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.
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.