Tourist Trap (1979)

Best movie of this year hands down!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This 1979 horror film tells about a group of friends that have car trouble and stay the night at a deserted, roadside museum where a psychotic, doll-maker stalks them. This is an odd horror flick that sort of shares similarities with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "House of Wax." Chuck Connors (The Rifleman) is featured and is great in this. I'd probably watch this at least once if you're into masked-killer type horror flicks.

I'm a big fan of this movie even though it is rather uneven. The basic story is not original: a group of touring your people get a flat tyre and stop at a remote roadside "attraction", from where they are menaced and murdered by persons unknown. The movie does not have a big budget, but it does what it can within the restraints, and the source of the danger is where the movie does show imagination.The tension and horror is provided by the many mannequins that litter the attraction and a private house behind it. Always a creepy prop in many movies, with added creepiness coming from the fact that these mannequins can move. Which makes for many eerie scenes as they appear to come to life, much to the dismay of the cast. There are some great scenes, although as I mentioned, there is a lot of variation in how effective this all looks. Some of the movie is nightmarish - most notable in the very opening scene when one of the young people is terrorised in an abandoned gas station by moving mannequin parts and levitating every day objects. It's quite startling and provides a great sense of unease. Things continue in a similarly baffling way as various masked figures, mannequins and wax figures pop up all over the place. When things work, the film looks like a piece of genius, but some flaws do show. Whenever any of the moving dummies are seen in any type of sentient operation, it's obvious right away that these are actors dressed in costumes, which immediately takes away any mystery. The better scenes are when genuine mannequins become animated, which presumably is done by pulling offscreen wires and jiggling from out of shot stagehands. Believe me, this is far better then live people trying to pass as statues. There are so many mannequins and spare parts that I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the availability of free props came first, and the movie was written around them!There is very little violence or gore in the movie, and zero nudity, which allowed for it to pass with a very low rating. This may have contributed to the movie being less successful than it's peers which were starting to push the envelope in terms of gore. Surprisingly, though there is a fairly shocking and sadistic scene showing a victim being slowly suffocated that I found very uncomfortable. The acting is not bad, and the movie benefits from a fantastic final 30 seconds and freeze frame ending. Something that really doesn't work is the score, from industry big name Pino Donaggio, which is a painful "children's clockwork toy" theme that inspires no suspense whatsoever, and would be more at home in a William Castle movie.Despite these shortcomings, the movie is still enjoyable. Anytime the mannequins are rolling their eyes, or dropping their mouths open in horrible gaping screams, you'll be entertained, but when you see through the effects, or try and work out the logic of the events, you will be less impressed. But I would say give this one a go. It's certainly unlike any other slasher movie from the same period

"Tourist Trap" from 1979 is one film that to me is a B list horror gem the plot is a little silly and the scenes seem far fetched yet, still for it's day it provided fears and fright for an audience. The plot revolves around a wax museum and a group of teenage kids who wander away(which was typical of late 70' and early 80's horror pictures).Set in the California desert area a group of teenage kids break down and after getting rid of car trouble they find and wonder their way to a creepy and deserted wax house called Slausen's Lost Oasis and each one by one are lured into this trap of death and a wax bath! The owner Slausen(Chuck Conners) runs an actual chamber of horrors.The picture becomes gross and crazy with flying and twisting mannequins who murder in this sordid show of fear and fright. Really this is a picture of crazy madness a B list movie that proves you never know what you will encounter and find and mostly never trust anyone!

A few good jump scares in the first scene, as guy is locked in room and things start flying through the windows, and at him, while mannequin cackles, until a metal post pierces his lower back, killing him- followed by complete silence, as we survey the damage to the room, the scene of the crime. Good opening promises a lot, I hope the rest of the film can hold up. A group of three girls and one guy stumble upon a waterfall after their jeep breaks down. They don't' seem alarmed by the strange local hick (imagine George Lazenby doing a bad Clint Eastwood impersonation) trying to drive them away with a shotgun - he takes them to Slausen's Museum, closed to the public. He even decorated it himself. They're warned by this hick to stay away from the odd, old house in the distance, and for good reason. One girl goes to have a look anyway: life-like mannequins seem to be coming to life to attack her inside. In a good unmasking scene, (Phantom of the Opera reference? vaguely Psycho reference) it is revealed that the old hick thinks he is his own brother, and is killing people to turn them into wax figures, mannequins, which he has some type of power and control over. Jerry jumping out the window was a Texas Chain Saw Massacre reference. Stupid twist of Tanya getting free but then allowing villain to take her back to the house is a major turning point for the film, but not for the better. The first half is quite good, with many references to earlier horrors without being overly derivative, but this weird combo of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, House Of Wax, and Psycho gets silly during Tanya Roberts' attack, and never fully recovers its edge it had in the first half. A basic, uncomplicated premise helps, the plot is not over complicated; weird camera angels and the bizarre mannequins themselves all make this highly effective and memorable, but the climax couldn't be any more stupid. A better ending to the film could have made it a classic.