Trailer Park of Terror
Lately I’ve been in the mood to go back more to my roots of horror fandom, so I watched this film with a goofy name. How bad could it be I asked myself, and assumed it would be a goofy bit of confection that I could hoot over and throw popcorn at. Weeks later I’m still haunted by this gem, dripping with gore and making me wonder why I watched the whole thing.
Near the beginning of this movie we catch a bit of a local access redneck run piece of crap TV show called Trailer Park of Terror. It’s not a great lead in to the real trailer park of terror, because the titular one is way way, way…worse. Before it gets that way though it’s just a generic down south, low rent group of rundown trailers with an even more motley group of inhabitants. The local madame wants Norma, the cute and sweet girl across the way, to work for her. The guitar obsessed, Elvis haired neighbor is convinced she’ll sleep with him, the pig skinner hmmms and haws and casts aspersions on hes. All the men are harsh and rough, and finally do something so horrid she stomps away down the country lane just wanting to get away and get a new life. Then she meets someone really awful, a very tall Trace Adkins as The Man who gave off a serious Randall Flagg vibe. Some years later, as shown by a progression of newspaper headlines, a busload of kids being shipped home from a We Fix ‘Em Christian camp ends up breaking down near the trailer park and they seek shelter from the cute and sweet girl we met in the first couple minutes. It does not end well for them, as you might assume. In the first fifteen minutes I was reminded of The Stand, Dead and Breakfast, and any 1970s slasher movie, and recognized a couple of B actors from other horror flicks.
The film started off quirky and not too bad, except you really feel for the sweet and cute Norma and the awful place she calls home. There are some sad moments, when the characters briefly show that they are human at their core and are capable of contrition and they actually care about Norma in their own terrible, homicidal way. What you will notice is the actors are dead serious, so to speak, even when they’re spouting the obligatory snide gorefest repartee. This made the awful stuff that started to happen even more awful, and then the awfulness got even awfuler when the gore factor ramped way, way up. All of this was aided by some really inspired makeup, costuming and set decorations. The gore was brilliant to the point of being nearly unwatchable at times, and that was enhanced by the pathos written into the super derivative but laudable script.
I know CFR doesn’t even want to hear about this film, much less entertain even for a second watching it, and I agree she should not. She should hold her nose and shut her eyes while passing this on to the readers of this review. But I found there to be more than a couple of gems lurking in this emotionally harsh gorefest so I recommend seeing it if you like this kind of thing. I’m not really a fan but I have watched a few in my day, and this stands up pretty well in the scheme of things.
LINKS:
CFR: In Addition: No amount of snob shaming me will convince me to watch a “slasher” style movie. Sorry Mildred but I am impervious to your taunts!!
AND the “Lately I’ve been in the mood to go back more to my roots of horror fandom” line made me LOL!! It is a beautiful line/statement and I love it. So you dearest friend!
Chick Flicking Reviews 