Trailer Park of Terror (2008) Starring Nichole Hiltz, Lew Temple & Hayley Marie Norman Directed by Steven Goldmann Written by Timothy Dolan

The story unfolds with sweet Norma, (Nichole Hiltz) a young buxom blonde who is cute as a button and sweet as apple pie and ice cream. She seems intensely out of place in her shithole trailer park neighborhood, and has plans to split and find a new life elsewhere with her boyfriend who’s not from the park. However, we wouldn’t have much of a story if her elope to freedom was that simple. A few of the town folk don’t approve of her plans and decide that it’s in her best interest to stay to home. This trio of rockabilly rednecks gives her young boyfriend a bit of a hard time, which ends up in his most untimely demise and a very pissed off Norma. Norma might have seemed sweet on the outside but the girl has one hell of a mean streak. She splits town and on the byways meets up with a sort of hillbilly grim reaper, played by country singer Trace Adkins, who offers Norma the chance to exact her revenge and that’s exactly what she does. Shotgun in hand Norma heads back to the park and lays waste to every living thing, eventually blowing herself up in a propane explosion that loudly pronounces a period on the end of a vehemently vengeful sentence. Unfortunately, the price for her retribution turns out to be a curse and now Norma, along with her white trash park inhabitants, spend their afterlife feasting from the flesh of those who would be unlucky enough to pass through their gates.

Enter present day, now a couple decades and hundreds of missing persons later. A church ministry group is carting around a bunch of teenaged misanthropes in hopes of saving them from their delinquent ways. Since they appear to be on the way home from a week of healing its obvious the pastor was unable to do much good. Hoping to beat out a storm Pastor Lewis (Matthew Del Negro) decides to take the path less traveled which leads them straight to that Bermuda triangle of trucker hell. When they crash their van outside the park it only makes sense to see if anyone is to home that can help them out. Unfortunately for them sweet sexy Norma left the light on. This time around she’s not so sweet though. Norma is a bit more seductively sleazy with dark ulterior motives. With crooning wails erupting from the guitar of that rockabilly zombie the midnight feast begins!

Trailer Park of Terror drips with sweet southern juices conjured up by the nastiest of barbecues. From the outset it feels like the typical formulated slasher faire that promises minimal inventiveness, but shockingly this Dixieland ditty delivers with a powerful punch. Lead Nichole Hiltz displays all of her wonderful nastiness in a role that typically goes to a male lead. She manages to play a perfected siren of death, though at times becomes a bit too much reminiscent of Jaime Pressley’s character Joy, from the NBC television show My Name is Earl. Not that this is a bad thing. Counter Norma is the dark protagonist Bridget (Jeanette Brox). Bridget is one of those rebellious and troubled teens, but manages through the film to evoke a redeeming sense of righteousness becoming the unpredictable “final girl” who is forced to face off (no pun intended) with Norma in a battle to the bloody end.

Particularly enjoyable were the frequent flash back sequences, essentially providing us two stories intertwined into one ninety minute nightmare, which helps sets this film apart from so many other zombie/slasher flicks. Combined with copious amounts of gore this is not just a feast for those zombie ghosts, but a squeamishly delightful feast for the eyes. No film is perfect though and there are times when the splatstick humor of the film runs a bit thin, but for the most part Trailer Park of Terror manages to entertain with guttural moments of human skinning, and chunckblowing scenes of torture. There are even bits of sadistic hilarity evidenced in moments such as when one of the teenaged couples is forced by the zombie rednecks to make a porn film. Talk about snuff!

Horror purists may lament that Trailer Park of Terror borrows too heavily from the old Herschell Gordon Lewis gore classic Two Thousand Maniacs!, but then again that seems to be the point.  It’s obvious homage done in a respectful and skillful way this time with the theme song being picked out by a deranged southern rockabilly zombie as opposed to the classic banjo heavy “The South is Gonna Rise Again”, made famous by the hand of Lewis. It has enough going on for it that stands out as original and should find replay value for you and your friends. My personal suggestion? Grab a big bag of beef jerky, some cheap brews, and drink this in with a celebratory “Yee Haw”.