'HellHoles' is Trailer Parks, Satan, SFX and Awesome

Guy, is a regular, er, guy. Guy needs a place to live. Luckily, Guy finds a real bargain: a trailer for one dollar. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a fixer-upper.

Everyone, at one point or another, has dealt with problems involving their place of residence. My apartment gets ants during the summer. Yours could have faulty plumbing, or perhaps your building manager hovers over your bed watching you sleep (Is that you Mr. Roper? Couldn’t you have changed the air conditioning filter in the morning?).

For Guy, it’s something a little more problematic – demons. Welcome to HellHoles.

HellHoles is a little gem of a series. From Kyle Rankin and Efram Potelle (they also share directing duties) of Newborn Pictures, this four episode lesson in hilarity sees what happens when a hapless guy’s trailer sits on a portal to hell. I don’t want to ruin the gags in this all-too-short series, so I’ll give you the gist:

After moving in to the trailer, Guy encounters various Hideo Nakata-type horrors and dangers, but with the help of Professor Klum and a spunky coffee shop girl, he may once again see the light of day.

There you go. You should see the rest for yourself. It’s that funny. The whole endeavor looks surprisingly top-notch considering the amount of visual effects involved. It used to take a whole team of ILM guys to do this stuff. Efram Potelle is doing it all himself, probably on his laptop, while I can barely work my hotmail.

The effects look very convincing on the small screen. It’s at least Xena level. Definitely camp-good enough for comedy. Kyle Rankin, as Guy, can make you laugh with a well-timed pause. He obviously was the perfect choice to handle his own writing (he delivers one of the best opening lines of dialogue I’ve come across in recent months). Corbett Tuck gives some great deadpan as the coffee shop girl. It’s Ray Wise, however, who steals the show.

You might recognize Ray Wise from Reaper or, if you’re older, Twin Peaks. He also sexually asphyxiated a super model in Rising Son (just as funny). Reaper had a clever conceit that featured Wise as the Devil. With HellHoles, he obviously is the reigning king of horror-comedy.

As Professor Klum, he’s just awesome all around. When his long dead son asks if he can eat his dad’s soul with all the adorable innocence of a Keebler Elf asking for a Capri Sun, Wise’s response is classic. I shot most of my mid-afternoon wine out my nose.

I love seeing all these excellent character actors popping up on the web (even you, Michael Madsen). To be honest, I may have pre-maturely dropped my Sam Raimi comparison previously with Reservation. The ode to Sam Raimi actually belongs here with this perfect blend of horror, comedy and special effects.

I’m sure Rankin and Potelle would agree that Bruce Campbell battling his own possessed hand in Evil Dead 2 is one of the funniest things ever committed to celluloid. If you think so too, then you’ll love HellHoles over on Atom. Think of it as the older, hotter sister of Blood Brothers.

If Sunnydale had a trailer park, this would be it. Nothing good ever came from living in a trailer, just ask Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon. However, if it’s the trailer in HellHoles, I’m in. Please, somehow, this needs to be continued. At the very least, Kyle and Efram, come out with something new for the web soon. If they really do remake Evil Dead 2 (which is heresy, but it’s being developed), my vote would go to these guys. Start the buzz Internerds and never, ever, leave your CocoBalls in the fridge.