Tourist Trap
- Directed by
- David Schmoeller
- Written by
- David Schmoeller, J. Larry Carroll
- Produced by
- J. Larry Carroll, Charles Band, Irwin Yablans
Why it’s HorroRated
Tourist Trap works because it commits fully to the inherent creepiness of mannequins and never lets up on that atmosphere for the entire runtime. It leans heavily on late-70s horror tropes but the result has aged far better than expected, and Chuck Connors gives a performance with real pathos underneath the menace. The film wobbles into genuinely bizarre territory in its back half and punches above its budget, even when certain sequences run longer than they need to. It borrows liberally from Carrie, Psycho, and House of Wax without ever feeling like a cheap knockoff of any of them. A rewarding pick for fans of underseen 70s backwoods horror.
Synopsis
Stranded friends stumble onto a secluded roadside museum where a masked killer uses telekinesis to control the attraction's mannequins, picking them off one by one as they search for their missing companions. Chuck Connors plays Mr. Slausen with a bitterness rooted in his failing tourist attraction, and the film's central twist involves a split identity the script keeps hidden until deep into the runtime. The telekinesis draws an obvious line to Carrie and the desert setting evokes Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but director David Schmoeller assembles the influences into something with its own genuinely unsettling atmosphere. The mannequins themselves, unusually menacing and capable of movement, do most of the film's heavy lifting.
Filed under
Quick facts
- Release date
- March 14, 1979
- Runtime
- 1 hour 29 mins
- Country
- United States of America
- Language
- English
- Content rating
- PG
- Entry type
- Movie
Tags
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