2008

Based on an independent comic book few have seen, "Trailer Park of Terror" is one of the even fewer nice surprises in the horror genre this year.

Not just a pretty face, a rather game Nichole Hiltz (TV's "In Plain Sight") stars as Norma, a rose among the weeds in a miserable, rundown trailer park. She's hoping to escape to a better life when a trio of redneck neighbors kills her boyfriend. Enraged, she makes a deal with the devil (country singer Trace Adkins), slaughters every resident and blows the place up.

For years after, many truckers have disappeared at the site. And a group of wayward teens finds out why after its bus crashes on the highway, and the park offers the nearest refuge. See, Norma and her undead friends are all too eager to play host to fresh meat. If you think many of the troubled teens will live to see sunrise, you haven't seen many horror films.

Rob Zombie would have a field day with such material, but it's nice to see what a comparatively tame Steven Goldmann does with it. There's still puh-lenty of gore, but the flick isn't afraid to have fun, letting loose with wicked gallows humor and the occasional zombie rockabilly song. Although part of me wishes the source's anthology format had been retained, the filmmakers deliver more than their tight budget allowed, and Hiltz is quite the find.

"?Rod Lott

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