Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A (Surprisingly) Terrific Piece of Trailer Trash, October 23, 2008
When country performer Trace Adkins shows up in "TRAILER PARK OF TERROR" looking like a 'Thunderkiss '65'-era Rob Zombie, it's tempting to write this flick off as a 'Texas Chainsaw Wannabe', or maybe a 'House Of 1000 Ideas That Have Been Done A Million Times Before'. But Adkins gets credit from me, because for the brief time he's on-camera, he does manage a pretty impressive screen presence.
The same goes, shockingly enough, for the rest of "TRAILER PARK..." as well. Having sat through countless horror duds that purported to be more 'gruesome' or 'over-the-top' than anything seen before, I can't say that "TRAILER PARK..." is any more extreme than any of its gore-soaked precursors. And it's amusing & worth some chuckles, but high art this AIN'T. Yet, at the same time, "TRAILER PARK..." defies the odds, and avoids being just a forgettable, one-trick, cheapie horror gimmick. Sure, the whole redneck vibe is in full swing, with your standard. broadly-generalized mobile-home caricatures (bigoted, overweight, slovenly, undereducated malcontents and floozies) romping around and saying "y'all" a lot. And the deep-fried rockabilly soundtrack, though groovy and energetic, is one hell of a cliche. But... the nice thing about "TRAILER PARK..." is that despite its limited trappings and Z-grade pedigree, it's still much better written, acted, and overall produced than it probably deserved to be.
Regardless of the nod & wink (or is it a "shout-out"?) early on in the film to gore-meister/hack director Herschell Gordon Lewis, this film aspires to be a least a teensy bit better than just a brainless splatter-show. The gore FX on display here ARE copious and well-crafted, with great demon/zombie makeups, amputations, disembowelments, and a particularly painful set-piece involving homemade 'beef jerky'. But "TRAILER PARK..." is also decent during the parts in between, the lines are delivered snappily, and the back-stories of the various seedy residents of the park are actually sort-of interesting, unlike so many other flashback sequences in lesser films. What stands out about "TRAILER PARK...", and what left me with an overall feeling of goodwill towards this picture, is that the filmmakers clearly opted NOT to just rush through everything else and throw a quick, bloody gag-reel together and call it done. It actually works because it feels like at least a little thought was actually put into making it a slick, rockin', free-wheeling trip through Hayseed Hell. In short, it's much, MUCH more skillfully produced than most of the other straight-to-dvd crap out there today.
It ends up feeling like it belongs next to some of the better 80's genre flicks many of us remember fondly, such as "RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD" or "RE-ANIMATOR", while featuring the stylistic flourishes of more contemporary entries like "FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN", "DEAD & BREAKFAST", or "2001 MANIACS" (which is, itself, a remake of a Lewis gore film, and would go GREAT on a double-bill with "TRAILER PARK..."). But these comparisons, depending on your cinematic tastes and experience, may be meaningless... so let's just say that "TRAILER PARK OF TERROR" is highly recommended for late-nite viewing, especially if you're in the mood to kick back and get in touch with your "violent, cackling, undead-inner-hillbilly" side.
|
|
|
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gruesome and entertaining - A great modern zombie exploitation, October 30, 2008
When a bus carrying a group of troubled high school teens and their chaperons crashes near a trailer park, they're forced to fight for their lives against the reanimated `victims' of a brutal, vengeful massacre nearly thirty years prior.
Review: With a name like Trailer Park of Terror and an MPAA rating including "sadistic horror violence and torture, sexual content, pervasive language and drug use," it didn't take much suggestion to make me check out this little flick. . . then I found out my DVD had the unrated cut and I couldn't hold back any longer. And, boy, am I glad that I didn't wait. When I first heard of the film and read the synopsis, I was expecting a 2001 Maniacs-style shlock comedy-horror. To my pleasant surprise, the film actually took a much more horror-focused approach, leaving the comedy to be a simple mood-lightener at times and not a major part of the tone. Visually, the film is great. It, thankfully, does not have the cheap `shot-on-video' look that so many low-budget films have these days. Also, the gore is very good and goes above what I would have expected for a film like this (including one particular scene that almost forced me to turn away in disgust). The script is a terrific blend of horror & humour and goes beyond the typical low-budget zombie flicks we've been seeing for so long. It's more than just "rise from the dead and eat the living" here: The zombies are more intelligent and much, MUCH more violent (imagine House of 1000 Corpses with zombies. . . other than Rob & Sheri). While, sometimes, `smart' (or as smart as undead trailer-park residents can be) zombies can be a bit of a turn off for zombie fans, it definitely works well here and should not be overlooked for that reason. Acting can often be a big deal-breaker for low-budget affairs, but the cast here should be, mostly, commended for the efforts. They inhabit their individual characters well and deliver strong performances for the most part. On a deeper level, the atmosphere the filmmakers managed to create is extremely effective. The 'stormy night in the middle of nowhere'-style may be overused, but some films are able to utilize it much better than others. This film belongs in the 'better' category. Put all together, Trailer Park of Terror comes out as one of the best zombie films of the new millennium.
Final verdict: 8/10. A half-point was taken off just for the disappointing ending.
-AP3-
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Redneck zombies from hell!.........., March 26, 2009
This movie starts off like most of the direct to DVD horror films that I've watched over the years. The introduction of Norma and the trailer park is kind of fun and their deaths are amusing. But I wasn't really interested in the stereotypical characters that populate the bus of delinquents and found their characters all too predictable. But when they get stranded and the killings start the movie starts to get really good. I love the zombie versions of he characters that have some great lines and the cinematography was fantastic, you won't even notice that it was a low budget gore flick. Sure we have all seen the hillbilly as killers thing done to death (H.G. Lewis, Tobe Hooper and Rob Zombie come to mind) but that doesn't mean it still can't be fun. My favorite character was Roach, the pot growing country music star wanna-be who belts out tunes from the roof of his trailer. So while the victims aren't that interesting the killers are and that makes the movie a real blast, plus how often do you see the undead having a demolition derby? that scene was actually hilarious. This film however was a trashy horror flick that's not meant to be taken seriously and as entertaining as it is, it still wasn't that great. There was very little substance and some scenes did drag for awhile especially those flashback sequences and the music wasn't particularly that good in fact some of it was embarrassing. Even though the film had lots of gore it really does lack some tension. What was really great about this horror flick though was the gore, We get impalements, heads getting ripped off, an arm sawed off, a guy gets skinned alive and some guts, blood and a lot more, so it was very gory. Now I'm a huge horror fan but occasionally I have come across some really awful stuff before, this straight to DVD horror flick was decent but it was clearly aimed at fan boys. it does succeed in being entertaining but it lacks substance and the storyline quickly becomes exaggerated and goes all over the place.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
DVD ~ Trevor Matthews
DVD ~ Jared Kusnitz
DVD ~ Tiffany Shepis
DVD ~ Jenna Jameson
DVD ~ Clu Gulager
on 
