Tourist Trap Review
Written by: MistressOf Horror
Tourist Trap is a movie that all fans of the horror genre should really watch some quiet night. I had seen Tourist Trap quite some time ago and bought a few weeks ago only to have it sit in my tower of yet-to-be-watched DVDs until a few days ago. I will start off by saying that I am creeped out by mannequins. Just a film of mannequins doing nothing will scare me. The idea of those frozen, smooth-featured statues staring into nothing is really unsettling to me. If you feel the same way, then you will likely agree with me that Tourist Trap is the blueprint for how to use mannequins to scare people effectively. Tourist Trap starts out with a group of young kids getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.
One of them, Woody, ventures off alone to take a flattened tire to a gas station only to be assaulted by the maniacal laughter of dummies and flying objects courtesy of an unnamed killer’s power of telekinesis The rest of the kids stumble upon the garage where Woody met his untimely end and find his tire sitting in the grass nearby. The girls do what any slutty girls who can’t find their friend would do - go skinny-dipping in the local pond! Molly (Jocelyn Jones) is cooling off in the water when Mr. Slausen, played nicely by Chuck Connors shows up toting a shotgun. ( By the way I just love the way Connors acts in this movie.. He plays the hokey , country guy very well complete with overalls and old farmhouse. ) He’s a nice guy with an awkward way about him and takes a liking to the obviously virginal Molly. Becky, played by Tanya Roberts from Charlie’s Angels fame and Eileen (Robin Sherwood) play the all-important sexy bad girls who are marked for death. Slausen brings the girls to his museum filled with wax figures and oddities, “Slausen’s Lost Oasis”, so they can wait while he and the remaining male friend Jerry go to his home to get tools to fix their car. Brother Davey lives in a nearby house and Slausen warns them to stay away - because of coyotes (?!!??) Slausen comes back later without Jerry which leads the girls to venture out and investigate. The kids meet Davey, Slausen’s mask wearing brother, who tries to capture them and turn them into mannequins. This movie borrows heavily from other proven classics of the time but spreads it out enough to avoid being a tired clone of one specific movie.
For instance the mask is similar to Michael Meyers’ in Halloween, the killer and environment recall images of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, and the killer’s power is reminiscent of Carrie. The mannequins used in Tourist Trap are simply excellent with distorted voices and drop-down jaws that are a superb supporting element. The chase scenes are well done and overall the movie keeps a good pace. Tourist Trap is, without a doubt, worth your time. Even though it follows a cookie cutter plot of kids getting stranded and chased and borrows from other proven and better movies, it does it well and keeps a few twists up its sleeves to make it fresh. Its one of those films that doesn’t rely on gore or kill scenes.. I definitely recommend it to all my fellow horror fans