YMMV / Trash Fire

• Complete Monster: Violet Roberts, Owen Roberts's abusive grandmother, is a religious fanatic who regularly mistreated Owen and his sister Pearl as children. Initially presented as merely an unpleasant woman, Violet is later revealed to be behind the fire that killed his parents, attempting to drive Owen to suicide by convincing him he was responsible. When Owen is not looking, Violet tampers with his epilepsy medication. Revealing her involvement in the fire and her intentions to kill the rest of her family to her minister, Pastor Sterling, Violet blackmails Sterling into refraining from interfering by reminding him that he molested her daughter. Stealing the latter's pet rattlesnake, she attempts to kill Owen's pregnant girlfriend, Isabel Sullivan, by hiding the snake in the toilet. When this fails, she sends Owen under the porch under the pretense of checking the pipes, trying, but failing to set him on fire while he is underneath. Violet pulls a gun on Pearl later that night, only backing off when Pearl pulls her own gun. When Owen finally collapses due to his faulty medication, Violet prepares to shoot him and Isabel.
• Creepy Awesome: AnnaLynne McCord's performance as the perverted and tragic Pearl Roberts is both unsettling and engaging at the same time.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Pearl Roberts is a socially maladjusted repressed pervert, but with an abusive shrike like Violet as a guardian, it is not surprising she ended up that way, and it is easy to feel bad for her.
  • Both Owen and Isabel also fall into this category as well, to varying degrees. Owen has jerkass tendencies (especially in regards to his reaction to the pregnancy) but after seeing where he came from you can understand why he is as messed up as he is. However, Isabel forcing Owen to reconnect with his abusive family, and without really trying to understand why he cut them off in the first place, is a major jerkass move that really comes back to bite them both in the ass.