. zombies horror tale. But what sets Trailer Park of Terror apart is that the zombies here are just as human as their intended victims, if not more so. They have back stories. They have personalities and emotions. They're not nameless headshot targets, they have depth. It's a simple twist and it makes me think of an old chestnut taught in every business class: the best inventions are the ones anyone could have thought of, but didn't.
Once the movie gets going in earnest, everything about it is Grade A. All the actors throw themselves into their characters 100%, especially Adkins and Nichole Hiltz (a dead ringer for Jaime Pressly) as Norma. Even the high schoolers act more like human beings than one-dimensional stereotypes. I know, who would have thought that having the victims in a horror movie act like real people would make them more interesting?
Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis's face has left the building.
Other aspects of the film are top-notch as well. The cinematography is great. The rockabilly-centered soundtrack is awesome. The zombie makeup and special effects are loads of fun. And director Steven Goldmann keeps everything moving at a brisk pace, with never a dull moment threatening to grind the story to a halt. He does such a fine job that I was astounded to learn this was only his second feature, and his first horror flick!
Despite a rough start and a somewhat flat ending, Trailer Park of Terror was a surprisingly effective horror flick that I thoroughly enjoyed. Based on a lesser known comic book horror series - a sort of redneck "Tales From the Crypt" - I'd love to see Norma return for more stories in the future.
THE VERDICT: Trailer Park of Terror is NOT GUILTY and is in fact commended for being a breath of fresh air in a low-budget landscape filled with cinematic trailer trash.
